The recent "debate" between Ham and Nye got me to thinking. Everyone concedes that we have genes and that they carry information from generation to generation. And most understand that flaws and/or changes in genes cause mutations that lead to birth defects and other health problems. So my question is this.
If a perfect god created a perfect world (pre Evie and the tree incident), why did said god include genetic variation in the formula for life? If he was already doing a perfect job making cheetahs and mosquitos and rats and sloths and dandelions, why did he build in to each a structure that can lead to change? Why do some people in Portugal (and a few other places) have six fingers instead of five? Why have some single celled organisms been able to adapt to living in jet fuel tanks? Why were Tibetans and others who live at high altitudes able to adjust, genetically, to such extremes? Sickle cell anemia is a genetic mutation that allows people to live in areas infested with sleeping sickness without getting it. It is a genetic variation. It has great disadvantages in a world where people live to be over 30, but up until then, if one lives in equatorial Africa, it is a great advantage. Why?
If this god guy was involved, how is such variation possible. The dude picks up a hand full of dirt, whips out a guy in his likeness, and then says "Let there be variability"? Brown eyes, blue eyes, brown skin, white skin, tall, short, big noses, small noses, blonde hair, red hair. Why?
Here we have a mechanism which, if god induced, makes it look like things evolved, and he doesn't bother mentioning either that he did it or why, and now we have people willing to kill each other over disagreements on the issue. Even before Eve does the dirty deed, he builds in the mechanisms necessary for punishing us for being sinners. Why? (I say this because I've been told by some that babies born with birth defects happen to punish their sinning parents)
Being prescient and being an idiot need not be synonymous. If the guy is real, he's screwing with us, and if he isn't, everyone who thinks otherwise is screwing with us. Either way, we're screwed. But in the meantime, hey believers, why did your god put the mechanism of genetic variation into living things when he presumably made everything perfect in the first place?
Can't your lord do anything right?