As Groucho said, “Who are you going to believe–me or your own eyes?” I do kind of like the idea of God as a practical joker. But for me–a pretty much evangelical Christian–I’ve never understood why anybody actually read the Biblical creation story as meaning the earth was created in 6 actual days 6000 years ago. Have any of these people actually read the Bible and observed how it is written?

Best plate tectonics video ever (covers 650 million years, including 250 million years into the future):
http://boingboing.net/2009/07/16/time-lapse-sim-of-ea.html

Strangest plate tectonics theory ever (Earth used to be a LOT smaller, about the size of Mars. It’s been expanding):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzgdwBpDokk
I’ve not heard the audio on that second link. I’ve read about this idea on other sites though. I’ve seen a few creationists latch on to this theory, especially Intelligent Design types who are OK with an old Earth. They like it ’cause it can kinda agree with the waters welling up from the deep narrative from the Noah story. They also like it ’cause it pokes the plate tectonic guys in the eye. Plate tectonics elegantly explains orogeny, or mountain-building, and volcanism I’m not sure how this “expanding Earth” handles those concepts. I don’t know if the audio gets to that.

Funny story: On that very same HMS Beagle voyage the crew of the ship noticed an earthquake (which has got to be an interesting experience, to feel an earthquake while at sea). When they came to shore, near where the earthquake occurred (which just happened to be very near to where that latest big one in Chile happened) the first thing they noticed was a terrible stench. That appeared to be coming from the large expanse of dead and dying sea creatures that were on the shore. Darwin realized these were creatures who’s undersea home had been uplifted out of the water by the quake. Then he looked up at the Andes and realized that could explain how mountains are formed, via gradual uplift and the occasional large quake ever few years over the course of millions of years. It’s not quite plate tectonics (that came about 50 years later) but it was a new and fundamental idea that underpins modern geology.

And ever since then the geologists have been jealous that the biologists hold the leading claim on Mr. Darwin.

Ah, if only that were true. I work with a brilliant software programmer who deals with insanely complex software all the time, as well as the associated horrific messes that can occur. And yet last week he sends me this:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2949640/Noahs-Ark-found-in-Turkey.html

He’s very hopeful about the expedition, but doubts the carbon dating results because, he claims, carbon dating cannot be relied upon because of all the above ground nuclear testing that occurred in the mid-20th century.

I responded with this headline that I think came from “Nature” a few years ago:
“Noah’s ark found earlier than usual this year”

… and this article in National Geographic (complete with video!).
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/100428-noahs-ark-found-in-turkey-science-religion-culture/

Trying to determine the generational point at which one species “evolved” into another — bang! — is trying to find a dividing *line* between two colours in a spectrum. So for humans and their tree, for example, over here is Australopithecus, over there, Homo erectus. In between, you got your Homoish Australopiths, your Homo-Australipithicusses, your Australopithihomos, your Homo with Australopthicusesque tendencies, etc.

To the pro-evo’s out there — am I close, or have I the wrong end of the stick?

I also believe in evolution.

My academic exposure to science ended in 2nd year university when I declared an arts major (”Would you like fries with your degree?”). So, basically, I’ve got freshman chem and physics, and absolutely NO biology — weak tummy.

So I leave science up to the scientists. They crunch the numbers, do the tests, prove or disprove the hypotheses, do peer reviews, and eventually come up with a workable theory. To which I then say, “Way to go, God!”

To me, when it comes to the universe, life, etc, religion tells me “Whodunnit”, science “HowHedunnit”.

And I find the more complex and intricate the answer, the more it speaks to the power of the Creator. I mean, *I* certainly wouldn’t have done it that way.

(It’s also my experience that most people do not really grasp just how quickly a small amount of material can produce vastly complicated phenomena. Spend time fixing bad software and you get an entirely different perspective on evolution…)

Igelino -The problem here is that Tim says he is a trained scientist. That implies a college education and most likely post-college work.

As for 24 hours - I know it isn’t long in regards to life, but in regards to discussions here it often is. Some comics/ideas will post out in a day. Some last longer, but it is the rare one that lasts longer than just a few days. If someone wants their ideas known and wants a give and take on them there is generally a time limit on how long they can do that.