Intelligent discussion of evolution vs creationism please?

Question

Genuinely interested in your opinion of the theory of evolution.
Do you believe in the crawling from the primordial ooze?
Do you believe humans came from "monkeys"?
C'mon...bring your best PERSONAL opinion and explain why....please don't cut and paste 800 character science reports or bible scripture.....won't read them and won't give them points!....I want to know what YOU believe in your heart of hearts.

And YES, I meant to put this in philosophy.

***apologies...I somehow posted this question twice when trying to modify...good news there will be TWO ten points given! :)

thanks so far for intelligent answers...keep them comin'!

Answer 1

I consider myself a Creationist Evolutionist of sorts. I do believe there is a God, and that he created things. But I refuse to believe that he did it by snapping his fingers then viola! He didn't create us like robots, he gave us a brain. He created science, so the ideas of creation and evolution should go hand in hand. He did not create Earth in "seven" days. He created it in a period of millions of years. In essence, his 1 day = our 100 million years. And yes, he did it through science, through evolution. I think it's pretty naive for a person to think that God created us with dirt and his breath. At the same time, it's pretty naive for a person to think the 'Big Bang' theory happened, that the universe just appeared 'by chance.' That's like me throwing a bunch of wires and circuits at each other, for about 100 million years, then eventually it'll become a computer. I guess my beliefs stems off my engineering and art background. The beautifulness of God's creation, the sunset, the canyons, the oceans, tells me he's an artist. The complexity of the human body, the weather system, DNA, tells me that God must be a designer, an engineer. And He didn't just design and snap his fingers. He created it, with time, through science.

Just my 2 cents.

Answer 2

It's all the matter of your values. If you came from the religious family that instilled the values of religion and creationism in your mind it's most likely what you will believe for the rest of your life, just like when your parents tell you the grass is green that's what you believe, while it might be that half of the people think it's red. There's also no absolute truth so the evolution theory is just that, a theory and creationism is another theory that has evel less proof to it, such as unfortunately the bible doesn't explain the early forms of humanoids that resembled monkeys much closer than we do.

If we assume that God is a something that is unknown to us, for example another dimension of power and intelligence that exists out there then we can say that it played a certain role in the creation of the universe, same way as the gravity is creating life on earth by retaining our livable atmosphere.

Some cultures worship Earth as a God and if you think of it as an ecosphere you can imagine Earth as a living being, but I know it might be a bit of a stretch for some people.

I hope that all makes sense

Answer 3

This is not a matter of opinion it is a matter of fact. Those who talk about them somehow being compatible are wrong, they are not.

Incidentally, evolution is not incompatible with a belief in God. There is no reason why God could not have started the whole thing as some kind of master plan. Please understand that what we mean by a theory here isn't mere gueswork. Think of it not as a mere theory or as being 'right' or 'wrong' but as a concept; by way of analogy: if I were to go to some hostile climate tommorrow if I did not adapt to my surroundings I would die. If, however, I learned to be better suited I would have a far better chance of surviving it and passing on the traits which helped me survive, and so on. This is a little over-simplified, but I hope you get the basic idea crossstichkelly is absolutely right in what she says about evolution.

Regarding josh w's comments it is only after our planet cooled and formed a protective atmosphere against the high radiation and extreme trempreatures that life could get a foothold. The biological processes then eventually helped build up this protective layer. Also, you can't have paid attention in Biology class or you'd know that a cell does not 'break apart' during mitosis (cell division). Also, it is well known that we are not perfectly suited to give birth. Even with modern medical facilities women still die during child birth.

Whatever you believe, please don't forget this all started in recent times with the Discovery Institute's 'Wedge Project'. And don't forget the Scopes trial (also known as the monkey trial).

Answer 4

Personally I believe there is a bridge between the two visions.

First the design of things is so in match with the environment/situation they occur in that it leaves little room for coincidence. So the creatonist part is the environment/location in which beings can develop. If you also keep in mind that a good part of the galaxy is lifeless rocks and fireballs than it isn't farfetched that the intelligent design of life in general is thought out and put in action. The people who wrote the creationist stories didn't have the knowledge we have now, so they came up with versions that made sense back then. For instance the mark of Cain and Ham is explanation for the occurence of darker skinned people. We know that exposure to sunlight tones the skin and if that happens long enough the DNA makes a shortcut for it to occur. Though even if by nowadays standards the biblical explanation isn't all too accurate, it does give a statement of variety among humans.

The evolutionary concept is evidenced in the following: all higher life forms develop out of two single cells and go through stages until they reach the form that is formulated in their DNA. So in embryonical form humans are first two cells, then they start to resemble a range of invertebrates and finally they end up as the mammal called human. So as a being we have all experienced evolution from single cells to what we are now.

