If you are an evolutionist what do you believe exactly?

Question

i'm confused about what the main evolution theory is i've heard so many different ones.

Answer 1

Evolution says that life evolves. New species survive and thrive based upon how they can adapt to the environment. Mutations can cause a change in a descendant that may make it easier for it to survive ("survival of the fittest"). If not, it dies and is not likely to reproduce (if it did, it is still unlikely for it's descendants to survive, either).

Evolution itself does NOT say that man came from an ape, but that is the general consensus of most biologists.

You will probably get a better answer with more details in the Biology section under Science.

Answer 2

The differences you've heard are due to the misperceptions and mischaracterizations of some fundamentalists who try to castigate evolution by miscategorizing it. It's also due to a fundamental misunderstanding of science and scientific theory. If people really understood quantum theory, they'd be constructing thousands of reasons why it's not true. Many evangelicals and other christians have no problem with evolution (use google to see). Evolution is a complex scientific model and would require a great deal of space here for explanation but the main point is the following: species arise from accumulated mutations that give a slight or significant advantage for survival in a particular environment. It's simple and the data supporting this are overwhelming.

Answer 3

I believe my eyes.

Evolution is a collection of theories with Natural Selection at the center. There are some theories that are outstandingly well documented such as Natural Selection or Mendelian assortment with crossover as defined by Morgan. Some are shakier such as the Neutral Theory of molecular evolution. (I might have had a career in molecular evolution if I had been more in favor of the theory like my department chairman.) The field is broad with new discoveries, and new ideas being developed while the old data and ideas are constantly scrutinized. (So you know, I am not an evolutionary biologist, but work in medical technology where I still see evidence of evolution.)

Answer 4

I believe in Evolution. Evolution is the long term adaptation of organisms to better cope with their given environments. Un-like many Christians I believe that evolution and a belief in God can go hand in hand. Science and God are not mutually exclusive like so many Fundamentalists claim. Their problem is they take parts of the book of Genesis word for word as fact. It was written in simplified terms or parables so that the peoples of the time when it was written could better understand the meaning behind it. Just like you teach life lessons & morals to children through Fairy Tales. Most of it is mythology (it can't be proven true) but, most mythology has some basis in fact.
You can rain eternal damnation on my head for believing this way but you will not change my mind. I'll take my chances on being at least partially correct when I leave this plane of existance

Answer 5

Essentially that life didn't just "pop" into existence in its present form of highly complex interconnectedness of all things
.
Life is an exceedingly rare event in the universe, but it only had to arise once. "Life" started simple with self replicating molecules which eventually became a primitive version of DNA. Random mutations can cause beneficial and detrimental effects on the survival of the gene, by altering the phenotype of the organism that carries the genetic information.

Beneficial mutations give advantages in the Malthusian struggle for survival, and tend to be passed on to the next generation. This actually INCREASES complexity in an entirely rational and progressive ratcheting type of process. This is the power of natural selection. It is not random at all. The cumulative selection of random beneficial traits over an incomprehensibly long period of time is the essence of evolution. There is a quite simply an overwhelming convergence of evidence that support ToE from a wide variety of independent scientific disciplines. Despite the occasional talking head the IDiots put up for display, the vast vast majority of scientists accept evolution as the best, most well tested explanation of the world we see around us. We accept it based on the evidence. We don't believe it on faith.

This is a trite short version, and you really shouldn't expect to understand evolution unless you read some of the science about it. Ya, I know...you think science is boring and its too hard to read. Richard Dawkins is a very good communicator and I recommend any of his books to really understand evolution. Because you can't fear that which you understand, and I think that is the basic problem with xians fear of evolution, Ignorance. Worse yet, pride of their ignorance.

EDIT
WATCHMAN Not only are you just quote mining (similar to how Cheney and Bush got their "evidence" for WMD) furthermore...not one of your out of context quotes is more recent than 1982 and goes as far back as 1956. These "quotes" have been circulating for years and have been thouroughly discredited by the skeptic community. Several of them are completely fabricated. Copy and paste preaching is never very effective at the best of times. It shows intellectual laziness.

At the very least, copy some more current wrong information.

Answer 6

I don't "believe" in evolution.

Evolution is a fact. One doesn't just "believe" in facts.

So, what is evolution? It is, technically, the change in alleles over time. What are alleles? For simplicity's sake, they are biological traits.

Now, the theory of evolution is the recreation of the "tree of life," explaining how organisms are so diverse and how they came to be this way. It deals with the processes that cause evolution to take place - that is to say 'natural selection.' And a population of organisms is 'selected' to flourish by being properly adaptable to it's environment.

