Hi Ashwin,
It seems to me that you are willing to agree with the biologists that descent with modification explains from the scientific perspective how the primates are descended from a common ancestral population, and that descent with modification, be it structured as a tree or as a network, explains from a scientific perspective the origin of species both small and large. You do have serious reservations about origin-of-life pronouncements, and think that the first cellular organism was the result of God’s direct intervention–i.e., a miracle–rather than through regular scientifically tractable means. You also believe that any tree that biologists can reconstruct will only reach back to the origin of multi-cellular life some 630 MYA.
If I have understood you correctly, we are largely in agreement on these points. The only substantial difference I see between us is that I am open to the possibility OOL researchers may be able, someday far in the future, to infer a scientifically tractable mechanism through which biological life on earth came to exist. Should that day arrive, I would regard the mechanism as an exhibition of God’s marvelous creativity and design. For today, however, I would agree that the RNA world is a hypothesis rather than a theory.
One of the most recent sources you cited in another thread reached this conclusion:
I agree with this conclusion that Marvin quoted. If you are willing to agree with that conclusion, too, then we can throw a party, hand out trophies, and move on to other pursuits.
Grace and peace,
Chris