Do you believe in evolution?

I have heard many arguments on this topic, and was wondering where people stand. Some say their religion will not allow the thought of evolution, but creationism. Or Intelligent Design. Etc. Etc.

To me, evolution is a very slow process, and you usually do not see it in a lifetime. But there is evidence. For example, the skeletons of early humans. If you look back, the skulls were much smaller and the brains were much smaller. Then, humans started to eat meat, and the brain started to grow bigger, along with the skull. Teeth are another evolution trait. They went from becoming jagged, to straight on the ends, because we no longer had the need to rip meat from the bone.

I was watching National Geographic one day, and it was a show about elephants. There are now elephants that are born without their tusks. Maybe for the reason man had kept taking them. Killing the animal for their tusks. Is this evolution that we are able to witness today? There are still those that have tusks, but many are being born without. Will this trend keep going? quote: An elephant never forgets. unquote.

Just because we have not witnessed the evolution of mankind, does it mean it is a farse?

I believe in evolution, yes. We see it in nature all the time. Do humans come from monkeys? I don't know. Once I figure out this God thing, maybe I'll be closer to an opinion on that one.

just kill me wrote:

yeah,look at obama,theres your proof!!

Uncalled for, dude.

Amazarak wrote:

I have heard many arguments on this topic, and was wondering where people stand. Some say their religion will not allow the thought of evolution, but creationism. Or Intelligent Design. Etc. Etc.
To me, evolution is a very slow process, and you usually do not see it in a lifetime. But there is evidence. For example, the skeletons of early humans. If you look back, the skulls were much smaller and the brains were much smaller. Then, humans started to eat meat, and the brain started to grow bigger, along with the skull. Teeth are another evolution trait. They went from becoming jagged, to straight on the ends, because we no longer had the need to rip meat from the bone.
I was watching National Geographic one day, and it was a show about elephants. There are now elephants that are born without their tusks. Maybe for the reason man had kept taking them. Killing the animal for their tusks. Is this evolution that we are able to witness today? There are still those that have tusks, but many are being born without. Will this trend keep going? quote: An elephant never forgets. unquote.
Just because we have not witnessed the evolution of mankind, does it mean it is a farse?

That is a good question. I was raised in a Christian home and just recently started embracing agnosticism, so I've been doing some research on evolution since I was not taught it growing up.

I think nobody has a problem with microevolution. Like you said, there is evidence of microevolution all over the place. I think what most people struggle with is macroevolution. I'm still in the process of looking at that. I agree with you, though - evolution is such a slow process that you're not going to find a half-whale, half-reptile. This is a very interesting topic. I hope we are able to see some "scholarly" answers, because that would help me as well!

By the way, Amazarak, I really enjoy your posts.

CHAD wrote:

<quoted text>Uncalled for, dude.

That's ok. He just doesn't have anything intelligent to say. Let his stupidity shine through.

"Intelligent design" is a misnomer. There's nothing intelligent about it.
Only cretins would believe in creationism.

Evolution is the only substantiated explanation.

Arctic49519 wrote:

"Intelligent design" is a misnomer. There's nothing intelligent about it.
Only cretins would believe in creationism.
Evolution is the only substantiated explanation.

Gee, go figure, Amazarak and Playtah make intelligent posts and want to have an intelligent debate and then Arctic shows up.

Amazarak wrote:

<quoted text>
That's ok. He just doesn't have anything intelligent to say. Let his stupidity shine through.

Oh. So that's what that bright light was. For a second there I thought the earth was hurtling toward the sun!

Playtah wrote:

<quoted text>
That is a good question. I was raised in a Christian home and just recently started embracing agnosticism, so I've been doing some research on evolution since I was not taught it growing up.
I think nobody has a problem with microevolution. Like you said, there is evidence of microevolution all over the place. I think what most people struggle with is macroevolution. I'm still in the process of looking at that. I agree with you, though - evolution is such a slow process that you're not going to find a half-whale, half-reptile. This is a very interesting topic. I hope we are able to see some "scholarly" answers, because that would help me as well!
By the way, Amazarak, I really enjoy your posts.

Thank you Playtah. I enjoy yours also. I like how you think.

I was also raised in a Christian home. I was taught that the world was 6000 years old, dinosaurs were not real, and all of the Fundamental Christian values. But even as a kid, I had a hard time with that. Now my TV is stuck on The History Channel, Science Channel, and National Geographic. I someday hope to see the ideals of science and religion come together, so maybe we can evolve one step further as humans. As sometimes, I feel as though religion holds us back.

Just can't buy into the whole "I'm a scientist and I have all the answers theory". Pretty arrogant of the human race to think with our small little brains that we have it figured out. Nope, I'll believe in God and I'll believe he created us. Where is the beginning? We will never know. I'll stick with my faith and be quite content to do so. Thanks for reading.

Yes, I believe in evolution.

I had a teacher back in fifth grade who was pretty unpleasant. She asked the class if anyone believed in evolution. I was the only one that raised my hand, because we all knew what she was going to say. Veins bulged in her scrawny neck and she leaned toward me and loudly proclaimed...

"So you think we all came from MONKEYS!?!"