Evolution only deals with biology. It doesn't get into any sort of philosophical or moral beliefs (though, there is some fascinating research into the evolution of moral systems, which deals only with their existence, not their content). It has nothing to do with the question of why we are here, only how we got here. Anyone who claims otherwise is either creating a strawman argument (that is to say, mischaracterizing another's position to make it easier to attack) or hopelessly naive and needs to learn about evolution.

PS - to the person above who gave a whole litany of quotes, you are quote-mining. Many of those quotes have been taken out of context, were spoken by someone who did not understand evolution, or are just completely fabricated. You can find most of them thoroughly discredited here: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/quotes/mine/project.html

Answer 7

Theistic Evolution is one of three major origin-of-life worldviews, the other two being Atheistic Evolution (also commonly known as Darwinian Evolution) and Special Creation.



Atheistic Evolution says that there is no God and that life can and did emerge naturally from preexisting non-living building blocks under the influence of natural laws (like gravity, etc). Special Creation says that God created life directly, either from scratch or from preexisting materials. (There are a variety of Special Creation hypotheses reflecting a variety of Theistic traditions. For the purpose of this article we will focus on the Biblical Christian perspective.) Theistic Evolution says one of two things:



That, while there is a God, He wasn’t directly involved in the origin of life. He may have created the building blocks, He may have created the natural laws, He may even have created these things with the eventual emergence of life in mind, but at some point early on He stepped back and let His creation take over. He let it do what it does, whatever that is, and life eventually emerged from non-living material. This view is similar to Atheistic Evolution in that it presumes a naturalistic origin of life.



Or, that God did not perform just one or two miracles to bring about the origin of life as we know it. His miracles were multitudinous. He led life step by step down a path which it took it from primeval simplicity to contemporary complexity, similar to Darwin’s Evolutionary Tree of Life (fish begot amphibians who begot reptiles who begot birds and mammals, etc). Where life was not able to evolve naturally (how does a reptile's limb evolve into a bird's wing naturally?), God stepped in. This view is similar to Special Creation in that it presumes that God acted supernaturally in some way to bring about life as we know it.



There are numerous differences between the Biblical Special Creation perspective and the Theistic Evolution perspective. Perhaps the most significant difference concerns their respective views on death. Theistic Evolutionists tend to believe that the Earth is billions of years old and that the geologic column containing the fossil record represents long epochs of time. Since man does not appear until late in the fossil record, Theistic Evolutionists believe that many creatures lived, died and became extinct long before man’s belated arrival. This means that death existed before man Adam’s sin.



Biblical Creationists (as Biblical Special Creationists are often called) tend to believe that the earth is relatively young and that the fossil record was laid down during and after Noah’s Flood. The stratification of the layers is thought to have occurred due to hydrologic sorting and liquefaction, both of which are observed phenomena. This puts the fossil record and the death and carnage which it describes hundreds of years after Adam’s sin.



Another significant difference between the two positions is how they read Genesis. Theistic Evolutionists tend to subscribe to either the Day-Age theory or the Framework Theory, both of which are allegorical interpretations of the Genesis One Creation Week. Biblical Creationists tend to subscribe to a literal 24-hour reading of Genesis One. (See “Does Genesis chapter 1 literally mean 24-hour days?”)



Both of the two Theistic Evolutionist views are flawed from a Christian prospective in that they don’t line up with the Genesis creation account. Consider:



Theistic Evolutionists imagine a Darwinian scenario in which stars evolved, then our solar system, then earth, then plants and animals, and eventually man. The two Theistic Evolutionist viewpoints disagree as to the role which God played in the unfolding of events, but they generally agree on the Darwinian timeline. This timeline is in conflict with the Genesis creation account. For example, Genesis One says that the earth was created on Day One and that the sun, moon and stars weren’t created until Day Four. Some Progressive Creationists argue that the wording of Genesis suggests that the sun, moon and stars were actually created on Day One but that they couldn’t be seen through earth’s atmosphere until Day Four. Hence their placement on Day Four. This is a bit of a stretch as the Genesis account is pretty clear that the earth didn’t have an atmosphere until Day Two. If the sun, moon and stars were created on Day One, they should have been visible on Day One.



Another example of discordance is, the Genesis account clearly says that birds were created with sea creatures on Day Five while land animals were not created until Day Six. This is in direct opposition to the Darwinian view which says that birds evolved from land animals. The Biblical account says that birds preceded land animals. The Theistic Evolutionist view says exactly the opposite.

Answer 8

I don't believe.

I accept that life can form naturally, adapt and change to give rise to the various lifeforms we see today

Answer 9

Ask in the science category.

Answer 10

- that elephant came from single cell animal once upon time,
- that you and me came from a single cell animal once upon time even today we do!