dimitrov@csd2.UUCP (Isaac Dimitrovsky) (02/11/85)
[] Well, I originally sent this note a couple of weeks ago, but still have received no response. I think that in this case it's worth reposting with some additions, because this is one of the few ongoing discussions of the implications of the creationist model, as opposed to the many ongoing discussions of creationist attacks on evolution, evolutionist attacks on creationist attacks on evolution, etc. Ray Miller writes: >As I have often stated, the premise is that all organisms were created in >perfect organization & were functionally complete. Any change from that state >then, would of necessity be a downward change. Mutations should be harmful, >not helpful. Now, this can be interpreted in a reasonably scientific way. For example, "God created all organisms in a perfect state, and so any mutations which occur in an organisms genes have no chance (or an inconceivably small chance) of being beneficial to that organism." This can even be tested scientifically (at least the part about mutations having no chance of being beneficial). In fact, given the rate at which molecular biology is progressing, it should not be too long before it either becomes a completely indefensible position, or it is confirmed (surprise!), leading to serious problems for evolutionists. However, only a serious case of anthropomorphism could allow Ray to derive from that statement the following explanation for the existence of diseases: >The ultimate root cause is that it is a direct consequence of our fall from our >initial condition in which we were created. I expect most of the diseases are >a mutation which proved to be quite harmful to us, directly or indirectly. >This ties in with my comments about hereditary diseases, above. The fundamental problem with this is the confusion between harmful mutations = mutations harmful to the organism in which they occur, and harmful mutations = mutations which make the organism in which they occur harmful to man. Ray, disease and parasite organisms are every bit as complex and well adapted to their environment as beneficial organisms. If you are saying that they came into being because of mutations from harmless organisms, then you are in effect assuming the evolution in six thousand years of organisms just as intricate as those which you tell evolutionists could never have evolved in six billion years. I don't think you want to do that. Do you? If you do, please read up on the life cycle of the malaria parasite, and tell me what harmless organism it has mutated from over the past six thousand years. If you don't, please come up with another scientific-creationist reason for the existence of disease organisms.