Allow me to start by saying that I am not baffled or flabbergasted as to why people would accept Darwinian Evolution. To be honest, my thoughts on the theory have changed quite a bit over the years, from dogmatic refusal, to full acceptance, to (What I believe to be) thoughtful denial; though I am still learning. Additionally, regarding atheism and theism, I do believe that both are matters of faith, each of which are very reasonable yet are separated by presuppositions of philosophy and reason, which must be worked through.

1 and 2) I did watch your video, which was very well done but my thoughts went to something that I think Behe talks about in Darwin’s Black Box. For example, in his explanation of the eye, the pictures indeed make it look like there were just tiny modifications made over time, but on the cellular level we’re talking about thousands and thousands of microscopic changes required to go from “Type-1″ to “Type-2.” That is where the complication comes in, because at certain periods of that step-by-step process, important functions of the eye are likely to be lost, and we’re expected to believe they came back a few thousand or million iterations later. I understand what the video was trying to explain in regards to building a support structure to allow the disassembly of the irreducibly complex structure, but like he said, it is hard to use inanimate objects as analogies for how animate objects operate.

3) I don’t think suggesting that DNA has a personal author is submitting to “God of the Gaps.” Unless we would agree that saying, “Just have faith in science, we’ll figure it out,” can be called “Science of the Gaps” which I have heard Atkins put forth multiple times. Saying that information has an author is a completely logical and reasonable conclusion to hold to. To be respectfully honest, I think ID via DNA has been written off as absurd because though it is reasonable, the conclusions are not desirous.

4) I did not say there are no transitional fossils. I said that what we do have are embarrassing fragments and devastating gaps that do not provide sufficient evidence to support Darwin’s theory. I know that only certain climates and paramaters allow for proper fossilization however, with over 150 years of digging under our belt, what we do have is nowhere near the amount we would expect to have accumulated, and much of the most highly noted finds have gone missing or have been reported as fraud. Which is not to say that they are all false, but it does effect overall initial credibility of the claims.

5) Agreed, 5 million years hardly seems sudden. But when you look at the entire 15-20 Billion years that universe has been around, 5 Million years seems like a flash in the pan. To use an analogy, if you were to take the history of earth and compound it into a single twenty-four hour day, for more than twenty-one hours, all you have is single celled organisms. Then within a two minute span, most of the major animal forms appear which are still with us today. I think that is significant and worthy of careful consideration. I will try to go through that list you linked me to (Thank you for it by the way) and see if there is anything that I am getting terribly wrong.

I am saddened to see that you lost your faith through your scientific education, as it is the case with many. It was actually through studying and reading books by Stephen Hawking, Brian Greene and others that I saw the need for a creator.

When it comes down to it, Darwinian Evolution is one of many tools used in an attempt to explain away God but I personally believe it fails to do so on a logical level. Via philosophy alone, I believe there is incredible evidence for the existence of God that borders on the edge of fact (Being 100% certainty, not reasonable probability). I mean no disrespect to your field of study by saying this, but since logic and reason have been more consistent through the ages than scientific theory, I tend to hold it in higher regard on questions that are as important as theism and most importantly, Christianity.

As I have looked into the evidence for things you may consider “fantastical” like Bible prophecy and miracles, seen things with my own eyes that cannot be explained scientifically, heard testimonies from friends that border on insane, and most importantly the overwhelming evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I am far from seeing a good reason to abandon my faith.

In the end, it is not about Darwin, evolution, science, biology, religion, or your favorite episode of “Friends,” it’s all about Jesus and what he did on the cross. I personally enjoy studying science to see the beauty of God’s handiwork, but also to help point others to him and that is the purpose of this article. Thank you once again for your response!

1 & 2) Your first and second points seem like the same point since you want an explanation for intermediate structures and just assume they were useless and, therefore, “irreducibly complex”. I invite you to watch this video which I think explains an answer to the concept of irreducible complexity very clearly, specifically questions about pathways for the evolution of the eye: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W96AJ0ChboU

3) To me, this argument says “I don’t know, therefore it must be god!” I’m not trying to sound insulting… I understand where you’re coming from so please understand that this is an answer that we will simply not take seriously. It’s an argument from ignorance and nothing better.

4) Moving the goalposts, plain and simple. Not a fair argument at all. For every fossil added to the record, 2 new “gaps” are inherently created on both sides of the new fossil. Say a scientist discovers an intermediate fossil between X and Z, Fossil Y, creationists will demand to see a fossil between X and Y and then between Y and Z. And if a fossil between X and Y is discovered, they will demand the fossils representing the two new gaps created. Not every single organism that ever existed can be preserved in the fossil record, be realistic. This is a ridiculous request and you know it. If you are going to discount every fossil discovered, don’t bother asking for them. PLEASE stop trying to claim that there are no transitional fossils when that is a BLATANT lie. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitional_fossils If you didn’t already know about these, then I apologize for accusing you of lying but please stop making this argument in the future. This isn’t evidence about why you don’t believe in evolution, it’s evidence that you’ve never bothered to critically think about it or research it in any real way.

5) The MINIMUM estimate for the Cambrian Explosion is 5 million years, a very liberal use of the word “sudden”. There are several explanations for it located here: http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CC/CC300.html I’d appreciate a creation scientist going over each point listed and debunking it rather than just going “how did this happen all of a sudden??” with an exaggerated confused look on their face. Science provided answers to your question, why not consider them critically?

Honestly, I didn’t need to read this, I know why creationists are creationists. Now that you’ve expressed where you’re coming from, consider where we’re coming from. Creationism is literally the only point of view I ever got until I was 17 and took a real biology class. Even after learning about evolution, I REFUSED to believe it until I kept facing evidence that I just couldn’t ignore or refute. I’m not saying this to be condescending, I’m just saying it from experience because I went through this for years, but creationists are creationists because they don’t really want to give up their old beliefs in the face of new evidence.

I majored in biology because I thought bacteria and viruses were awesome, I decided on this path about 2 years before I completely gave up on creationism, most of that time I still believed in it completely. After a while you start to realize that there is NO difference between “microevolution” and “macroevolution” except for time. The mechanisms are EXACTLY the same, “macro”evolution just allows more time for them to take place.

I don’t want to burn your bibles or eat your soul, it makes no difference to me if you believe in god or not, just stop spreading lies and bad arguments. Questioning current beliefs of evolution is awesome so long as it is based on science and reason. I love reading alternate hypotheses even if they’re kind of weird and out there! Every scientist’s dream is to totally redefine their field! Seriously, how AMAZING would it be if you discovered evidence that completely contradicted 150 years of accepted science?? The fact is, it hasn’t happened. It’s not that scientists dogmatically accept these evolutionary beliefs on faith, there is simply no better, more eloquent explanation of the complexity of life. Creationism isn’t an explanation, it’s a way to try and fill in gaps of knowledge that we will eventually fill in with real science when given enough time.