I don't want to get into a marathon discussion about religion here, but this is a philosophical question that has been bothering me since a recent conversation I had with a friend. I asked him whether he believed in "evolution or creationism". He said, "Actually, I believe in both."
I was taken aback by this. I said, "But you can't, they contradict each other." He said that he had heard people say that a lot, but never understood why. He said that he did not see any inherent contradiction. His point was something along the lines of, "Why couldn't God have created the world and then decided that the means by which the world, (that is to say, the animal kingdom, the human race, and so on) would proceed forward be rules that we now have identified and labeled as 'evolution'?"
I tried to answer that question, and I couldn't. I could not tell him why that was impossible. I'm sure we could go back and forth for hours about whether it is LIKELY or not, but the important question for me is whether it is POSSIBLE. The reason why this is the important question is because for years people always referred to the two as NECESSARILY contradictory to each other, so I always assumed that. But like I say, I could not and still can't answer my friend's question.
Again, I don't want to go in a million different directions here about all sorts of religious stuff. I will most appreciate entries which start off with a "Yes" or a "No" on the question of whether the two INHERENTLY contradict one another, and then go into the reasons why you think yes or no. Because right at the moment, I have to agree with my friend in that, what he thinks happened is at least POSSIBLE and if it is, then there is no necessary contradiction.