I don't understand the evolutionary stance on creation.?

Question

I am trying to decide what I do and don't believe. How did all life branch out from one single cell? Is the process still happening? What evidence is there that it is still happening? How is it we are the only thing that evolved with such mental capacity and sense of self? Could the future hold something else with similar abilities that has yet to spontaneously create?

Answer 1

I like your question.

I don't have an answer for you, but its nice to see someone on here using their brain.

Answer 2

I think you may be trying too hard. We aren't talking about one single cell alone on earth that one day decided to stretch its limits and then there were two. Millions of single cells organisms were given life in the oceans. Some evolved as time passed to suit whatever environment they were living in. Evolution may be an ever ongoing process and we are simply a footnote in the final story. For a more interesting look at animal evolution and perhaps answer some of the questions those only familiar with creationism might have then I suggest you take a look at Australia. I have heard many creationists cite such examples as "why aren't there any fossills of half this and half that?" etc...there are and they are being unearthed in Australia today. Australia is one of the last large land masses to have human inhabitation and the animals clearly had very different survival needs thay had to adapt to. Duck billed platypus anyone?!

So just to reiterate - do not think of it as one cell suddenly popping into a fish all at once - it takes time. Even some well respected biblical scholars will freely admit that the Genesis "days" may have been millenium. There is no harm in god's eyes to believe in man before Adam.

One more point I have to make - how do we know that we are the only creatures with sense of self - how can that even be a thought spoken out loud in this day and age - simple example - your dog craps on the carpet when you were at work - it KNOWS it did something that you are not going to be happy with - therefore it is fully aware of its "self" and had time to think about how you'll react as evidenced by its sheepishness when you get home - and don't you know just by looking at it that it did something it is ashamed of?

Answer 3

How all life started is called "abiogenesis", and there is a whole branch of evolutionary science devoted to it. Most people throw up their hands and reject it because it involves very complicated chemical reactions that go beyond what they teach in high school science classes. this process had been recreated in the lab by scientists.

Evolution is still going on. It is happening all around us. We are identifying new species every day, and actual changes in certain microorganisms have been observed to evolve under certain circumstances.

Humans may be the only creature that has "sentience". But we don't know for sure because we can't communicate that well with other creatures. There is some evidence that certain apes have this ability also, but only at a very low level.

Your guess about the future is as good as anyone's.

Answer 4

ok this is gonna sound strange but the way evolution works is through genetic mutations. about 1 in 4 offspring of anything are going to have some sort of genetic mutation. the ones with the mutation will either be more or less likely to survive. if they are more likely to survive, they will produce offspring with the same mutation, and those offspring will have a better chance of surviving than the ones that arent mutated. that is called "survival of the fittest". one cel organisms mutated and eventually became multicelled which could survive better.

evolution doesnt happen in humans any more, because we are to the point where we take care of our sick, and even the weak people survive into adulthood and reproduce.

our mental capacity was another mutation from a chimpanze. when there was a mutated chimp baby, that had a larger brain and could stand up on 2 feet, it was better equiped for survival, and created more babies with those features. eventually these offspring evolved into humans. it took about 5 million years (at least).

that is what the science is telling us. you could be like much of the rest of america and the world and say that the science is wrong, but then you wouldnt be using that brain that you say has a large capacity for knowledge.

Just remember that it took 5 billion years to go from single cell to humans.

Answer 5

To answer those questions properly, you must seek out the Biology teacher at your local high school. Nothing "spontaneously" creates. Evolution is a very slow process that can not be observed in a single lifetime, but the fossil evidence already discovered is near-irrefutalbe evidence that evolution is taking place. BTW most living things do have a sense of self. It's called "survival instinct".

Answer 6

Put simply....

Evolution/creation did not happen the way the bible explained it ( Adam and Eve ).
God however did create, not only mankind but the universe. He did not design the whole thing like a person designs and decorates a house, but rather he created the ingredients for the big bang and designed the ingredients to mingle, create and evolve.

However, try to explain the big bang, DNA, evolution, etc... to a bunch of farmers and cattle herders hundreds of years before Christ and you would not be very successful, which is why the book of Genesis is written the way it is.

Answer 7

There is a saying. As above, so below. The macrocosm, and the
microcosm.
Just like a one celled amoeba can divide itself , and make two amoebas. So all life has spawned from what we call spirit.
Who says we weren't created through an evolutionary process?
But one thing is for sure. There is a "missing link" in the
evolutionary theory of humanity's growth.

