Re: [asa] Romans 1:20 (disregard my last post)

Ok this is not exactly about physical attractiveness. But I read about a study once, (if anyone recognizes it and can find a reference I would appreciate it), that looked into evolutionary ideas about selection based on appearance. As best I can recall the study was something like this.

The experimenters would show subjects a picture of a baby, and then they would show the pictures of the "parents". But of the two parents, only one of them was the actual parent. And the subjects were told to choose which one was the real parent. If the picture of the real parent was the father, the subjects guessed correctly significantly more that expected, that is more than 50%. If the picture of the real parent was the mother, the subjects guessed correctly only 50% of the time. The conclusion was that babies tend to look more like dad than they look like mom. And the explanation was that mothers know that a child they bear is theirs, but the father cannot be sure. But, genes that make babies look more like dad than mom, would be selected for because that would improve their chance of survival because a dad would be more likely to help care for a child that looks like him (and convinced him that the child was indeed his) than if the child looked like mom.
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: George Murphy
  To: John Walley ; 'David Campbell' ; mrb22667@kansas.net
  Cc: asa@calvin.edu
  Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 9:40 PM
  Subject: Re: [asa] Romans 1:20 (disregard my last post)

  In fact pretty girls - & handsome boys - fit in perfectly with evolution through natural selection. Those traits are clearly advantageous, ceteris paribus, for attracting mates & passing on their genes.

  Shalom
  George
  http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: "John Walley" <john_walley@yahoo.com>
  To: "'John Walley'" <john_walley@yahoo.com>; "'David Campbell'" <pleuronaia@gmail.com>; <mrb22667@kansas.net>
  Cc: <asa@calvin.edu>
  Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 8:06 PM
  Subject: RE: [asa] Romans 1:20 (disregard my last post)

  And furthermore, in my opinion pretty girls make a decent rebuttal to C.S.
  Lewis's claim that you can't discern whether the God of nature is a loving
  God or capricious, ambivalent, etc. I think that beauty in nature,
  especially feminine beauty, speaks volumes about our creator. And that is
  something that a red in tooth and claw nature can't readily explain either.

  John

  -----Original Message-----
  From: John Walley [mailto:john_walley@yahoo.com]
  Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 7:59 PM
  To: 'David Campbell'; 'mrb22667@kansas.net'
  Cc: 'asa@calvin.edu'
  Subject: RE: [asa] Romans 1:20 (disregard my last post)

  But pretty girls definitely reflect the glory of His Creation and could
  therefore loosely fall under the scope of Romans 1:20. :)

  John

  -----Original Message-----
  From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On
  Behalf Of David Campbell
  Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 2:24 PM
  To: mrb22667@kansas.net
  Cc: asa@calvin.edu
  Subject: Re: [asa] Romans 1:20 (disregard my last post)

> > Suppose then this person converts to deism still from a purely secular
  point
> > of view and then starts exploring all the world's religions to see if
  any of
> > their testable truth claims can survive the scrutiny of being compared
  to
> > the scientific record. And suppose then that after eliminating all the
> > others they conclude that Christianity is valid and real and the Bible
  is
> > inspired, and therefore they become a Christian.
> >
> > In this scenario, can we so confidently say that "that natural theology
  does
> > *not* lead a person to Christ" ?

  I see a semantic difference here. At the ultimate level, only the
  work of the Spirit can lead one to Christ. In this particular
  situation, I would identify the examination of various religions as
  the means used in leading to Christ, though of course God was working
  though his interest in science, etc. As another example, I know of a
  couple of testimonies from men who came to Christianity from other
  religions. Initial motive for coming to a Christian fellowship group
  was that all the pretty girls were there.

  --
  Dr. David Campbell
  425 Scientific Collections
  University of Alabama
  "I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"

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Received on Mon Nov 19 23:22:30 2007