I was scared, but I kept thinking: If we're all here at the same time, how could we possibly come from monkeys? What a dumb thing to say.

Yup. I believe in God, but I gotta stick with evolution.

Playtah wrote:

<quoted text>
I think nobody has a problem with microevolution. Like you said, there is evidence of microevolution all over the place. I think what most people struggle with is macroevolution.

Yes, micro-scale evolution I can grasp whereas macro-scale evolution requires a larger leap of faith than creation philosophy, IMO.

Most folks can even grasp the idea of evolving from a simple primate to a being as physically and intellectually advanced as William Shakespeare.

However, the process and time frame for evolving from a single-cell life form to a simple primate, sans divine intervention, is incomprehensible to me. This is the portion of the philosophy that I do not see discussed so much.

just kill me wrote:

the church is a valuable part of many peoples lives..it encourages family values and community values..i myself was part of a church for many years in my youth,but as i got older,i began to question the teachings of the church...the real problem i had was "blind faith"..i began to doubt the very subject we are discussing right now...i couldnt or wouldnt grasp that we were "created" by an unseen spirit...i began to doubt the stories of the bible that are seen as undisputed truth by the faithful...i do not believe there is an all seeing eye micro judging every move i make...do i believe there is a higher intelligence somewhere?absolutely...do i believe we were placed here?absolutely not..i believe the earth is billions of years old,has been destroyed on numerous occasions and will be destroyed again by an object from space,volcanos or humans etc...and when the smoke clears,the organisms that survive,adapt,grow and evolve into life forms that are best suited for the climate and area they came from....this arguement has been around since darwin made people question religion...the problem is that evolution has science to back it up...intelligent design requires faith to make it work...its a personal choice...

Nice post!! You have very good points here. I found myself saying, uh huh..uh huh and nodding my head.

Because evolution is such a complicated subject, those who believe in god are quick to dismiss it.
It's so much easier to say that god did it.

I grew up in a religious household and I used to believe in god and the bible. But then I started to question the Adam and Eve with the talking snake story. It just seems like mythology to me.

To me, evolution makes more sense. Just look at man's best friend. The many different breeds of dogs came from a common ancestor - wolves. Selective breeding resulted in the many differing types of the animal, which points to an evolutionary process.

Morris E Smith wrote:

Just look at man's best friend. The many different breeds of dogs came from a common ancestor - wolves. Selective breeding resulted in the many differing types of the animal, which points to an evolutionary process.

Where did wolves come from?

Personally, in my belief system there's room for both evolution and creationism.

Why is it so hard to believe that intelligent design could have resulted in evolution?

At least that's what I believe.

Yes, I believe in evolution, and I think evolution is part of the reason religion is still around. I'll try to explain...

Part of the success of the human race relies on our ability to not have to experience everything. We evolved to learn from and trust our parents. Good thing, otherwise we'd all be walking around with scarred hands from the stove and a pencil in an eye. Our parents teach us so much by telling, and we've learned to believe them when we're little.

Now, part of what they teach us concerns religion. Let's face it, a toddler cannot be a Christian, Muslim, or atheist; he is simply the child of Christian, Muslim, or atheist parents.(This is why I think infant baptism is ridiculous, but I digress.) Religion gets passed down through the generations just like "the stove is hot" or "you'll poke your eye out". Children listen, trust, and believe.

Once in a while you get a kid who puts their hand on the stove, sticks a pencil in their eye, or just doesn't believe in a god. The stove and the pencil hurt, so the child learns. Not believing in a god does no damage, so once you're an atheist, it usually sticks. And it gets passed down. This is probably why the religious culture in other developed countries is (from what I've been told) less "religious" than ours. The populations have been around longer and have moved towards religion as a social thing rather than a competitor to science.

So yes to evolution, which supports the continuation of religion, which in turn fights against evolution much of the time.

Bob wrote:

<quoted text>
Yes, micro-scale evolution I can grasp whereas macro-scale evolution requires a larger leap of faith than creation philosophy, IMO.
Most folks can even grasp the idea of evolving from a simple primate to a being as physically and intellectually advanced as William Shakespeare.
However, the process and time frame for evolving from a single-cell life form to a simple primate, sans divine intervention, is incomprehensible to me. This is the portion of the philosophy that I do not see discussed so much.

I agree, that is the difficult stuff to figure out- we may never know exactly how the stuff came together to form single-cell life, either.

Evolution is dependent on change. Changes in food and environment, mostly. And the earth certainly has gone through some serious changes over the millions of years.

Interesting points.

Offering, why do you have a problem with infant baptism? It isn't a means of grace, only a sign, just as circumcision was.

Personally, I believe that God created the earth, everything in it, the universe in six, 24 hour days. To me, because God has given me faith, it is just as logical as evolution to those who don't believe.

The problem for those who don't believe is you are trying to understand something infinite with a finite mind.

Hopefully we can have a decent discussion about this.

Evolution is real. Evolution in religion is also real. The earth as the center of the universe, flat earth,'magic' to heal? These seems like strawman arguments by today's standards, but in a time not that long ago these were hot topics that religion once embraced, but now reject. Those are bigs jumps over a small period of time.