poohcarrot said:
poohcarrot said:
So why the cockroach, then?
My Cockroach Theory - Part 2
Creationists believe there is no such thing as evolution and that God created all the animals in one day, 6,000 years ago.
This means that the God creationists believe in, is in fact the
God of Evolution. Everything evolved from God's hands.
In the Bible, God doesn't just wave his hands and create human beings. He actually has to put a bit of work in, moulding clay, removing ribs etc etc. Therefore in order to create all the other animals, it's reasonable to assume he had to put some more work in. The Bible doesn't tell us exactly how he created all the other creatures, but the Last Continent does - using small tools and trial and error. (The dinosaurs were a bit of an error.
)
And just how the creationist God created over 400,000 different species of beetles (hence the beetles in LC) in just one day, makes the mind boggle.
Pooh-- I haven't had time to post until now, and it's so refreshing to find that although I agree somewhat with you, you have come your usual cropper. I suggest that you re-read Genesis 1, 2, 3. There is quite a difference in the two accounts of creation. In one (Genesis 1) you have something that sounds very much like the theory of evolution. You, on the other hand seem to be referring to Genesis 2 & 3. And the two sets of creation stories are contradictory. Granted, the strict fundamentalist Christians also have a problem with this. See (for example)
Inherit the Wind, Miller's version of the Scopes trial. Unfortunately, in this country, and especially in Arizona, we seem to be fighting the battles of the last century again--with the Tea Party Repubicans trying to turn the clock back to at least the 1920s, or perhaps earlier.
After re-reading this, and enjoying it somewhat more than the first time, I still find it one of Terry's weaker books. I think this is basically because (as Del noted), there are two stories which are rather forcibly joined together.
I agree that the "god" of the island is really quite dumb--and fails to understand creation at all,. Furthermore he certainly doesn't really understand evolution (though his creations seem to). While I understand that this part of the novel has all sorts of references to Darwin and may be the basis for the Science of Discworld--I found it basically boring. Terry does so much better with exploring and satirizing organized religion in other books. And Terry does so much better with time-travel in later books (albeit the Monks of History help).
On the other hand, I quite enjoyed the Australian bits with Rincewind--although I had to dig out the explanation of parts of them the first time. Generally I find Rincewind a boring "one joke" character, but in this novel he seems quite fascinating. I do wish, however, that there'd been a good deal more about the Australian "creator". That part was quite interesting, as was the idea of the kangaroo as the "Trickster". I must admit though that the description of how the platypus was created was hilarious. In other words, I found Austrlia fascinating (we live in a desert also). But the island with one god who creates ones of everything--was , well, not Terry's best work.