The fossil record shows again and again a pattern of evolvement. As yet, since it was first discovered, no fossil is out of place. We can go to the British museum and see fossils and we can even study the science of evolution for ourselves up to Doctorate.
The trouble with the fossil record is that it fails to unmistakably offer what is often called the “missing link”. I agree of course we can go to the British Museum and see fossils, but the interpretation of those fossils is an area people don’t fully agree on as I mentioned before.
For Christians who believe the literal creation account, the data is there to study, but they of course use variable decay rate data rather than constant, and so their readings are much younger fossils than the evolutionary model of very old fossils. Same fossils, different way to crunch numbers. None of us were there so it’s all a game of who you decide to trust.
I agree that if evolution was proven wrong you would still be an unbeliever. If that were not true you wouldn’t have some Christians go along with evolution, but we know that some do, so its obviously a separate issue. I really liked what you said about “it's not that I don't want to believe in a loving God, it's that I have no reason to as much as it sounds lovely”. That statement demonstrates an atheist with an open, gentle spirit.
I think I’m a bit more skeptical than you are about science loving to prove itself wrong. I am sure it sometimes happens, but there is something about the human pride that wants to be right, to be considered of high status because of knowledge or findings. It’s also well documented that being a Christian scientist is a hard, lonely working life, and especially if one doesn’t altogether agree with evolution.
Why would he create it in a way that contradicts his message to mankind I.e. the bible. Why would he want it to look like it was a very slow process of trail and error shown by many features in the natural world such as the humans eye need to flip the image? And why did he create organisms that have to lay their eggs in other organism's eyes rendering them blind and causing suffering?
First of all, the creation account tells of God planting trees that bear fruit. So not seedlings. What the creation account doesn’t tell us is how old the trees were, but logic tells you they must’ve been at least a few years old to bear fruit. Who knows if they were older? It’s quite possible that God didn’t make it look like a slow process, though I am aware of some groups thinking that God deliberately deceived people to test them; I find that quite ludicrous and out of character because the bible says God does not lie. He is not a deceiver. By contrast, everything God says and does is dependable and very clear. It is quite possible that God didn’t make it look like a slow process and more than he made the earth flat. Mankind in their wisdom of science once believed the earth was flat, but it doesn’t mean God made it flat, it means their science was wrong.
The human eye is an incredible and very complex piece of equipment; that is certain. Quite why God made it the way he did is beyond me, and as far as I know Christians can’t hazard a guess as to why, a bit the same way we don’t often fathom God’s ways in other areas. On a personal note, I believe that God is in control of my life, but I used to think if something went badly wrong (which, over the years it did) then somehow God was making a big mistake. To be honest I took it personally, and was very angry at God for many years. It took me a long time to realise that if I don’t trust God’s love then I won’t trust His rule in my life. It seemed obvious once I realised it! Now it is different. I read of Job in the bible and how he said “though He slay me, yet I will trust Him”, and I see it the same way now, and I trust God has a plan, even if I don’t know what, exactly. When circumstances scream the opposite, I hold on firmly to my trust in God, and His love - even when I am completely mystified as to why he should that particular allow pain and suffering to happen, and what good could ever come of it.
Sometimes we look back and can see good that has come of a bad situation, but sometimes we can’t. And that’s when faith comes in. Trusting that God is who he says he is, and trusting his love on a personal level.
In the same way, I don’t know why certain creatures have the capacity for evil. Perhaps it is allowed by God, in the same way he allowed satan to come against Job for a while? I suppose you could stick it in the same category as all human suffering, whether it be cancer, infant death, tsunami’s, earthquakes, mental psychosis. It wouldn’t be too much of a surprise, seeing as satan is the enemy of our souls and seeks to destroy us mentally, socially, spiritually, and physically. Christian’s understand that God created everything in perfection, which changed as soon as man tried to make themselves equal to God, and disobeyed him the one rule he had made for them: “don’t eat of the fruit”.