Answer 8

Heres the deal. I know what I'm talking about cause I had to give 5 reports on it this year so listen up. Its this whole thing about Natural Selection and Intelligent Design. Here is a short Report a wrote: Intelligent design is an anti-evolution theory that states that intelligent beings are responsible for the origin of the universe and of all life. Supporters of Intelligent design maintain that their theory is scientific and provides tested proof for the existence of God or super intelligent beings. They claim that intelligent design should be taught in schools because it is a substitute for the scientific theory of natural selection.
The arguments for intelligent design might seem like creationist arguments, but the proponents (defenders) of intelligent design claim that, unlike creationists, they do not deny evolution. However, they represent natural selection as implying that the universe could not have been designed or created, but that information is unknowable.
The theory of natural selection implies that (1) God doesn't exist, (2) natural selection could only have happened all of a sudden entirely by chance, and (3) whatever happens randomly cannot be designed by God. None of these beliefs are essential to natural selection. Natural selection could have been designed by God. Or, natural selection could have occurred even if God did not exist.
The choice is not either natural selection or design by God or some other super intelligent beings. God could have designed the universe to produce life by random events following laws of nature. God could have created super intelligent aliens who are experimenting with natural selection. These ideas might seem far-fetched, but they are still all possibilities, having no evidence that they are incorrect. Through my research I have found that this is a controversy about which theory is correct, and should be taught in classrooms. This argument is so important that it might not even be solved in our lifetimes.

Answer 9

Thanks for your thoughtful inquiry. I don't know as I feel qualified to help you but I would totally recommend reading Douglas R. Hofstadter's "Gödel, Escher, & Bach."

"(GEB) debates the question of consciousness and the possibility of artificial intelligence. It is a book that attempts to discover what “self” really means. Introducing the reader to cognitive science, Gödel, Escher, Bach draws heavily from art to illustrate fine points in mathematics. The works of M.C. Escher and J.S. Bach are discussed, in addition to other works of art and music. The topics presented range from mathematics and meta-mathematics to programming, recursion (in math as well as in computing), formal systems, multilevel systems, self reference, self representation, and others."

I thank you also since looking it up alerted me to the 20th Anniversary Edition:

"In an interview to Wired magazine a few years back, Douglas R. Hofstadter, author of Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid (GEB for short) complained that most people, even those who actually read the book, couldn't tell what it's really about. Yes, it talks about music and art, mathematics and zen, biochemistry and computer languages; but none of these is what the book is really about."

"This seems to be a real problem, because in the new “20th Anniversary Edition” of the book, Hofstadter says that the question “so what is this book about?” haunted him since he was scribbling the first drafts, back in 1973. Now, twenty years after its first publication (in 1979), the author decided to clarify the matter once and for all, and added a new 23-page preface that, among other things, clarifies the issue."

Off hand, I might also suggest "Meditations on First Philosophy" by René Descartes as another place to start your quest. His founding proposition is ""I am thinking, therefore I exist", or traditionally "I think, therefore I am")." [ed note: although it first appears in Discourse on Method, I meant the Meditations.]

But the big bonus for me: I also learned up Douglas R. Hofstadter's upcoming book "I Am In a Strange Loop!"

from amazon:
...long-awaited return to the themes of Gšdel, Escher, Bach--an original and controversial view of the nature of consciousness and identity

What do we mean when we say "I"?

Can thought arise out of matter? Can a self, a soul, a consciousness, an "I" arise out of mere matter? If it cannot, then how can you or I be here?

I Am a Strange Loop argues that the key to understanding selves and consciousness is the "strange loop"--a special kind of abstract feedback loop inhabiting our brains. Deep down, a human brain is a chaotic seething soup of particles, on a higher level it is a jungle of neurons, and on a yet higher level it is a network of abstractions that we call "symbols." The most central and complex symbol in your brain or mine is the one we both call "I." The "I" is the nexus in our brain where the levels feed back into each other and flip causality upside down, with symbols seeming to have free will and to have gained the paradoxical ability to push particles around, rather than the reverse.

For each human being, this "I" seems to be the realest thing in the world. But how can such a mysterious abstraction be real--or is our "I" merely a convenient fiction? Does an "I" exert genuine power over the particles in our brain, or is it helplessly pushed around by the all-powerful laws of physics?

These are the mysteries tackled in I Am a Strange Loop, Douglas R. Hofstadter's first book-length journey into philosophy since Godel, Escher, Bach. Compulsively readable and endlessly thought-provoking, this is the book Hofstadter's many readers have long been waiting for.

Answer 10

simple. life didn't start from a single cell, but from the combination of amino acids. continual addition of infinetsimal chemical combinations then developed into partial ceels, ie viruses. then bacteria, and so on and so on until multi-cell life forms come into play. continued developmenmt to survive in a given environment led to more and more complex life forms until what we know today came into being. on a time line, it may have been millions, and billions of years to get this far, but there was no specific date it started. unless the gr4eat bishop pike was right in the 1800's when he said earth was created at 9am on a sunday in 4004bc. but i think he was just being stupid. it had to be in the afternoon. god went to the dentist that morning because he had a toothache.

Answer 11

I don't believe in evolution of humans--but evolution itself is a fact...I've taken tons of classes on it in university. Here's the basics:

-it is all random
-evolution is a continuous process
-it's not predictable, it's dependant on the environmental pressures AT THE TIME
-it's not linear, it's more like a tree with branches...or a dense bush--which is the reasoning behind why chimps will not evolve into humans