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Are creation and evolution mutually exclusive categories?

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The solution tackles the arguments and questions below:

1 Does evolution imply a creator?
2.Is natural selection something that should be worked against?
3.Is there a model of divinity that can survive into the 21st century?
4. Does the anthropic principle imply a designer?
5. Discuss which of the two - Albert Einstein or Niels Bohr - do you think had a more accurate view of the world?
6. Are creation and evolution mutually exclusive categories?
7. What would be the most likely scenario for the beginning and ending of the universe that a divinity would arrange?
8. Is there sufficient warrant for declaring that :
a. God exists because the remarkable fine-tuning of the universal constants leading to humans could not have occurred by chance alone; or
b. There is no God because of all the hazards of living in a world with ice ages, mass extinctions, climatic and environmental threats, etc.

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Solution Summary

The solution tackles the arguments and questions such as:
1. Does evolution imply a creator?
2. Is natural selection something that should be worked against?
3. Are creation and evolution mutually exclusive categories?

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1. Does evolution imply a creator?
6. Are creation and evolution mutually exclusive categories?

Evolution can be cosmological or biological, or human. Human evolution would be about how the human species has evolved biologically, historically and culturally. Biological (or organic) evolution would be about the evolution of life in the universe, notably on earth. And cosmological evolution would be about the evolution of the universe itself?this would also include chemical evolution. Evolution concerns origins. This is why it could be the antithesis of creation. Kant, for instance, in his Critique of Pure Reason, said that the question of whether the universe has a beginning in time or not falls into the category of the antinomies (or contradictions) of pure reason. This was because for him one can convincingly argue the issue both ways, that is, for both the thesis and the antithesis.

For the thesis, Kant says this: "For if we assumed the world has no beginning in time, then an eternity must have elapsed up to every given point of time and therefore an infinite series of successive states of things must have passed in the world". And for the anti-thesis, Kant says this: "For let us assume that it has a beginning. Then, as beginning is an existence which is preceded by a time in which the thing is not, it would follow that antecedently there was a time in which the world was not, that is, an empty time. In an empty time, however, it is impossible that anything should take its beginning..." (Kant, Immanuel. Critic of Pure Reason in Basic Writings of Kant, Edited and with an introduction by Allen W. Wood, p. 88-89)

The big bang theory is an answer to the question of when the universe began. According to this theory, our universe was said to have been contained in a "cosmic atom" of infinite density which then exploded billions of years ago in what is believed to be the beginning of time. Some scientists point out that the fact that the universe is still expanding is evidence of the big bang.

Biological evolution, which is mostly accredited to Charles Darwin as the most prominent proponent, states that what the earth possessed billions of years ago were molecules or compounds such as water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, and ammonia. These compounds, under the influence of ultra violet radiation, formed more complex molecules, notably amino acids?the building blocks of proteins. This process continued and led, accidentally, to the appearance of simple life forms on earth that used anaerobic process to get their energy. This is a process that does not require oxygen. This was because at the time there was virtually no oxygen on our planet. Then, about three billion years ago, photosynthetic entities began to evolve. Photosynthesis is a complex process whereby organisms that have chloroplasts and chlorophyll produce carbohydrates using water and carbon dioxide and then releasing free oxygen in the process. The oxygen released by photosynthesis?as a by product?is highly toxic to anaerobic organisms. This eventually led to the evolution of aerobic organisms which use oxygen for respiration.
The accumulation of oxygen in the atmosphere also led to the formation of the ozone layer. It is the formation of the ozone layer. This invisible ozone layer absorbs about 99 percent of the sun's lethal ...

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