How can you not believe in evolution?

[johncmcleod]

I just don't get it. I'm a catholic and I still accept it. In fact, christianity, the largest religion in the world, with over 3 billion believers, has no problem accepting it. 80% of Christians today accept evolution as a fact. There is so much evidence for it, and in fact we watch it. We watch bacteria evolve under a microscope. And look at humans. We're way taller than we were several hundred years ago. Also, what happened to dinosaurs? All the creationists I know say, "They died in the flood." Nice one. Now where did they live? We have fossils of dinosaurs in places where people have lived since the dawn of man, and, believe it or not, there are no records of people living with dinosaurs. Also, then what are neanderthals and all the other hominids? What are creatures that are a cross between a dog-like animal and a whale?

Of course, we could start a debate, I don't mind. I am only in 9th grade though, and the creationists who have a higher level of science education will probably get me on some stuff, but when that happens I'll just ask my science teacher and he'll give me answers, and the evolutionist believers will eventually win. The debates about this ended years ago.

I mean no harm, I repeat, no harm to creationists. I'm not trying to stamp out people's beliefs, I just want to know how they can believe them.

[loinburger]

Oy.

[Urban Ranger]

Oy? Is that the best you can do?

[ayronis]

My $0.02 on the matter:

Creationists build their belief on a variety of arguements that, while internally convincing (ie. they believe it themselves), do little to convince others of their beliefs.
Generally speaking there are two reasons IMHO for the belief in Creationism at the expense of Evolution (because you can believe in both a creation and evolution - what I am concerned with are those who believe in creation only and on that opinion, disbelieve evolution).
I ) "Its not in the Bible."
Because the Bible doesn't describe it they believe it could not and did not happen. Essentially this rational is for people who believe the Bible has all the answers, period. Evolution seems to challenge the idea that God created man and the animals in their perfect forms, and it is simply not possible for them to change.
II) "Evolution is a lie"
This is the belief of, in my opinion, improperly educated people who believe that evolution is a magical transformation in which species spontaneously grow legs and lose tails. They view this as a science-fiction and so they throw away the whole idea of it.

Note) The whole problem is really more concerned with creation than evolution. Evolution is an undeniable fact of the world, we can see it, measure it, and record it. Does this mean that the creation was caused by this? Hmm... that one is a bit tougher. It takes about as much faith to believe the a pool of amino acids spontaneously created life as it does to believe that God created it. I would say, most Americans at least believe in a degree of both. Most believers I've met would probably say even if the Amino acid pool did happen, God made it happen and that was creation.

All the Bible says in this matter (King James Edition)
"[26]And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
[27] So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them"

Most people will agree that isn't exactly a very accurate description of precisely how it happened.

For more info on this I recommend the play "Inherit The Wind" By J. Lawrence and R. Lee. The movie is pretty good too, if reading isn't your thing.

[loinburger]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Oy? Is that the best you can do?

I'm a bit burned out on debating at the moment -- earlier today I had somebody tell me that they refused to debate me because I might prove that they were wrong.

Oy vey. It's enough to drive me to drink.

[Urban Ranger]

You should be proud of yourself.

[Dis]

post before deletia

[Urban Ranger]

Back to the topic.

Creationists are few and far between. What's important is they don't have a coherent theory to explain all the evidence, without a lot of ad hoc hypotheses. Intelligent Design (ID) is just a variation on the same theme.

[monkspider]

It's too bad that so many people oppose evolution on philosophical grounds. There really is no good reason to think that evolution mucks up any of the belief structures of the world's great religions. If these people who devote so much time to attempting to portray evolution as a sin would instead try to point out the various scientific inadequacies of evolution, we could have a much more thoughtful dialogue on the subject. Unfortunatly, both camps (the fundy religious folk, and the fundy evolutionists) are so mired in dogma that this won't be possible for a good while. So the same old song of the ivory tower intellecutals accepting evolution and the masses shunning it will probably continue until both sides learn to look at the subject with a much more open mind.

[Dis]

If evolution actually happens how can you explain I'm a homo erectus?

yes that is silly. Ming already closed 2 of these threads (1 due to exceeing 2 threads per day rule, the other because it was a copycat). I don't expect this one to remain open.

[Ned]

Re: How can you not believe in evolution?

Originally posted by johncmcleod
I just don't get it. I'm a catholic and I still accept it. In fact, christianity, the largest religion in the world, with over 3 billion believers, has no problem accepting it. 80% of Christians today accept evolution as a fact. There is so much evidence for it, and in fact we watch it. We watch bacteria evolve under a microscope. And look at humans. We're way taller than we were several hundred years ago. Also, what happened to dinosaurs? All the creationists I know say, "They died in the flood." Nice one. Now where did they live? We have fossils of dinosaurs in places where people have lived since the dawn of man, and, believe it or not, there are no records of people living with dinosaurs. Also, then what are neanderthals and all the other hominids? What are creatures that are a cross between a dog-like animal and a whale?

Of course, we could start a debate, I don't mind. I am only in 9th grade though, and the creationists who have a higher level of science education will probably get me on some stuff, but when that happens I'll just ask my science teacher and he'll give me answers, and the evolutionist believers will eventually win. The debates about this ended years ago.

I mean no harm, I repeat, no harm to creationists. I'm not trying to stamp out people's beliefs, I just want to know how they can believe them.

AFAIK, the Catholic Churches position is to accept science and to declare the contents of the Bible allegorical. In other words, the Church, I believe, has no hard and fast position on either side of this issue.

Am I wrong about the Church's position?

[Robert]

Why I not believe in evolution?
several reasons:

- the first cause argument.
- life is too comlex to occur/evolve on random change
- there are more recent exmples of degeneration than of evolutoin
- Evolution-believe works like a religion. I believe it because my father, my mother and my teacher told me so. And all smart people on the earth believe it, thus it must be true. Oh, and those smart people who do not believe in evolution are dumb anyway. (Check Urban Ranger's signature)
- The wish is the father of the thought (theory)
- Pure Evolutionists like UR / PH are fundamentalistic fanatics with superior feelings. Eventhough they feel that brilliant compared to silly creationists they spend half their life debating them. I never spent more than 5 minutes explaining a kid that santa doesn't exist. Either I should try harder to convince the kids or UR / PH must be religious freaks. (yeah, they hate this argument.)
- My common sence says it makes no sence. All this beauty on this earth appeared by random change? By usually damaging mutations? Nah....

And the argument that the roman catholic church accepted it....... they just flow with the mass.
In the middle ages the mass said that the earth was flat, so did the roman catholic church.
Now the mass says it all came through evolution, so says the RCC.

It's obviously that if the RCC says so, it's wrong

CyberShy (awaiting all those cool usual predictable reactions. yes, this reaction was predictable as well)

[Imran Siddiqui]

If evolution actually happens how can you explain I'm a homo erectus?

Are you 'erectus' now?

[monkspider]

Hey, I guess guys with Garfield avatars are less likely to fully accept evolutionary theories.

[tinyp3nis]

We're way taller than we were several hundred years ago.

Yes we are. The reason in this example is not evolution, or atleast that what they told me.