Evolution

[RidgeHunter]

I'll be more inclined to accept the theory of evolution when science can prove where life actually came from and how it began. Until then I feel like my own guess (opinion, faith, whatever) is as good as anyone else's.

I wish this line of thinking worked in the business world. I'd be a petroleum geologist next week and cancer research scientist the next. Sure, I have zero knowledge and training in either field, but since they don't have it perfected my guesses are as good as their guesses.

 

[RidgeHunter]

Welcome to the club 120. You aren't alone.
My father - Full Colonel in the Air Force, extremely well educated in the sciences, and 99% of the time a rational and logical man. But - he was a devout Christian and categorically denied even the remotest possibility that evolution is the explanation. My father believed that the world and universe are 6,000 years old and that was that. GOD created it all. How did he know? The Bible (written by man - ahhhh the irony) told him so.

Amazing - simply amazing to me that he held that view. Believed it without question. We argued it for years. We never ever came to an understanding (agreement was impossible).

To say it's very important to people is an understatement. Sex and god are the only two things men will consistently run into the fire and die willingly for, and some religions up the ante by promising god-given sex.

I passed the point of being too much of a jerk about religion when I was a teenager, though. Everybody's got their quirks. I've off and on wished I could believe since I was ~8 years old - it has to be easier sometimes. Some things will still elicit it, though. You can walk a creek bed most anywhere in this state and pick up something made by people who were inhabiting these hills thousands of years before these people think the earth was made. Believe it, teach it to your kids - but do it at your kitchen table and not in public schools.

Like you say there's no sense arguing with someone about something they'd die for. Same reason you should never tell your buddy his wife-to-be is trainwreck. Deaf ears.

 

[3inSlugger]

Let's look at who believed and still believes that God created everything in a week: modern evangelical Christians, Bronze Age herders, and Arab tribesmen.
Now evolution is universally accepted in the scientific world. The same world and work ethic that has given you the technology around you, including the ability to have a fully-searchable Bible in 100s of languages in a minute online.

I'll side with the impartial scientific evidence and not the biased Bronze Age beliefs.

 

[ConstitutionCowboy]

You think the same thing about gravity? You know gravity is real right? You also know that we don't know exactly where gravity came from?

By your logic, because YOU don't know, they don't know, then your guess is as good as theirs?

Gravity is a good focal point in discussions such as comparing science to belief or faith.

We can see that gravity works, we can measure it, yet we cannot touch it. We can't see it. We can see it's effect. It's the same for faith and belief in God. We can't touch it, we can't see it, yet it exists. Many things have been revealed to us, and the teachings in the Bible are of the most value. This country was formed on biblical principles and has been the most successful, the most prosperous, and the strongest ever in history. That is observable evidence just like an apple falling from a tree is observable evidence of gravity. (Lets stop mucking it up before it becomes too far gone!)

Woody

 

[SMS]

I doubt scientists that only spew evolution or Christians that only spew creation are right. I can see how both can be true, but that doesn't create enough division for some folks, I guess.

This FTW.

 

[mightymouse]

I believe...that it is time for a drink. Y'all keep arguing.

 

[Sanford]

Life exists, life evolves, life either was created or just happened....this much we know for 100%.

Yep. As for the rest ... well ... it's mostly just a thought exercise for me. I don't get emotional about it because I don't subscribe to the notion that creation and evolution must necessarily be mutually exclusive.

 

[Lurker66]

Gravity is a good focal point in discussions such as comparing science to belief or faith.

We can see that gravity works, we can measure it, yet we cannot touch it. We can't see it. We can see it's effect. It's the same for faith and belief in God. We can't touch it, we can't see it, yet it exists. Many things have been revealed to us, and the teachings in the Bible are of the most value. This country was formed on biblical principles and has been the most successful, the most prosperous, and the strongest ever in history. That is observable evidence just like an apple falling from a tree is observable evidence of gravity. (Lets stop mucking it up before it becomes too far gone!)

Woody

You know the great civilizations before ours, Egyptian, Greek, Romans were founded on much the same principles except they believed in multiple Gods.

Imagine being the last person who worshipped Zeus and Applo.

It seems that you think that the idea of God, creation, religion, great civilizations came from the west. Although we Americans are more familiar with the Wester Civ, the East rivals or surpasses Western thought and civilization.

Recreation religions are thought to be far older than creation type religions.

 

[3inSlugger]

. It's the same for faith and belief in God. We can't touch it, we can't see it, yet it exists. Many things have been revealed to us, and the teachings in the Bible are of the most value.

You can't say that. At most, you can say you think there exists higher powers or a power. We can concede that it may seem a Divine force put things into action (a Prime mover). But your whole task is ahead of you when you choose Jehovah only for that Power, or choose to say the universe was created from scratch in 7 days.

This country was formed on biblical principles and has been the most successful, the most prosperous, and the strongest ever in history. That is observable evidence just like an apple falling from a tree is observable evidence of gravity. (Lets stop mucking it up before it becomes too far gone!)

Our Founding Fathers were not exclusively Christian, not even close. Nor are our Founding documents Christian in nature.
There are no actions in our world that can be observed to be the action of the Christian God, let alone any supernatural being. Your example of an apple falling being evidence of gravity is not a valid example.

 

[Sanford]

I wish this line of thinking worked in the business world. I'd be a petroleum geologist next week and cancer research scientist the next. Sure, I have zero knowledge and training in either field, but since they don't have it perfected my guesses are as good as their guesses.

Yep, that'd be pretty cool, huh? But since the original question was ...

What are your thoughts about evolution?

... and I hadn't seen anything new that I'd not read or heard in previous discussions of the topic, I thought I'd share mine and see what sort of reaction I might get from the true believers ... on either side.