Evolution: Do you believe it?

[MysteriousUser]

So that topic about religion from a while back got me thinking... well not really, my mind just wanders. Maybe it had to do with varying opinions.

 

Anyway, to get to the point, do you believe in (the theory of) evolution? All of it? Part of it? Or is it a bunch of preposterous lies? :P

I'm not sure whether to assume you know about it or not, so I'm just gonna let it go from here and any questions you have you can ask me or someone else that knows. Or for the more wary/impatient, you can do a quick search to Google.

 

I ask this because I have come to know many who oppose the idea, as it seems preposterous (and mostly conflicts with their religion), especially when it comes to the origins of humans, but some kind of accept it, or are at least mindful of it.

 

I, personally, believe it to be a pretty neat theory and that there is some validity in it. That, and the whole concept just amazes me.

 

*I'm tired right now and I'll edit this later in case it's messy or I need to add something.*

[~Xandria]

Well, I personally believe in evolution. That may be because I am so interested in science and have studied it for quite some time. The reason that is relevant is because according to statistics, 64% of scientists are agnostic/atheist. Only 6% of the general population is agnostic/atheist. That's a huge gap and I'm actually quite astounded by it. It's also interesting to note that non-believers are more discrimnated against than any other minority, even more so than rapists.

 

Just because I believe in evolution doesn't mean I don't question it on a daily basis. I'm always seeking new answers, looking for more break-throughs, etc. I don't want to just blindly follow the masses because my mother, a priest, or political leader says so. I've been discriminated against a lot for my beliefs and have had many conflicts because of it. I'm getting off subject here.....

 

Why I believe in evolution: 99.8 percent of America's scientists support this theory. So basically every scientist agrees that there is enough evidence that evolution is real. It's kind of hard to argue with that, considering they study it on a daily basis.

 

Most Christians believe the earth is very young. Less than 10,000 years young. This makes no sense to me. The oldest rocks which have been found so far (on the Earth) date to about 3.8 to 3.9 billion years ago (by several radiometric dating methods). Common sense says that the age of the earth must be at LEAST the age of the fossils and rocks formed on it, IMO.

 

In conclusion. I believe evolution is a theory and a fact. A fact is something we observe and a theory is our explanation for it. For example: Isaac Newton began our "theory" of gravity which was later replaced by Einsteins improved theory. The current state of our theory for gravity does not say things don't fall, it simply takes out some of the errors and makes for a better conclusion. Similiarly Darwins theory of evolution is not complete and contains a lot of errors. Today's theory is still incomplete but it's much better than it was back then. Still, the state of our explanation does not affect the fact that species evolve over time.

 

Anyways, that's just my 2 cents. I know some will disagree. I'm just going to continue on in my search for answers. In short, I don't believe in a God or any gods/godesses for that matter. What I do believe in is that we are all one. We are all in a state of being that will effect us in the after life. I believe in ghosts. I believe that ghosts are haunted souls who come back because they were A: in a anguished state of being when they died or B: They had something terrible happen here on earth. So my views are far from a "normal" atheist aspect. I take a more spirtual, buddhist approach if you will. Kind of, I guess. I don't really know what you'd call it..

 

and now I'm rambling again. Sorry. :laughingsmiley:

[The Bandit]

Ooh, a thorny topic.

 

I'm a Christian, and I believe God used Evolution as the way he created the earth. I was brought up to believe he created the world in 7 days, but have changed my mind.

 

Reasons: the genetic evidence for evolution is now pretty incontrovertible. Since they have sequenced the genome for various animals plus humans, scientists can see that we have lots of left-over strands of DNA back from when we were monkeys etc.

 

However, for me, looking at the world, it's clear it was designed, rather than just being a series or random coincidences. For instance, take the Bee Orchid. This is a flower that gets pollinated because it looks and smells exactly like a female bee. So the male bee lands on it, tries to mate with it, gets some pollen on it, then flies to another orchid and pollinates it. Now if there was just one bee orchid, that might be just about believable. But there are different types of Bee Orchid, that each looks like a different bee. For me, the chance of all those different orchids evolving randomly to look (and smell) exactly like the relevant bee, is completely unbelievable. And that's just one example of many similar connections between plants and animals.

 

So I believe evolution only makes sense if God has been inherently involved in every single genetic mutation etc.

[Finn the Human]

I am part Christian so I believe that god created us. But I can also believe that he used evolution. Though I have a theory: Maybe primates/monkeys and apes evolved from us?

[karmacow]

Maybe primates/monkeys and apes evolved from us?

 

The theory is, as far as I'm informed, that we evolved from the same ancestor, only in different directions. So we didn't evolve from any species that exists today.

[passiflora]

Absolutely I believe in evolution - I'm honestly not sure why it's such a huge debate. As others have shown, you can be religious and reconcile evolution & God. :) Even the Catholic Church as a whole believes in theistic evolution, not young earth creation.

 

As Quallso touched on, evolution is a scientific theory. That doesn't mean it can't be falsified or expanded upon, but it's currently the most reliable way we can explain the evidence available. It's on the same level as any other scientific theory, including things like relativity (and gravity), cell theory, germ theory, atomic theory, etc.

 

 

I am part Christian so I believe that god created us. But I can also believe that he used evolution. Though I have a theory: Maybe primates/monkeys and apes evolved from us?

Humans and monkeys are both primates - like karmacow said, we share a common ancestor that no longer exists.

[Welcome Back Apathy]

Evolution is a fact, in addition to being a theory. People say that you can't prove evolution because we weren't there at the beginning. (To that, I say, exactly! We weren't at the beginning because someone else was there first!) But we can prove evolution happens because we can definitely observe it.

 

The main way to observe it is to observe bacteria and viruses. These both evolve, and this is 100% observable fact. When someone has AIDS, for example, the medicine will kill off most of the virus but will leave some of it intact. This virus will mostly reproduce new viruses, and except for small mutations, nearly all of the newly created viruses will be immune to the medicine. We now have a newly evolved virus.

 

Now, viruses are not technically life forms in the definitions that we give for life, but they function in many of the same ways. Bacteria ARE life forms, however, and infections from bad bacteria will be very similar to viruses in this respect.

 

Was it the way humans were created? Absolutely, and there is overwhelming proof to show this. Does it explain the way the first cells formed? Well, we have different but related theories as to how the original cells formed. I can definitely see the possibility of a god creating those original cells, and even guiding mutations so that species could survive. I am an atheist, though, so I don't believe it, but I don't think it flies in the face of science to believe that. It does fly in the face of science to believe that the world was created 6,000 years ago and all of the human species came from two people.

[ezza]

I am a Catholic and I still believe evolution. I think God made everything through evolution. Also, I don't think that God literally made the world in 6 days (the seventh being for rest). I believe that it could have been millions of years. Each day could stand for millions of years. The word day could have been used figuratively.

[tatartot]

I'm Christian so I basically believe in creation, but not exactly the way the Church preaches it. I still think that evolution is valid and occurred just not in the way most scientists say (yes, I'm kind of one of those crazy religious people who has trouble believing hard facts because of my faith).

 

For example, the Bible says that God created the Earth in seven days. However, it's possible that each "day" for God represents a longer time period for humanity and evolution occurred during that time. If on day whatever he created the fish, maybe that day was thousands of years and the creatures that predominantly lived in the ocean evolved over that time. That's just what I've always believed.

 

Edit: I read the first couple posts but I should have read the one right on top of mine! I totally agree with that!