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Ron Paul, evolution, science, and our intellectual caretakers
01/03/08
If there's one important scientific issue- one question that people must answer correctly to live full and happy lives, it's evolution. Luckily, people are on the job, in shifts perhaps, to make sure we don't fall into another dark age. Some of these brave individuals are my friends. Unfortunately, in a zealous effort to save us from our ignorance, they cried wolf on Ron Paul's evolution statement. First, let's watch the video:
OK. There's an unscientific, counter-evidential, way to think about the history of earth. Specifically, physical evidence, from the Grand Canyon to dinosaur bones, contradict a "young earth." In other words, people who think that the earth five thousand years because God said so are obviously wrong and, by inference, overly-credulous.
Ron Paul, however, didn't say he believed in a young earth- he specifically said that he didn't know the precise time (timeline) of creation.
What Ron Paul meant, I'm sure, is that he rejects an atheistic view of evolution where every change is random. Ron Paul believes in intelligent design as do 95% of the nation and, to the horror of the Social Justice League of America, so does every candidate in the race from both parties.
If one accepts God as defined by Christianity (I'm being narrow for a reason.), then one recognizes His omniscience (here), one of His defining traits.
If God knows everything, he knows exactly what will happen with everything He makes. He made the universe so He knew exactly how everything, from Rosie O'Donnell to the His creation below, would turn out. If He didn't want something to happen, He wouldn't have made it so. Even, as Deists insist, God did nothing else after bringing forth everything, it follows that the Universe is "guided." If I know that dropping a vase will break it, then its breaking is my fault.
(Hey, over here. I'm not done yet.) Every candidate in the race for president is a Christian of some sort. Because it's illogical to think that a creation from an omniscient being is unguided, every one, even Mike Gravel, believes in intelligent design and not random evolution.
4 comments
evolution DOES NOT say every change is random. change occurs thru natural selection, survival of the fittest. that is NOT random. there are random mutations here and there (why albinos exist, e.g.), but the vast majority of evolution is the result of the non-random, bottom-up "design" of evolution. 
"Ron Paul believes in intelligent design as do 95% of the nation" I don't. None of my friends or family do. Care to back this lie up with REAL statistics - if you can't, why should I believe anything you've typed here?
his 95% statistic is fairly accurate. The polls vary, but between 4 and 8 percent of the US population identify themselves as atheist, and 84-92% identify to specific theistic religions. Assuming that anyone who believes in a deity must therefore believe in some modicum of an intelligent design, and assuming that some portion of agnostics will also believe in such a way, 95% is a more than reasonable number. I do not know if he is citing a specific study or figure, but if 95% is inaccurate, at least 90% would be a reasonable figure. I won't cite the statistics, you can Google those like I did in 30 seconds. 
About 40% of Americans believe in evolution, which is embarrassingly low, meaning there is no way 95% believe in intelligent design.http://thewordwarrior.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/evolution-belief-by-country-20061.jpg
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