Some creationists exclude evolution and some evolutionists claim that creatonism is a backward belief system. The truth is usually found somewhere in the middle.

Maybe I hinge more towards the evolutionary concept, but it doesn't totally rule out the creationist vision.

Answer 5

I believe in both, oddly enough. I think we were created by a higher power, but I think it's wrong to assume that it was in 7 Earth days. Why would the Creator of all the universe measure time according to the amount of time one planet orbits an insignificant star? And I don't think we were God's first draft. We may not be His last draft. It's possible that the other humanoids were ideas He had until He settled on us. My father is an architect, and I've seen him go through dozens of design ideas before he's happy.

As to being "descended from monkeys," that's not even what Darwin said. He said we were descended from a common ancestor. That means millions of years ago, in the far reaches of time, a creature lived which had more than one child, and at least one of those children was different than the others. Over time, those differences became more pronounced, and the changes which were better adapted to survival tended to be passed on simply because the creatures with those changes were more likely to live to pass them on. There would have been more adaptations over the millenia, so not everyone would have turned into one specific species--there would have been branches here, branches there, some surviving, and some not. I think the changes were guided by God, though.

Answer 6

I would probably classify myself as an evolutionist. I think there is so much more proof behind evolution than creation. Science has cold, hard, concrete facts that back up their theories. Sure, they still don't have absolute certainty but its a lot more than some verses in a book that has been dramatically altered throughout history. I also did a pretty decent study on Charles Darwin in my biology class last semester who is kind of the father of evolutionary theories. We watched this crazy documentary about him and everything he went through, and I learned a lot about him I never realized before. Darwin was a religious man before he traveled to the Galapagos Islands and began his studies on natural selection and evolution. He even waited to publish his book (sorry drawing a blank on the name) for several years because he was so torn between science and religion. Yet, in the end, this man who spent years and years of his life studying life's beginnings was swayed towards belief in evolution. I guess maybe its possible to believe both. "God created the first creature, that evolution eventually changed into human," or something along those lines. But I think that imposes so many contradictions. A lot of people would probably see my views as cynical, and maybe they are, but is it really so bad to demand straight-up proof?

Answer 7

Evolution and creationism are not two separate entities they complement each other it's only that we humans are too narrow minded, and miss the whole purpose of the universe.
Evolution has been a controlled experiment to improve humankind,from homo erectus to homo habilis to homo sapiens and some other in beetwen it took way too long through natural selection , but then all of a sudden we became pretty smart !!come on!! That's why I think that we were planted aside to develop faster call it The Garden of Eden or the vial of life or you think that it is a coincidence that Adam and Atom have the same sound,well this is my personal opinion but is a subject to complex to be explained in a few lines.

Answer 8

Real simple. I don't believe it IS creationism VS. evolutionism. I believe they are both part of a larger picture that we don't understand yet. Academicians are so convinced that one of them is right and the other is wrong, that they've never bothered looking any further. Darwin didn't have all the answers or else his "theories" would all now be facts (they aren't).


Creationist believe that ALL men and women came from Adam and Eve and the Bible never says that. It says that Adam and Eve were the first of God's "chosen people". Part truths, half truths, misguided loyalties, etc. make us believe we are on opposite sides when in fact we don't even know what the field looks like yet.

Answer 9

What i believe is toaltly different then what i think!
If life can evolve to its surroundings, would there nto be life on every planet!
If life its self can evolve to what the surroundings have to offer then there would be life on the moon, and life on mars!
We dont have wings, a bird does!
We as the human race look at the bird and wonder how to obtain its flight.
We cant run as fast as the chettah,
yet we look at the chettah and think of how to achieve the speed of that chettah.
We cant dive like an angler fish,
yet we think of ways to achieve the thought of diving.
No Cat looks at a bird and says how can i fly, and takes action on that thought.
No turtle looks at the ocean and says, I WILL FLY!
This is why there is no evolution stages! what makes a monkey a fox, what makes fox lets say chicken, what makes a chicken a frog!!
Yet we have frogs, we have chimps and we have foxes. We would all be perfect!
ITs just dumb!
Ever think of this factor, a cell breaks apart to make 2.
How is it possible that we have male and female, with the perfectness to give birth, it is amazing!
The factor that we have to burn engery to live like a car is not!

Answer 10

Philosophically there is no debate.

Creationism is as un-scientific and unable to explain as the theories, also propagated by the right, surrounding the non-correlation of CO2 and global warming.

it's pseudo-science. Total BS, unfalsifiable since based on faith.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience

No university teaches creationism.
No school unless indoctrinated by religion.

Pedagogically there is NOTHING there to study.

At every scientific dimension some fuckhat luddite wants to say "BUT GOD COULD BE MAKING THE PROCESS WORK!"
Which is never substantiated, superfluous, and dangerous to actual inquiry.