Believe It or Not

This post is a response to Mr. Shtreimel on his blog, A Hassid and a Heretic. It was too long to post in the comments, so I figured I would post it here.

I really should begin by saying that I am far from an expert on this topic, everything I write I have either read over the years, or have come to that paticular conclusion on my own.

I am open to other opinions and comments as I like to think of myself as a student of life, I try to learn from everything.

Well here goes nothing,

This argument as to who or what created the world, and yes that includes the universe and beyond, is as old as time itself.

I will attempt to argue the two primary theories that have arisen. I will try to bring “proof” for both of them, and I will conclude by telling you my personal beliefs. Understand this, what I believe is what I have researched and thought through extensively and decided that it has a lot of validity. It does not make it TRUE.

Evolution :

Simply put it means to change, to adapt to surroundings, to bend to whatever environment introduced into and be heavily influenced by such. Essentially it is based on “the survival of the fittest” or what some scientists would refer to as “natural selection”.

Let me explain:

Almost every living being has what is called a Phenotype and a Genotype. A phenotype generally refers to the outer appearance of the specific being, and the Genotype usually refers to the inner “genetics” or DNA makeup of that being.

Let’s take a human for example; the phenotype is directly dependant on the genotype map. The simplest way to understand this is to look at the difference between males and females.

The male characteristics are mapped out in the “Y” chromosome. The female’s characteristics are derived from the “X” chromosome. Hence the phenotypical male’s chromosome analysis will result in a genotype of “XY” with “Y” being the determinant factor of male. While a phenotypical female’s result will be “XX” and in this case it is the absence of “Y” that determines the female appearance.

Now just as the genotype can produce an extremely drastic difference such as the difference between testicles and ovaries, so to does it play a role in every single one of our phenotypical appearance. Therefore every subtle difference that exists whether it is significant enough for us to notice or not are directly caused by a specific gene.

When we reproduce a random process called meiosis takes place. In brief it is the fusion of genetic material, or for our purpose data, of the mother and the father. Hence the child derives traits in every aspect, characteristically, predispositionally, emotionally, and physically from both genetic donors, this data creates a new genetic map, that in turn dictates the phenotypical outlook of that person.

Very small and subtle outward appearances might not be noticed, but if we look at the general population as a whole these subtle changes are very significant. For example the Chinese eye, or the Irish chin, or yes even the Jewish nose.

Over time these subtle differences, plus any mutations that have taken place would, when comparing the great-grandfather to the greatest-grand son, create two very different beings with genetic makeup’s that merely shadow one the other with no substantial likenesses.

In layman’s terms, the grandfather could be an ape-like creature with minimal intelligence while the grandson could be scratching his head while reading this, and the direct cause of these differences?

Evolution.

The genes have changed over a huge amount of time with the stronger ones surviving, while the weaker ones were diminished into oblivion.

My proof to this is very simple.

The medical community today has been dealing with a kind of evolution that is not taking millions of years, but rather years and months, and the environment is not the universe but rather something as simple as a petri dish, the evolution of germs, or pathogens. Let’s take a simple single celled organism called Enterococcus. It has evolved over some time to resist even the most advanced medications. Medicine labeled the new organism VRE vancomycin resistant Enterococcus. It resists the most advanced antibiotic treatment to the point of, the patient being treated with the antibiotic, and the germ surviving.

So here we have a simple “being” that has adapted itself by reproducing the genes that are strong enough to withstand the antibiotic, and in doing so have created a “grandson” that can survive in an environment that the “grandfather” would not have.

The germ was forced to evolve in order to exist, so too any other species must have evolved to have any continuity.



Creation :

This word is not at all easy to understand, as is the entire theory itself. Simply because the word represents something that appears out of nothingness, producing something when nothing was there before, a particle of matter that appears in a complete void.

It is very difficult to understand this as none of us have been in a void where everything ceases to exist, or has never existed.


There are many branches of this theory, the simplest being belief. A person is taught that G-d created the universe, he believes it, and that’s that.

The second perhaps more scientific thread is the idea of Intelligent Design.

Within the parameters of this theory there lie many different channels and pathways. I will try to explain some of the significant ones.

Primarily there is the design argument, or what could be referred to as the Teleological Argument. What this argument states basically is that the universe is way to intricate to have just occurred. In other words every design must have a designer, that lace curtain in your window could not have knitted itself. The complicated watch on your wrist is proof of a talented watch maker is it not? Just as a master watchmaker or weaver is required to create a simple masterpiece, and we understand that as a given, so too the universe MUST have been created by a master creator, a higher being.

A different vein of thought could be that of Mr. Newton’s second Law of Motion which states that; every action creates an equal but opposite reaction. Hence if the reaction was the universe there had to have been an action, and the action must have been caused by a creator otherwise we would be tracking actions back to time and beyond.

Good ‘ole Aristotle just complicates matters even more as he states that there has to be a “primer” to have started, and to keep the motion of the galaxies.

Yet another train of thought is that there are too many species that have “so called evolved” and yet they cease to exist, (think dinosaurs) eventually there would have to be a decline in the quality of these species,” UNLESS” a superior being makes the decisions for the actual processes of reproduction and in turn directly influences them.

And then there is this little matter of well, Matter.

Matter is used as a proof to creation.

I will try to explain Matter in the simplest terms that I can think of. Matter comprises everything, be it solid, liquid or gaseous, as long as it occupies space, or time, it is made up of matter.
The one catch is that matter can not be created out of nothing, there is an argument that states that it must be possible to create matter as we see that it exists, but modern science has yet been able to create matter out of void or vacuum, or to explain how it came into existence. By this I mean with experimental properties that are documentable.

Hence if something exists it must have been created as matter cannot under any circumstance create itself.


My Own Personal Belief :

This topic has been bothering me for a very long time. I have struggled to understand both sides of the coin, and I would be lying if I told you that after much debate and discussion I finally understood them.

Both sides present a very valid argument.

We clearly see evolution as we see how people adapt to different environments and their physical beings actually change, or morph, or mutate to aid in the adaptation that is required for survival.

On the other hand I do look at the watch on my wrist and wonder could this possibly have evolved?

I don’t mean these two examples specifically, but I hope you get my point.

My answer to all this was a kind of hybrid between the two theories.

Firstly I should mention that I do believe in G-d, I do believe in miracles, and I do believe that I can not possibly understand everything.

This having been said my believes run along the following lines.

G-d created the world, and yes the dinosaur fossils are 3 million years old, they were created 299,999,995 years old! Yes the tree has rings which represent millions of years; it was simply created with all those rings. Sure cells can evolve; they were created with the ability to do so!


There are many comparisons but all of them can be put to this formula.

I am not saying that this hybrid of mine is right or wrong, I really don’t know enough to authenticate, or dismiss it with any authority, I will say this; it works for me.