Collapse of Intelligent Design

Originally posted by whereu ↑

"Life did not arise and cannot arise spontaneously from lifeless material. Older reports of spontaneous generation are given no credence since the experiments of Pasteur. In controlled experiments, it just does not happen.

All Pasteur's experiments showed was that life didn't come into being under the conditions of the experiments. The experiments didn't demonstrate that life didn't come into to being under different circumstances.

"Examination of soil from the moon and chemical tests on the surface of Mars verify that life has not arisen on those planets."

The jury is still out on whether life exited or exits on Mars. In any case why are you so concerned about life on Mars, and what difference would it make to your faith if a positive result eventuated?

"Wide diversity within a given kind may appear both in nature and in breeding experiments, but in no case does it ever pass beyond the limits to produce a new kind."

What is the definition of kind?

"The Christian’s faith in the Genesis account of creation stands firm, unperturbed by current religious-scientific squabbles."

Fine, except the account in Genesis 1 has a number of problems. Some of which are:
1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Not quite at the same time; the earth came along about 9 billion years later.
1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
The earth was not created before light was created.
1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
Grass needed the sun to grow. But in this account the sun came along after the the grass came along.
God didn't say that He created grass, but let the earth bring forth grass; maybe he wasn't so anti-evolution after all.

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Whereu, Genesis describes events as they would have been seen by human observers had they been present. This can be noted from its treatment of events on the 4th Genesis “day.” There the sun and moon are described as great luminaries in comparison to the stars. Yet many stars are far greater than our sun, and the moon is insignificant in comparison to them. But not to an earthly observer. So, as seen from the earth, the sun appears to be a ‘greater light that rules the day’ and the moon a ‘lesser light that dominates the night.’ -Gen 1:14-19.
When referring to these luminaries on the 4th day a different word is used than the one translated 'created' in verse 1.
(Genesis 1:16) And God went on to make the two great luminaries, the greater luminary for dominating the day and the lesser luminary for dominating the night, and also the stars.
So whereas light was visible earlier, now the sources of this light could be clearly seen.
As to what the word "kind" refers to , no definition is given. However 'man' was clearly a unique creature unlike any other as he was the only one made in God's image as were the angels. All other creatures were to be subject to man.
(Genesis 1:26) Then God said: “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and the domestic animals and all the earth and every creeping animal that is moving on the earth.”
I had no idea earth arrived 9 billion years after celestial bodies.