The theory (fact) of evolution

vincent1989 said:
but there was a time when people held it as fact yes? i'm well aware that the concept of earth being spherical is not a new one but it was widely believed by classical and pre-classical cultures (and by the Chinese until the 17th century).

my point is that there is no such thing as science fact (i'm not trying to disprove evolution (although i do not claim to believe in the now widely accepted (at least in western civilization)) theory of macro evolution.)
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The classical greeks did not believe such a thing. They believed the Earth to be a sphere. Pythagoras and Aristotle both said it was a sphere. Aristotle gave observational evidence of it in 330BC. Ptolemy and Pliny the elder also believed it spherical.
 
Apachegunface said:
Does anyone seriously believe that evolution is anything but stonecold fact, I mean as factual as the fact that the sky is blue? Apparently 40% of Americans reject evolution and think that the earth was created around 6,000 years ago, by god. I just don't understand how you could think like this?

Discuss!
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There was a recentish survey that showed the british statistics were almost as bad, falling in at over 30% I think, however it was on a very small sample size.

Being of a scientific mind I am happy to concede that there may be unknown explanations and that currently held beliefs may be wrong, they're unlikely to be turned on their heads but they may be refined and "rules" may turn out to not be hard and fast; however, not one of those things suggests to me at any point that "magic man done it", we are just as a species learning about our surroundings, we know more about the moon than we do about the depths of the oceans yet anti-evolution arguers think that scientists claim to know everything? science is about finding explanations, usually ones of best fit, religion is by and large a cop out. I mean no offence by saying that, but it's there to fill a gap, either in knowledge, understanding or confidence.
 
Whilst I believe in evolution, it could well be a false theory, or one which is proven to be not wholly correct by another.

You only have to look at the way that the existence of "phlogiston" as an element held back scientific progress for so long, as people could not discover anything beyond believing that these particles created fire. Following the experiments of one man and a lot of urine, phlogiston was disproved and progress continued on finding elements. The same could happen with the evolution theory!

We may be barking up the completely wrong tree! :)
 
I don't believe in some almighty power or Evolution.

All matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration – that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There's no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we're the imagination of ourselves...

Bonus internet points for whoever can finish the above statement
 
Abraham said:
There was a recentish survey that showed the british statistics were almost as bad, falling in at over 30% I think, however it was on a very small sample size.
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Yeah the sample size in America was around 1000 people.....out of 308 million :/ Also I wonder where this sample came from and if it was truly random?
 
Capn' $qu!ff said:
All matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration – that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There's no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we're the imagination of ourselves...

Bonus internet points for whoever can finish the above statement
Click to expand...

Here's Tom with the weather
 
Capn' $qu!ff said:
I don't believe in some almighty power or Evolution.

All matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration – that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There's no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we're the imagination of ourselves...

Bonus internet points for whoever can finish the above statement
Click to expand...

bill hicks; 'here's tom with the weather'
 
Capn' $qu!ff said:
All matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration – that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There's no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we're the imagination of ourselves...
Click to expand...

Here's Tom with the weather.
 
I think that people trying to differentiate evolution and religion often go wrong on a few points. I shall attempt to highlight these now:

1) The bible does not say that the earth was created a set number of years ago. Ie. not 4000 years ago, could be 4000 years ago or 4000000000 years ago.

2) The story of creation in the bible has been misinterpreted by the roman catholic and protestant churches since the middle ages. This is because it was, along with most of the period of time prior to Moses, written from word of mouth stories told by rabbis. These stories used religious symbolism (of the Jews) to emphasise points. Eg 6 days to create the earth and everything on it and the 7th day (7 as a 'holy' number) to rest. There is no logical or theological reason to believe that the earth was indeed created in a week.

3) Due to the likely reality that the earth was not created in one of our weeks and more likely over a period of millenia it is more suitable to argue that species also took a long period of time to be created.

4) Evolution from single cell amoeba etc is not proof that a god does not/did not exist. It just shows how clever that god is in order to enable the creation/adaptation of new features that allows a microscopic organism to develop into a large multicellular predator (for example).

5) The human conciousness, and soul (by this I mean outward signs such as morals, ethics and compassion) do not prove or disprove either theory but have been taken by some to use in the pro-God argument. In the Bible it does say that God created human beings 'in his own image' and this may mean physically ie. God is a humanoid, or it could mean that we can think in a similar way and have emotions etc. Clearly some animals have emotional responses but the human mind is one of the greatest, most complicated things in the world and I put forward at this point my view that we have been given these minds deliberately. Though I mean more allowed to develop them than having them transplanted into our heads.

6) Whoever thought that the argument that a banana is proof of creation as it is perfect for our hands is a retard.

Hope that gave some of you some food for thought on the matter. Basically what I'm saying is that evolution and creationism are not mutually exclusive.
 
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