Is the belief in a Supreme Creator irreconcilable with the theory of evolution?
No, not strictly irreconcilable. Religious belief can be changed to account for evolution – but then, it can be changed to account for anything. The problems for religion if evolution is true are: 1. A *good* Creator is irreconcilable with evolution. Evolution is an utterly unjust and agony-filled process that has continued for hundreds of millions of years; if God created it, God is not good. 2. Perhaps religion is an evolved adaptation that will be adapted away from when the environment it has helped bring about makes it no longer adaptively useful. What is your opinion on the limits of abstraction? There is no level at which abstraction is unproductive – even the most abstract concepts have at least potential application. Color alone cannot a picture make. Every language (and art is a language) has three aspects: content, form, and context. It is content that decreases as abstraction increases, and it is breadth of applicability that increases with abstraction. As abstraction procee
