[BroJoeK]

ScoutLaw: "Evolution is an observed fact"

ROTB: "Micro-evolution (birds turning into different birds that don’t interbreed), yes.

"Macro-evolution (lizards turning into birds), no."

In effect, there is no micro- or macro- evolution.
There are only evolution facts (confirmed observations), evolution theory (confirmed hypotheses) and evolution hypotheses (insufficiently confirmed to be upgraded from "hypothesis" to "theory" -- these are also known as "informed speculations").

• The evolution facts (confirmed observations) include 1) descent with modifications and 2) natural selection, aka "survival of the fittest".

• The evolution theory (confirmed hypothesis) simply projects these facts backwards in time millions and billions of years to arrive at common ancestors for all, or nearly all living things.
  Many confirmations make evolution a theory, not just hypothesis, including the fossil record, DNA analyses and inputs from virtually every other branch of science.

• Unconfirmed hypotheses relating to evolution include the origins of life itself.
  As of today three such hypotheses are often debated:
  1. Abiogenisis -- meaning life arose naturally from complex organic chemistry over billions of years.
  2. Panspermia -- meaning basic life chemistry arrived on Earth aboard comets or asteroids from elsewhere in space.
  3. Intelligent Design -- meaning some being other than "Mother Nature" actually brewed-up the chemicals of life and placed them here to grow, modifying them from time to time to better suit their changing environments.

Of these three hypotheses, the most scientific work has gone into investigating how abiogenisis might have happened.
The other hypotheses are not, so far, testable.

ROTB: "Genesis and evolution contradict each other..."

Genesis never was and never will be a scientific document.
It's purpose is not to explain the Universe scientifically, but to help explain to very ignorant human beings how they can achieve salvation.

Evolution science never was and never will be a religious exercise, since science is the opposite of religion -- where religion is entirely concerned with the spiritual, science only deals with material causes and effects.

[ROTB]

BroJoe wrote: “Unconfirmed ... Intelligent Design”

Actually, God has demonstrated his singular ability to generate time reversals in the Bible, a feat which modern physics is baffled to reproduce or explain. See http://xwalk.ca/y3nf.html for the details.

BroJoe wrote: “The evolution theory (confirmed hypothesis) simply projects these facts backwards in time...”

Until you can explain the time reversals in the Bible (no other book, not even the Koran/Qur’an does this) apart from God existing, evolution is simply confusion taught as fact.

It then goes without saying that Genesis is history, and it makes claims about what happened in the past. Though the Bible could be defined as a spiritual book about the history of God’s people, the few naturalistic and scientific claims it makes do stand up to scrutiny.

BroJoeL wrote: “Evolution science never was and never will be a religious exercise”

Evolution by itself is a pillar in the religion of atheism. It is a “creation account” for atheists, the same way that Genesis is a creation account for Jews and Christians. Read the full details of why atheism is a religion at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godless:_The_Church_of_Liberalism#Central_thesis.

BroJoeK wrote: “where religion is entirely concerned with the spiritual”

The times I got jobs, and changed circumstances as a result of prayer, was that ALL spiritual, or did the spiritual manifest in the natural result because an uncaused, changeless, timeless Being answered my prayer?

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