Hi Bex

I think you are missing one crucial point that Darwin himself made, it doesn’t matter if god created the universe and even the first life, evolution happens. It’s irrelevant to the truth of ToE where the universe came from once life exists it follows the rules that Darwin et al discovered. If god created the universe yesterday evolution will occur from now on, if god created the universe 13 and a bit billion years ago in a huge flash of energy which lead to the creation of earth and finally to simple life on earth the evolution will follow on from there. The beginning is not relevant because the theory is true (in the scientific sense) for all of the time after life arose on this rock. To demand that ToE explains the origin of life or the universe is as relvant as demanding that a plumber knows the entire history of plumbing before he can unblock your drains. It’s interesting sure but it’s not relevant to the discussion at hand. He can still unblock your drains without that knowledge just as ToE can explain who live evolves without knowing where it came from.

And you are right that all of this requires substance and information but 2LoT and the big bang theory explain the appearance of energy and substance, even the ratios of both, that we will find in our universe without gods input. It would be nice to know more about the details of all of these things than we do today but what we know is still worth knowing and it will lead us to better knowledge in the future, if the past is any guide, with research and hard work on our part.

In Reason

Russell