Fellow Atheists, don't you feel it sorta makes sense that religious people find big bang/evolution ludicrous?

Question

As many of you might know by now, I am an Atheist, but many of you may not know that I majored in Sociology and Psychology in college. As a result, I become really facinated with the way people think, act, react, and so on. And I was just sitting here wondering why it sounded so rediculous the claim of evolution and the big bang to theists. If you think about it, it does sound pretty far out and "religious" that there was some explosion that made all planets perfectly with all the elements forming from two. It sounds somewhat ridiculous to have spontanious life from non-life, and for this little nothingness to become all the animals and us. Don't get me wrong; I do believe in these because they are based on reason and logic with good evidence, but for someone that doesn't have this knowledge or open-mindedness doesn't it "logically" sound preposterous? From their point of view I can see it does sound like the myth we realize religions are. Do you agree? Discuss!

Answer 1

Only if you don't understand the steps in between. No one's claiming that a fully-developed life form emerged from the primordial soup, that's just a straw-man argument theists like to use. Who knows how many steps it took for chemicals to become amino acids and eventually, the first single cell? If you never learned about the growth of plants it would probably seem ludicrous to you that a seed could become a tree. It doesn't look anything a tree, it doesn't have leaves, or a trunk, or branches or roots, or anything. Yet everyone knows that seeds grow into trees, we've all learned it, and you can even watch it happen, if you'd like. Unfortunately you can't watch the beginnings of the universe happen, that's over with for now. We're just going to have to rely on learning alone to eventually get the better of myth, I suppose.

Edit: "So who are you to say that religion is a myth? You have no right saying that becuase it violates people's constitutional rights.'

I cannot believe you just used the words "You have no right saying that" and "constitutional rights" in the same sentence... if you don't understand why, google the terms "first amendment" and "freedom of speech". Regardless, this is not the United States, this is the internet, the US constitution really doesn't apply here.

Answer 2

I don't know if I would call myslef an athiest, because I'm not sure. I used to believe in God growing up -- went to Sunday school and all that. But I have gotten cynical in the religion department as the years have gone by. A lot of bad things have happened to me and my family, and I felt that I never had my prayers answered. I guess I am questioning my faith right now. That being said, I am very sorry for the loss of your son. I cannot comprehend that pain and I hope I never have to. I do not feel there is anything wrong with a person choosing to not visit a loved-ones grave. Logically, it is just a place where a body is buried. However, for many people, visiting the grave and talking to the person they have lost, brings them great comfort, and if that helps then that's great. You don't say why you lost your faith, so it's difficult to ascertain exactly what you are feeling with this. You have been having a strong urge to visit him. Is it a significant time of year for you -- such as his birthday or his death anniversary? If not, perhaps something happened to you, even something very small or you don't even realize what it is, has caused this urge. Or maybe it just is what it is. For no tangible reason, you just miss him and feel the need to be near him. Don't read too much into it or you'll drive yourself insane. But if it is truly bothering you to the point that it is all-consuming, you may want to talk to some family members and see if together you can figure this out. Maybe there is something unresoved with your relationship that you are now only able to see through the grief. Can you talk with some of his friends? Maybe that will help you feel connected to him. You also may want to write your son a letter and just let the words flow freely. You are in pain, and I don't know if that will ever completely go away. But I do hope you will be able to resolve this inner conflict. Faith or no faith, you don't HAVE to communicate with him. There is no right or wrong thing to do here. I wish you luck.

Answer 3

I am a religous person, yet I have a scientific mindset. I understand that religons are made by man. I also understand that nature has it's great wonders. My beliefs revolve around Nature, rather than creatinism. The Big Bang and evolution are just two subjects for the scientific mind, as well as those that are naturalists. The Big Bang is just the start of nature, while evolution is just the continuation of nature.

There are things that happen in the world that are patterened in a sequence that most do not see. We see the cycles of the sesons. But how many see that life and death are just another continuous cycle? Take the rain forest. When a tree dies and falls, it leaves an opening in the canopy for sunlight to shine down onto the forrest floor. This sunlight then helps new trees to grow. Sometimes as many as five trees will grow to take the place of the one that died. All this new life is possable because of the death of one tree.

There is also the cycle of things that are hidden from our normal sences. These things we must look within ourselves to see. We must also look at the whole picture to understand the point that we need the explination to. Think of it as trying to determine what the picture a jigsaw puzzle is by only looking at one piece. You would have to look at more of the images on the individual pieces as they are placed togeather to figure out the importance of the one piece that you started with.

There are so many more things that come about from a lifetime of study and research. Also, Just have to say that Dracula is one of my favorite characters. The recent Van Helsing movie is one of my all time favorite incarnations of the story.

Answer 4

well i believe that many creationists come in with a "them against the world" mentallity. Most don't actually fully understand where christianity (for example) draws the line on science.

Most wouldn't of been able to tell you that the big bang was actually partially devoloped by a catholic priest, and was endorsed by the pope at the time as the scientific explination of how god created the universe. I believe that god acts within the physical laws he created.

It seems absurd for christians to accept that animals evolved, and yet we have fossils showing it happening over time. Why can't they just fall back on the fact that they evolved with the help of god? Like you said the idea of evolution by itself is absurd.

As for many athiests, they seem to have the same mentallity at the opposite side of the fense. They think that since we can see evolution, humans can explain and account for everything, but there is so much that we dont understand. Like for the big bang, where did the matter come from that exploded? We have no answer to that. Now im not saying that one won't occur, but its unwise to put all your faith in an idea that is not fully backed.

I think it is an important to have an open mind and don't be afraid to temporarily give up a strong belief, if it means in the end having an even stronger (and possibly different) one.

Thanks for reading

Answer 5

"Big Bang" theory is a humourous misnomer invented by Fred Hoyle in a BBC radio broadcast in 1949, Hoyle opposed the "primeval atom" or "comic egg" theory as it was then known. What's ironic about it is that Hoyle, then a thorough atheist thought it sounded too much like "Let there be light" in Genesis. The fact that the original version was proposed by a physicist and clergyman, M. Georges Lemaitre might have had something to do with that.

Our fundamentalist evangelical Protestant neighbours are either unaware of that or discount it because Lemaitre was also an eminent Roman Catholic priest, and to them, Roman Catholics are close to Satanic or at least, not Christian.

Another awkward fact is that the closer the theory is examined, the more it becomes apparent that it does not actually describe the origin of the Universe, only an event in the very early history of the Universe that we see, and which obscures anything which might have gone "before", if there was a "before".

Since about 1940, biological evolution has been defined as any change in the frequency of alleles in a population of organisms. It does not include the origin of life. Claiming that is does is a persistent lie of the anti-evolutionists.

Answer 6

I'm very Christian and a big fan of science. To me, the Big Bang and Evolution make complete logical sense. I have no problem with them, or indeed all of science, being part of God's plan.

In fact, I regularly use the Scientific Method to test my religious beliefs and "isms", and so far, they've all passed muster as logically and conclusively as do some other scientific laws and theories.

All scientists and scholars are not Atheists. I'll go as far as betting that the majority of them hold some sort of religious beliefs. The scientific community has never been in the habit of disregarding the work or opinion of every scientist who attends Church.

Enrico Fermi was a devout Catholic...and a lot of people listened to him...for example.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Roman_Catholic_scientists

Answer 7

We all know that even the smallest child, if told that a god made the universe, will ask "Well who made god?". They can see that invoking a god is not a satisfactory answer to the origin of the universe - You can't say that the universe is too amazing to exist uncreated, so it must have been created by something even more amazing that exists uncreated. It's just obviously nonsense. Unfortunately, in some people, some process of brainwashing or self-delusion goes on and what is glaringly obvious to the child becomes forgotten as they grow up, and they come to believe the nonsense answer.

So I would say no, it doesn't really make sense that people still reject naturalistic explanations for reality, and I think that as religious belief continues to decline around the world, more and more people will grow up without ever having to accept these religious delusions.

Answer 8

I didn't know that, but anyways people are scared of the unknown, and science doesn't really claim to know the truth, just bits of observations about true laws they uncovered, so people who have set beliefs would rather stick with what they know then wait around for scientists to endlessly come up with first one proof then another, which only lead to more and more uncertainties and eventually more and more proofs, when the end result will be, through a lot of techinical detail, IMHO, is God. So either way, I think the truth is the same, just one believes with faith, the other with scientific laws. Either way it doesn't matter we're all going to hell.

Just kidding, only the neophytes.

Answer 9

As a Christian, I don't find the Big Bang theory ludicrous. The Big Bang to me is a witness of God's awesome power of bringing this universe into existence. The Big Bang is an event in which there was nothing, and then suddenly the universe came into being. God was the driving force behind this event. YEP, "In the beginning, God CREATED", and, "The universe was without form, and void..." as it's written. The Big Bang just gives further account to this.

Answer 10

Yes I agree with you on this. They were taught creation from a very young age and refused to come in term with new ideas because they are afraid it will contradict the religion they knew all their lives. These ideas are scary to them because they challenge the existence to god (their savior for immortally). Religion taught them to have unnerving faith and to ignore anything that could change their minds. Religion also subconsciously tells their followers looks down on people who are unbelievers claiming they are fools. That is why many religious people are so narrow minded claiming their path is right. Their religion tells them to be close minded or face the wraith of hell.