Adam and adams, not Adamites

[swamidass (S. Joshua Swamidass)]

Glad to have you heard too.

@Guy_Coe

Okay; it seems clear that common descent is a bit of a limus test, here --and frankly, I have no objection to that because of the cogency and coherence of the evolutionary explanation for physical origins.

Common descent is a litmus test for mainstream science, but not for participation here. @J.E.S is a YEC for goodness sakes.

@Guy_Coe

It’s just rarer for me to hear those in the TE crowd still “allowing for” (sic.) non-material inputs by God, influencing the physical, in a manner consistent with the rubric of intelligent design.

For example, I wrote…

@swamidass

If God did, for example, miraculously give all our ancestors 400 kya a set of 10 mutations that gave them a rational soul, what would it look like today? From our point of view, these 10 mutations would appear just like the 30 to 40 million mutations that different between chimps and humans. We would have no way scientifically of separating the “signal from the noise.” A God who can raise Jesus from the dead, also, can certainly do something like this. So there is no reason for a Christian to be troubled by such an proposal. The same could have happened 2 mya ago too, in an @agauger model.

The key point is that this simultaneously (1) possible, (2) undetectable, and (3) important. Such things can happen, as they would have here if God did actually inspire mutations. We cannot know for sure though. Science is silent about God and Scripture is silent about DNA. All we can do is affirm that God providentially governs all things, including evolution.

@Guy_Coe

Here’s hoping our dialogue together continues in such creative and ground-breaking collaboration. Ultimately, what matters is the truth. It’s a pleasure to be part of this group, working to discover that together. Cheers!

I agree. Glad to have you here @Guy_Coe. You got a shout-out in my last blog post too.