Evolution Fact or Fiction?
Posted by Brandon | Filed under Articles
Ever hear religious ’scientists’ talk about evolution? They might say something to the effect of criticizing evolution and/or even dismissing it completely. (Kent Hovind anybody?)
It’s nigh time to set the record straight on this topic. Religious people like to debate evolution but I’m sorry folks (Christians, etc.) this is not the case at all. To debate evolution or deny it’s existence is comparable to denying gravity or the speed of light. Evolution is more than just some scientific theory, comparable to theism in it’s validity.
Evolution is scientific fact, not a debate, that is self-evident in everything we observe in biological nature. For example: bacteria exposed to antibiotics but not entirely killed will become resistant to that drug. Tracing back the roots of evolution and the similarities between species is not some vague hypothesis that only atheists spout to debunk god. It’s a complex and easy to observe fact and a lot of Christians seem to have a misunderstanding of evolution.
I recently heard a clip from the movie “Expelled” where Ben Stein says something to the effect of “Well, Darwin’s theory doesn’t explain where life came from.” This shows what a basic misconception of evolution that people have. Christians tend to think of it as an alternative to the bible and our ‘creation’ but it really isn’t. It’s not even supposed to.
Evolution teaches how simple organism evolve into more complex organisms. How they adapt to their environments and where our ancestors came from. It doesn’t explain how life began per se and doesn’t claim to.
Scientists have categorized thousands of animals and their origins and how they all relate to each other in a biological classification that’s organized into eight taxonomic ranks: Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species. Species being the one we are more familiar with on a day to day basis.
I’d recommend that anyone criticizing evolution to take a deeper look into it and study its many facets. There’s a lot more to it than just ‘random mutation’ though that is a part of it. It’s a very sound and observable function of biology and any religious person that tries to say otherwise has seriously ignored the tremendous amount of scientific data pertaining to it.
“I’d recommend that anyone criticizing evolution to take a deeper look into it and study its many facets. ” Perhaps it would be sufficient to reflect on the existence of chiwawas.
But simplifying the issues and arguments to the point of accommodating condescension as a response strategy is indicative of a closed mind: “Religious people like to debate evolution but I’m sorry folks (Christians, etc.)…” Thank you for setting us straight.
Allow me to quote again, with slight modification…
“I’d recommend that anyone criticizing… [Intelligent Design] to take a deeper look into it and study its many facets.” One of the basic discoveries is that (to my knowledge) none of the qualified proponents of ID disagree with the proposition that evolution is a verifiable process evident from the relevant evidence we observe in biology and other fields. The real critique is a tad deeper and appears to step on sacred toes. “Evolution is more than just some scientific theory…” So it seems.
“and where are ancestors came from”
are = our.
Learn the difference if you want to be taken seriously.
I know the difference. It was a simple mistake. Learn to be polite.
I accept the theory of evolution. However, your statement that “evolution is a fact” is simply wrong from a science perspective. It is a theory, and a scientific theory is far more involved than a fact. It involves numerous facts and observations and confirmations assembled together to form a best possible explanation for what is observed. People often are confused and think “theory” means “wild guess,” or “wild idea” or “hairbrained scheme.” Not at all, a theory in science is about the firmest of all scientific bases. A “fact” on the other hand is nothing but a small unit of information that has been confirmed. Theories are built FROM facts, and observations.
One of the main problems in this argument is that lay people do not understand what a theory actually means.
I should have added that people also don’t know what “god” means. When Westerners make any argument involving “god” – they make assumptions, but they never state those assumptions in advance. Which god? In the West, God is an individual in the sky with a long beard who watches your every move. In the East god is every move itself. A rather profound difference when making an argument involving what god may have done or not.
The people you hear arguing for “Intelligent Design” are not spiritual people – they are Religious people, and Religion is just politics with a different name.
Evolution in nature is a fact. It’s a very observable process. I do admit, that not everything is 100% but on a smaller scale evolution is non debatable.
As far as “god”. When I say god I mean it in a fairly abstract manner. In that god is a being with supernatural powers controlling our fate and who created our universe.
The main problem with the theories of creation and evolution is what was the predecessor. If you wanna go and say that man was created by god then OK fine , but who created that god? And if we want to assume that god was “just there” in the beginning , why not assume that a tiny single celled organism was “just there”.
I agree with the gist of what anonymous is saying. I’ve heard too many christians be like “well God was just always there” and then they demand that an evolutionist give a source for the single molecule that started the whole big bang idea. But I’ve seen it a lot on the other side too. An evolutionist will say “Oh well it doesn’t make sense that God was just always there, so he couldn’t have been and something HAD to create him” but then they don’t have a logical source for where matter came from. You have to remember that there’s just as many dense atheists as there are creationists…
I agree with both of you. That’s why atheists must research science and not just turn over catch phrases like a broken record.