Celestial Billiards

A model for allowing "Creation" and "Evolution" to coexist (sort of).

I occasionally find myself involved in creation -vs- evolution discussions. During one particularly daunting encounter of this kind (I'm driving a van; the people around me are debating the point, with both sides invoking "authority"), I formulated a construct that allowed both points of view - sort of. At least, the argument subsided and a measure of sanity returned to our journey. I call it CelestialBilliards (and why not?). Here it is (somewhat abbreviated) for your enjoyment:

Imagine for a moment, a truly accomplished and expert billiards player. I'm sure many of you have observed, as have I, a person who can drop a ball on the break and tell you where every ball will go before running the table. He knows with certainty where every ball will be before it gets there. This ability exceeds my own to a degree I perceive to be essentially magic.

Now imagine a being of the kind of power and ability required to create stars and galaxies and having an unbounded ability to extrapolate. This time, the "break" is on a somewhat larger scale, and knowing where all the "balls" will be over a really long time would mean that such things as the evolution of life on a small planet here and there would be foregone conclusions requiring no further effort. It wouldn't require the kind of "personal" Hand-of-God intervention that raises many scientific hackles, and it makes "Creation" a much larger game. Nobody has to lose.

I find it an amusing model. It leaves a lot of open questions, but I wasn't trying to found a religion or philosophy. Just looking for another avenue of explanation.

However, it does sort of imply that the universe as a whole is ultimately predictable, given adequate intellect or possibly computing power. I'm not sure that would be a terribly popular idea.

-- GarryHamilton

It's not a really new idea - it's been suggested ever since Darwin, at least, that God may have been only Creator, and lets the clockwork Universe run through its paces to the predetermined end.

I'm relieved to hear that. I'd hate to have to bear the burden of having imagined something completely new and unique. -- GarryHamilton

Great. You just graduated a bunch of EvolutionVsCreationism? enthusiasts to the NewtonianMechanics? level prevalent during the 18th century... -- PhlIp

Without human evolution, there'd be just one human race - speciation merely takes longer.

Hey, sounds specious to me!

Oh, ouch! -- gh

Alternate strategies include would include LifeIsAnAccident? (LifeIsPhysics??) (wherein there is no such thing as a spirit/soul and, of course, no Supreme Being), GodDidItAll? (see Old & New Testaments), and ThereIsFreeWill? (wherein Mankind has a spiritual component, permitting variations on reincarnation themes). Feel free to support or debate any of these. -- GarryHamilton

Gary, I like your idea. Your picture of a Creator with the advanced ability to "extrapolate" the outcomes of the original BigBang is right-on. I remember my old Apple IIC, and a chess game it had. When you picked "medium" or "hard" it allowed the software more time to extrapolate options. It would sit there running options and possible responses and would chose the best option based upon certain criteria. Now if my Apple IIC could do that, a being powerful enough to create a universe certainly has the power to know the outcomes of every nuance of the Bang's expansion. The only thing I don't like about your proposal, is it is impersonal and "unloving." The God I have found, in the Bible, is loving and personal. He created us to share His love with us and is involved with our lives. It is an interesting concept, though! -- BrucePennington

Au contraire. Useful extrapolation implies prior ignorance; being permanently omniscient, Bruce's god never has no need to extrapolate and hence never does so.