Does learning about evolution make you uncomfortable?

[Warden_of_the_Storm]

I noticed that it says you're a Deist, what exactly does that mean?

Not relevant to the thread.
Again: if someone tells you that evolution says that humans evolved from monkeys, you've been given a corrupted version of evolution, and more than likely lied to.

 

[AV1611VET]

Again: if someone tells you that evolution says that humans evolved from monkeys, you've been given a corrupted version of evolution, and more than likely lied to.

Like the Scopes Monkey Trial?

 

[JohnDB]

I think I'm going to tag @JohnDB on this one. I love him like another father and he's a really smart guy and I'm really curious what he has to say. Oh yeah and I'm personally a lover and not a fighter.

I personally don't know how God created the Universe and life on this planet. Genesis doesn't say how God did it either...only that God did do it. In fact, The Genesis account says specifically that God hid how He did it.

The things God hides stay hidden...no one as yet has found Moses' grave or bones.

Where science is a study of God's creation... Theories are simply that...theories that are as yet unproven and subject to being wrong.
The THEORY of Evolution is just a theory...not proven fact.
My thoughts are: God said it and BANG there it was.
The rest is an exercise in futility.

 

[AV1611VET]

I personally don't know how God created the Universe and life on this planet.

He spoke them into existence.

My thoughts are: God said it and BANG there it was.

Absolutely!

The rest is an exercise in futility.

And a hearty AMEN to that!

 

[Bungle_Bear]

My thoughts are: God said it and BANG there it was.

I see you used a Big BANG there.

 

[April_Rose]

I see you used a Big BANG there.

That's how I put them together.

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

Theories are simply that...theories that are as yet unproven and subject to being wrong.
The THEORY of Evolution is just a theory...not proven fact.

Scientific theories are never proven and are never facts - they're explanations for facts. The Theory of Evolution is an explanation for the observed facts of evolution.

Scientific theories are much more than theories in the vernacular use of the word - they are well-confirmed scientific explanations of natural phenomena, but they are open to being shown to be incorrect by new observations of phenomena that contradict them, or new theories that are better explanations (there are various criteria for judging this).

 

[April_Rose]

Scientific theories are never proven and are never facts - they're explanations for facts.

So is the Bible.

 

[Yttrium]

Imagine you had to take a university-level course on biological evolution. Consider the material you would need to learn/study in such a course.

I've had a couple college biology courses. Frankly, I'm not fond of biology. It's a messy science. They like to come up with complicated terms like "chemiosmotic phosphorylation". Compare that to terms like "strange quarks" in physics.

Still, I enjoyed the genetics parts. As I developed a better understanding of genetics, biologic evolution made a lot more sense to me.

 

[sesquiterpene]

I've had a couple college biology courses. Frankly, I'm not fond of biology. It's a messy science. They like to come up with complicated terms like "chemiosmotic phosphorylation". Compare that to terms like "strange quarks" in physics.

Still, I enjoyed the genetics parts. As I developed a better understanding of genetics, biologic evolution made a lot more sense to me.

About 20 years ago I decided I wanted to know more about evolution, so I bought current textbooks on evolution (Herron and Scott) and genetics (Griffiths, Miller, Suzuki, Lewontin, and Gelbart). Both were surprisingly readable, although information dense, even though the only college biology courses I took were biochemistry and biophysics. It doesn't look like any of our current creationists have that level of interest in the subjects.

 

[Warden_of_the_Storm]

Like the Scopes Monkey Trial?

Which is an informal name for The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes.

So, no. Not like it at all.

 

[HitchSlap]

So is the Bible.

How so?

 

[AV1611VET]

Which is an informal name for The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes.

So, no. Not like it at all.

Just coincidental that they informally named it after a monkey, and not a giraffe or something?

What on Earth gave them the idea we came from monkeys?

 

[Warden_of_the_Storm]

Just coincidental that they informally named it after a monkey, and not a giraffe or something?

What on Earth gave them the idea we came from monkeys?

Because people like to wrongly say that evolution teaches that humans came from monkeys...

 

[HitchSlap]

What on Earth gave them the idea we came from monkeys?

Creationists seeking to intentionally mislead people.

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

So is the Bible.

Indeed. However, scientific theories are expected to satisfy certain criteria for judging the quality of an explanation ('abductive criteria').

For example, they should be well-supported by the evidence; to have explanatory power, i.e. provide new insight into the phenomena they explain, and potentially unify separate areas of knowledge; to have specificity, i.e. explain particular phenomena in a particular way (an explanation that can apply to anything and everything is no explanation at all); to be consistent, coherent, unambiguous, and accurate; to be testable, i.e. disprovable; to make fruitful predictions; to be parsimonious, i.e. satisfy Occam's razor by having no unnecessary assumptions or elements; to cohere with the existing body of knowledge to some extent. Note also that you cannot explain the unexplained with the inexplicable.

Parts of the bible satisfy some of the criteria some of the time, but it is constructed around a core supernatural concept that satisfies none of them.

 

[April_Rose]

How so?

We know that the universe came into being and the Bible explains how just as well as science does. I believe they support each other but I already know that many Christians will disagree with me on this.


Example: God spoke the universe into being causing a big bang. (My theory.)

Just coincidental that they informally named it after a monkey, and not a giraffe or something?




What on Earth gave them the idea we came from monkeys?

And that brings me to my second point of how I believe Christianity and evolution can coexist. (Now this is just a belief so don't shoot me for this.) Monkeys and humans share a lot of similarities and since none of us were around during the creation of Adam and Eve nobody but God knows what they looked like. So they could have looked more like monkeys (being monkey creatures as God used them as an inspiration for humans) and we evolved to look more like we do today. Meaning that I go by the belief that God created the universe and set evolution in place. Makes a lot more sense than it just happening by itself anyways.

 

[April_Rose]

Because people like to wrongly say that evolution teaches that humans came from monkeys...

That's what I was taught ever since I still had my baby teeth.

 

[AV1611VET]

And that brings me to my second point of how I believe Christianity and evolution can coexist. (Now this is just a belief so don't shoot me for this.)

 

[April_Rose]

LOL funny,.. real funny. XD In all seriousness though can't you see that as being plausible? I mean I'm pretty sure that humans from today didn't look anything like humans back before Jesus' time. With time things just naturally evolve I think. Hence why I believe God set evolution in place.