Posted: Jun 07, 2014 7:39 pm
Hello willhud! You ask an important question:
I'm going to give an answer that perhaps only half of Christians might agree with. [And I've only seen a bit about your belief in God, so I'm not sure where you're coming from, but regardless...] I'm sure it's frustrating when you ask a question of Christians and you get different and even conflicting answers back. Of course, we creationists have the same experience, like when I've asked questions of physicist Lawrence Krauss, Scientific American editor Michael Shermer, anti-creationist Eugenie Scott, Univ of Calif ophthalmologist professor Dr. Gary Aguilar (about the evolution of the eye), etc. So, sorry that this answer might only get a plurality of votes from Christians.
2,000 years ago Jews were asking the same question you've asked here in 2014, and bloodhounds and mantis shrimp are probably doing the same kinds of things that their precursors were doing two millennia ago (but not more)
. As the apostle John wrote in chapter 9 of his gospel:
willhud, I've spent four years studying Koine Greek, but that was back in the 70s and early 80s, and I've lost most of what I had learned (but not everything) . Like with the book of Isaiah in the dead sea scrolls, and as was common because of the high cost of writing materials in the ancient world, there was no space between words, and generally, no punctuation. Looking at this passage once again in the Greek, I'd punctuate the Lord's reply regarding the cause of this man's blindness as follows. It results from...
Notice that Jesus didn't attribute this man's suffering to the man's own sin (which of course is often a primary cause of our suffering), nor to his parents' sin, and nor (if my punctuation is correct), to being a setup to perform a miracle. God isn't like the guy who breaks your car only to show what a good friend he is by fixing it.
willhud, millions of Christians believe in evolution, and so I'm not speaking for them. Whereas virtually the entire creation movement speaks with one voice in answering your question. Our answer is Genesis 3, the Fall. God created a paradise in which Adam and Even and their offspring could have lived forever. But with our rebellion against God, in His mercy, God limited the harm we can do to one another as we grow older and more selfish and bitter, by providing a contingency in the creation. If we turn against God, our bodies will no longer function forever; they will break down, and death will ensue. The fall, the groaning of creation itself, is one of the most fundamental aspects of the creation movement. You asked how would we explain defects? Worldwide, and for centuries, that is the answer from creationists.
Since apparently you were unaware of how creationists would answer your question, even though you may reject it out of hand, still, you could consider that this is an internally consistent part of our worldview which certainly matches the decay and suffering that we see all around us and arises from a fundamental and pervasive teaching of Scripture. (As you may know, Darwinists themselves have struggled to account for the depth and capacity of human suffering which seems to go so far beyond what would be brought about by a mere natural selection for biological survival.)
Thanks for asking such a question willhud. It gives us creationists a chance to at least share what we believe.
- Bob Enyart
willhud9 wrote:How do creationists explain loss of vision or blind people?
I'm going to give an answer that perhaps only half of Christians might agree with. [And I've only seen a bit about your belief in God, so I'm not sure where you're coming from, but regardless...] I'm sure it's frustrating when you ask a question of Christians and you get different and even conflicting answers back. Of course, we creationists have the same experience, like when I've asked questions of physicist Lawrence Krauss, Scientific American editor Michael Shermer, anti-creationist Eugenie Scott, Univ of Calif ophthalmologist professor Dr. Gary Aguilar (about the evolution of the eye), etc. So, sorry that this answer might only get a plurality of votes from Christians.
2,000 years ago Jews were asking the same question you've asked here in 2014, and bloodhounds and mantis shrimp are probably doing the same kinds of things that their precursors were doing two millennia ago (but not more)
. As the apostle John wrote in chapter 9 of his gospel:Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
willhud, I've spent four years studying Koine Greek, but that was back in the 70s and early 80s, and I've lost most of what I had learned (but not everything)
. Like with the book of Isaiah in the dead sea scrolls, and as was common because of the high cost of writing materials in the ancient world, there was no space between words, and generally, no punctuation. Looking at this passage once again in the Greek, I'd punctuate the Lord's reply regarding the cause of this man's blindness as follows. It results from..."Neither this man nor his parents sinned. But, that the works of God should be revealed in him [I will heal him]."
Notice that Jesus didn't attribute this man's suffering to the man's own sin (which of course is often a primary cause of our suffering), nor to his parents' sin, and nor (if my punctuation is correct), to being a setup to perform a miracle. God isn't like the guy who breaks your car only to show what a good friend he is by fixing it.
willhud, millions of Christians believe in evolution, and so I'm not speaking for them. Whereas virtually the entire creation movement speaks with one voice in answering your question. Our answer is Genesis 3, the Fall. God created a paradise in which Adam and Even and their offspring could have lived forever. But with our rebellion against God, in His mercy, God limited the harm we can do to one another as we grow older and more selfish and bitter, by providing a contingency in the creation. If we turn against God, our bodies will no longer function forever; they will break down, and death will ensue. The fall, the groaning of creation itself, is one of the most fundamental aspects of the creation movement. You asked how would we explain defects? Worldwide, and for centuries, that is the answer from creationists.
Since apparently you were unaware of how creationists would answer your question, even though you may reject it out of hand, still, you could consider that this is an internally consistent part of our worldview which certainly matches the decay and suffering that we see all around us and arises from a fundamental and pervasive teaching of Scripture. (As you may know, Darwinists themselves have struggled to account for the depth and capacity of human suffering which seems to go so far beyond what would be brought about by a mere natural selection for biological survival.)
Thanks for asking such a question willhud. It gives us creationists a chance to at least share what we believe.
- Bob Enyart