At 04:11 PM 5/1/99 -0400, wrote: >A pediatrician colleague recently mentioned that she believed in Creationism, >not evolution. I am not one to argue religion with someone, since they >apparently have found happiness with their beliefs. > >But I was left wondering how a pediatrician could make sense of the world >without evolution. Our antibiotic treatments are based the evolution of >genetic resistance. Genetic counseling derives from understanding of >mutations, and survivability. So much of development and behavior is >understood in terms of evolutionary advantages. What do you suppose goes >through their minds, when such concepts were taught to them in med school. > > Last time there was a religious tinged discussion I recall Chip giving an admonishment because tempers seemed to get a little heated. But what's life without a little controversy? I've attended lectures and done a little reading on creationism vs. science vs. "creation science". First, I think most would agree that creationism is based on belief, not fact. It cannot be proved by accepted scientific methods. To generalize: those who believe in the biblical account of creation accept it as "the way it is", don't need (or want) any proof, and frequently discount scientific evidence which contradicts their beliefs. Believers in evolution base their views on scientific evidence - as best as is currently available. Can the two coexist? There are numerous interpretations of the old testament. Here are a few interesting (and controversial) ones I've heard: The world was created in six days. But how long was a day? We define it as 24 hours. Does the bible? What if the "day" referred to in the biblical account of creation was a million years. Or a hundred million years? Or longer? I believe that a literal interpretation of the bible puts the world's age at around six thousand years (I'm not a scholar so I won't try to quote exact numbers). Again, how is a "year" defined? If it's not defined as 365 24-hour time intervals then the world - even according to the bible - could be older. Adam was created in God's image. Do most people think of their God as having a physically human shape (an old man with a beard sitting on a throne in heaven - like in the movies or religious paintings)? I don't think so. So maybe it was the "soul" which was created in God's image, in which case we don't know what Adam physically looked like. Was he human (by today's definition) at all? Could he have been an ancestor of modern humans? The bible states he gave a rib to create Eve, but even biblical scholars admit that some biblical statement are more symbolic than literal. If God can be thought of as a higher consciousness of some type without a known physical form, there's no knowing what physical form Adam had at the time of creation. Does the bible specifically state that Adam and Eve were the physical and evolutionary equivalent of modern humans? If not, then an argument could be made that the progeny of Adam and Eve, the beings created by God, could have "evolved" into modern day humans. And if one is willing to accept that the biblical definition of a "day" might not have been 24 hours, this "evolution" could have taken place over tens of thousands or millions of years. I'm not saying all of this is factual or that I believe it personally. And I certainly hope I didn't offend anyone's personal religious beliefs. I just thought some of these ideas were interesting (albeit radical) when I'd heard them and thought they were worth sharing with the list as a possible mechanism for a person of science to reconcile religious beliefs and evolutionary theory. Or how's this for a simpler explanation of how a pediatrician could believe in both creationism and evolution: Unless the bible specifically states that *all* life on earth has remained unchanged since the time of creation, a creationist could conceivably believe that evolution does exist and has taken place in nature with other species (or only on a microscopic scale) but not believe that modern humans have changed or evolved since the time of the creation of Adam & Eve. Please, again let me say again that I hope no one has found this post personally offensive or inappropriate for the PedTalk list. If so, I apologize. Michael Sachs, M.D. General Pediatrician