How does one reconcile the ideas of random selection, randomness, and evolutionary biology with G-D? I am having trouble coalescing my scientific and religious understandings. Particularly, why create the dinosaurs to wipe them out and when did modern man become injected with a soul that differentiated him/her from our primate ancestors?
These are very interesting and fundamental issues that you are raising. That doesn’t necessarily make answering them any easier as these are issues that man has struggled with for millenia. It seems to me that you have more than one question here, I am going to try to answer all of them to the best of my ability.
God created the world to be a place that is challenging to mankind. He did this in order that man should pass the challenges and therefore deserve reward. He did not want to just dish our reward and pleasure to us, as receiving something that is undeserved is ultimately unsatisfying. The key to this challenge is that He created a world in which His presence is not clear to humanity. He shrouded His presence is clouds of doubt to allow room to err.
Some people seem to feel that this was cruel of Him. Why couldn’t he have made it “easier.” But imagine you are a grandparent who buys a challenging puzzle for your grandchild to figure out. And you promise him a prize if he succeeds. Are you being cruel as he struggles through the puzzle until he can work it out? Or have you given him a chance to learn certain valuable lessons which can stand him in good stead for the remainder of his life?
So my main point to you is to realize that since the days of Adam, and including Adam, people have found reasons to question and doubt the existence of God and His presence in their lives. Such is the fate and state of mankind. And this was God’s very own plan.
To try to give specific answers to your questions. Randomness may only “appear” random. It is not necessarily truly random. This is true when it comes to random number generators in computers, and is true in the universe at large, as well. As far as the evolutionary biology aspect of randomness is concerned, you must keep in mind that not all scientists are convinced that evolutionary biology is a proper answer to questions science itself has raised. And the incidence of mutations is too slow to explain evolution as rapid as modern science would like. You may wish to look at the book “Not By Chance” by Dr. Lee Spetner which focuses on many of these issues. Suffice it to say that science is far from truly answering these questions, and certain aspects of scientific belief as certainly open to question. Is it not possible the God played more of a role than some scientists wish to concede?
As far as the dinosaurs go, I cannot answer what God’s plan was for them. Some speculate that as God created world’s and then destroyed them prior to creating our world, they are a relic of a past, failed world.
The first man to exist, and to have a soul, was Adam.