JohnFrim wrote:
IF there is a god, then I believe he created "matter" (electrons, protons, neutrons, muons, pions, etc) and their properties, much as LEGO has building blocks. There are rules as to how they interact, but the results are unpredictable. And here we are!!!
Fusion, as a result of hydrogen and gravity, evidently randomly creates the elements up through iron (dependent on the type of star) before the fusion succumbs to gravity and finally blows up the star. At least, that's the way the head of the Astronomy Department @ U. Washington explained it in a faculty lecture. There's a different class of stars which creates those atoms heavier than iron. Stars are responsible for creating all the subatomic particles, and they've probably been around since the beginning (Big Bang).
It wasn't until the creation of the X-ray, that Mendel's and Darwin's works came off the shelf and actually made sense for folks.
One of the better books on the subject of evolution, is one written by British author Matt Ridley. "The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge".