Who can defend evolution 100% and have everything make sense?

Question

I am a firm believer in Creationism, and Jesus Christ. why do people put so much faith in evolution, I honestly want to know.

Answer 1

I agree with you. Evolution takes place in a minimalist setting. For example, certain animals change to survive better. It could be a hunting habit, plumage colour or whatever. But to say humans evolved from primates is bogus. When man was put on earth, he was a man and nothing more or less! Good question!

Answer 2

I have heard the funniest thing...someone professing to worship the Creator and at the same time saying evolution is a fact. It is really true that some things have adapted to their environment, but they have not changed species ever. It just has never happened. A fish is a fish, a bird is a bird and a human is a human. PERIOD! That is just the way it is. God created each thing of its own kind. Of course, if one wanted to believe that there is no Creator, then I guess that would help one to feel that he doesn't have anyone higher than himself to be accountable to. Personally, I prefer to learn all I can from the Creator because he knows what is best for me and, well, that's just the way it is.

You said you are a firm believer in Creationism and Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ being the Son of the Creator, right? Jesus Christ is the firstborn of all creation, being the only begotten son of God...but he too was created. Yes, all other things were created through him, but he is a part of the creation, not The Creator. He is the master worker as stated at Proverbs 8:30.

Answer 3

You have things mixed up. People put faith into Creationism (AKA creation science, intelligent design) while the educated and enlightened understand evolution by natural selection. Also, if you really wanted to know about evolution, the last place I would look is here. And if you are a firm believer, then nothing you read here will change your world view; it takes much more than reading a few webpages to change years of indoctrination.

There is a strong negative correlation between education and belief in creation myths. The more education one receives, the less likely one is to believe that humans are a special creation of an omnipotent deity. The first step to understanding evolution by natural selection is a firm educational foundation. You need to learn and understand physics, astronomy, chemistry, geology, mathematics, statistics, and of course biology. You also need to learn what it means to know something. How and why do you know what you know? Most likely, you believe in your religion because your parents took you to church (or temple, synagogue, mosque…) before you could understand any of the concepts regarding life or afterlife. You were told something is true because of translations of ancient texts passed down through generations. And it is possible that this world view is completely accurate. But it is also the lazy way out. Every question, every phenomenon, every event can be answered by “because it is the will of God (or Allah or Zeus or Odin or Ra or the god of the volcano…)

Science is not a bunch of equations or books of facts. Science is a tool. Science is a technology. It is a way of thinking, of using logic to figure things out. One must begin with the premise that the world follows natural laws and that wishful thinking will not change the course of even a single atom in this universe. Scientists believe that by careful observation and experimentation, we are able to figure out how the universe works. It doesn’t matter who makes the observations or does the experiment.

Evolution happens. That is a fact observed constantly. That is because the definition of evolution is simply change over time. (Change in allele frequency between generations to be more technical.) Where we disagree is the force behind the change. Creationism requires a mystical, supernatural force to constantly intervene. These changes are the will of god. Natural selection is the other explanation for the observed changes. To question evolution by natural selection is no different than questioning why the sun shines after all; it is only the “theory” of relativity or the “theory” of quantum electrodynamics.

Come back after some education and training in critical thinking if you still have questions.

Answer 4

Many people can 'defend' evolution in the same way they can 'defend' gravity or electromagnetism.

Evolution is a process which is about as well understood as any observed upon the earth, people including me put no 'faith' in it at all, we observe the evidence and reach our conclusion. If new evidence was discovered as with every part of our knowledge it is asessed and our theories updated, that is how we learn, that is how Einstein superceded Newton.

Evolution is an extremely robust theory, more so than most, and perfectly comprehensible to anyone who puts an effort into understanding some of the more complex bits, it is way more comprehensible than quantum mechanics for example. As to making 'everything' make sense that assumes that everything does indeed make sense, it doesn't have to, you are not here for any purpose and when your 4 score years are over you will cease to exist in the same way as you did not exist before you were born. Or maybe I'm guessing thats not really what you want to hear.

Answer 5

A stupid man's report of what a clever man says is never accurate because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.
-- Bertrand Arthur William Russell III, A History of Western Philosophy.

If someone doesn't want to understand something no amount of explanation can accomplish the task.

Evolution is not incompatible with god belief or christianity. The bible says many things about the natural world which have proven not to be true. Creationism is more about the authority of the clergy than any real cosmological eplanation for the world. People have been imprisoned, tortured and murdered by religious authorities for claiming that the earth is not flat and that the sun is the center of the solar system. If the preacher-man says it's unequivocaly so he's most likely wrong.

Evolution deals with the interation between heritable traits and the environment relating to reproductive success.

Biological evolution aplies to all entities with encoded heredity, From blue whales to bacteria, from viruses to unenclosed active RNA in the primordial soup. How the first self replicating chemicals made the transition to hereditary molecules is the parview of organic chemistry, not evolutionary biology.

All entities with heriditary traits seek to perpetuate themselves. They are aided or hindered in the effort by the properties ingrained by heredity. (everything with genes seeks to pass those genes to the next generation)

Hereditary transmission of traits is imperfect, in reproduction the hereditary information is occasionaly altered. The alterations alter the ability of the entities to survive and propagate themselves. (Mistakes happen when the information is copied, these mistakes have consequences)

Those entities whose whose properties most effectivelty enable them to sustain themselves and reproduce will be represented in greater numbers in proceding generations. The converse is true for alterations that negatively impact the ability to survive and reproduce. (If the load of helpful genes is greater than the load of harmful or neutral genes the odds of reproductive success increases)

Changing circumstances affect what hereditary traits are and are not helpful to individual organisms. (Sh*t happens, things change, what works for today may not work tomorrow)

There's a difference beween improbable and impossible. The impossible can't happen and the improbable will happen if you roll the dice often enough. The reactions needed for the transition from self replicating chemistry to hereditary molecules are improbable, but given a billion years and a reactor vessel the size of all the earths oceans the transiton was inevitable. Winning the lottery is an improbability for the individual, but is inevitable if you're looking at all the players.

Answer 6

Given that the number one argument for people who chose to believe in creationism is that we do not come from apes, I hope the following will help shed some light.

One very important thing to understand is that the theory of evolution describes humans and apes as cousins because we both come from the same species called hominids. In other words, humans did not evolve from the ape species, we evolved from a species known as hominids which is completely different than the ape species. In fact, the thoery of evolution illustrates that hominids split due to a possible geographic barrier and one branch evolved into humans while the other evolved into apes.

I have one question to believers of creationism. If a supreme being created a single male and then a single female, then doesn't that mean the we are all products of a massive case of incest?

Answer 7

I believe I can defend evolution 100%.

I also believe that many of the people who answered your question here can (many of the answers here are excellent). However, the question is a little over-broad ... you need to ask some specific questions before we know where you are coming from, or what is confusing you or raising your doubts.

(Don't just talk to other creationists if you really want to understand evolution. In my experience, just about *every single time* a creationist actually explains what they think the theory of evolution is, they demonstrate a wrong understanding of it, or of science in general.)

I also believe that there are dozens of excellent writers (Gould, Dawkins, Lewontin, Elderidge, Watson, Wilson, Miller, etc. etc.) who do an excellent job of explaining evolution in a way that makes sense, and there are other books, like "Introducing Evolution" "Darwin for Beginners" and the Time-Life book "Evolution" (I have all of these books and they are all very good). All explain evolution in a way that has "everything make sense" ... but only you can determine what level you are starting at.

If you are serious about how you "honestly want to know", ask some questions. ... Post them here, or email me or any of the people who answered here. If you are sincere about asking real questions and actually listening to the answers, most people will be very polite and respectful. (I can't speak for all people, but I promise I would be.)

Answer 8

Neither creationism nor the theory of evolution are 100% flawless in defending their own stands. There are many reputed scientists who are very religious. Science is not against religion. Science is a body of knowledge that accepts facts based on observable information, and one of science's goal is to explain why and how we humans happened to come into existence on this planet. It is science that discovered that our planet is not flat but a globe and that earth moves around the sun and not sun around the earth. Science accepted the theory of evolution based on evidences from fossils. Science does accept, however, that this theory is not flawless. Being a believer in Christ and a follower of the church, I find it unreasonable to accept the creation as narrated by Bible. I would rather stand by science's theories - they make sense. Science brings reason to religion, and where science stops, religion takes over. I see science as one of the ways that god communicates with man.

Answer 9

Evolution exists. There is no rational way to deny its existence. It has been observed occurring in laboratory settings and in 'nature'. Even ancient scholars such as Aristotle and others recognized that evolution occurred. The development of resistance to antibiotics by various bacteria, or to pesticides by various insects is rock-solid, 100% absolute, incontrovertible proof that evolution exists.

The modern theory of evolution, which is a synthesis of the theory of the origin of species through natural selection that Charles Darwin first proposed in his famous work 'Origin of the Species' combined with modern refinements and filling in some specific details is the scientific explanation of WHY and HOW evolution occurs. That is what a scientific theory means. It is not a wild-@ss guess (as some people seem to think 'theory' means).

The theory of evolution is the cornerstone of modern biology, and nothing in genetics, physiology, biogeography, paleontology, ethology or any other field of biology makes any sense except in light of the theory of evolution.

It is not 'faith' to accept the physical evidence gathered from hundreds of independent disciplines to explain the physical observations of the universe around us. It is logic and reason.

There is no room in this forum to go over all of the evidence that supports the theory of evolution. That evidence could (and does) fill hundreds of textbooks.

Among the things that evolution explains that no other hypothesis or non-scientific speculation or religious tract does include the following:

Why porcupines in North and South America have a totally different skull morphology from European and African porcupines.

Why North American porcupines have a skull morphology similar to other groups of South American rodents.

Why marsupials are largely restricted to Australia and South America.

Why the dominant mammal group in Australia is marsupials.

Why the earliest fossils of marsupials are found in North America.

Why there are so many different types of beetles.

Why all terrestrial vertebrates have essentially the exact same skeleton, with the same number of limbs and same configuration of limb bones, etc.

Why mammals have less DNA than frogs do.

Why, despite their incredible diversity and disparate lifestyles, insects all have six legs, four wings, two antennae, and the same arrangement of mouthparts.

Why fleas develop from totally not-flea looking larvae, while lice develop from nymphs that look like adult lice, but smaller.

Why flowers have pollen and nectar that attracts insects, bats, or birds.

Why conifer trees don't have flowers.

Why elephants are so large.

Why whales breathe air, and have the same skeletal structure as the terrestrial vertebrates, but fish don't.

Why humans (and other terrestrial vertebrates) can choke to death on our food, but insects cannot.

Why there are parasitic wasps.

If you can come up with any other theory that actually explains any of these in a scientific manner (not just 'cuz god did it that way'), then perhaps scientists will take your criticisms of the theory of evolution seriously.

Answer 10

Why does it have to be one or the other? Is it too far-fetched to believe that all of these 'natural processes' that we discover daily cannot be controlled by a higher power? Evolution is a prime example of this. If you look at the story of Genesis in the Bible, God creates the world in 7 days (which could be more than 7 days in ancient times...or the word 'day' could have been lost in translation...remember the Bible we read is not in the original context, it is a TRANSLATION of an original text...). The order in which God creates animals in this order:

1. Water teeming with living creatures
2. Birds
3. Things that creepeth upon the earth
4. Livestock, wild animals, animals that move on the ground
5. Humans

Funny thing, this is exactly the way evolution works. Evolution is a theory that says that the first living creatures were water-borne, and then they moved upon the land and evolved into more complex creatures, and ultimately man was formed....

I see the two as going hand-in-hand rather than opposing one another...if you look at it as God creating and controlling the processes on earth....

Just my opinion :)

Answer 11

You only need to look into the eyes of an ape to know we are cousins. Evolution makes far more sense. You couldn't defend creationism anywhere near 100% you could for evolution.