If you havent studied evolution, is it ok to still claim it false?

Question

What, about 99.99% of the people who claims its false or "just a theory" havent studied evolution...fair? I was one of those people, although I did try to keep my mouth shut, because its always been a pet peeve of mine to make claims or offer conclusive opinions about something not studied.

Ok, so your one of these people...Im not beating you up...but i would like you to think about why you have offered so many opinions about something you havent studied? Maybe theres a deeper fear here...possible? I think it was so for me anyway.

I know I know...YOU REALLY HAVE STUDIED IT...i know (sigh)....sure, weve all seen a program about it, or may recall a low rent junior high science teacher talk about it, but Im here to tell you, it isnt easy to grasp...it has many levels.

Once reason people dont get it right away is the difficulty in conceptualizing the time elapse over billions of years. Also, many people dont get that adaptation is not a conscious thing, wilful movement.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/

Answer 1

I haven't studied it but I pretend to know what I am talking about. I also say I like bands that I've never heard.

Answer 2

It is not "just a theory"
Scientific theory is not the same as a normal theory.
Anyone who says they studied it in school and still don't believe it, well you just didn't really understand it.
Evolution is not like a magic trick or a pink unicorn. You don't just believe it or not.
It is like saying, "I don't believe in gravity."
Evolution is not "just a theory", it is Scientific, with evidence, observation, testable.

Lets define Evolution shall we?
Evolution- a change in gene frequency.

What does that mean?
If there are 5 people in a room with blue eyes and a 6th person with blue eyes walks into the room, then the frequency of the blue eyed gene has changed. The room has "evolved".

This is happening everyday all over the world. Animals are being born animals are dying and each time the frequency of genes change.
Understanding that, one can use it to make predictions. I predict that if two blue eyed people have a child, that child will have blue eyes as well.
I predict that if suddenly everyone decided that blue eyes were horrible and no one would have babies with blue eyed people ever again, the frequency of blue eyed children would drop drastically.
We can even use that same logic to look back and it helps us understand how we got to be the way we are.
Certain genes were helpful so they were the ones that got to spread their genes. The Giraffe who could reach the leaves didn't die and got to pass his genes onto the next generation.
This is not something you can say "I don't believe in" unless you really do not understand it.

Answer 3

Yes, everyone is entitled to their opinion.

However I think that I would not be surprised if people thought it was false, just on the basis of how evolution contradicts the second law of thermodynamics. I think that for many people who believe in science, that they can see in nature how things move from a higher energy state to a less organized energy state, which directly contractions evolutionary theory.

It's the same fallacy as people who just assume that those who don't agree with evolution haven't studied science.

Answer 4

I don't think that you can claim anything is false unless you have studied it, religious, evolution, or otherwise. Most people don't know what evolution is and most people who teach it in school don't even explain it correctly. Its clear most people don't actually know what it is because its still common to hear the phrase survival of the fittest attributed to Darwin when he never said that (it was another scientist during the age of social darwinism) and when people try to say that humans descended from a monkey, which also is not what the theory of evolution is. Also, don't use the concept of evolution to bash relgion either, that doesn't solve the misconceptions either.

Answer 5

I never studied it hard core, but I did touch upon it in school. I feel as if it goes against my religious beliefs. I can't dig deeper into something that goes against my beliefs. I am sure the human species has evolved over the years, but I also know how we were created and that we have adapted to our surroundings. I don't believe in the theroy of evolution and I don't necessarily go around claiming its falsehood, but I do tell others about God.

Answer 6

I cannot believe people can be so stupid as to not believe in evolution. Does it matter how long life has taken---G-d started it all. His day may have been a million years, or more.

People are still evolving---------two things to mention, the tonsils and appendix are disappearing in people. They are things we no longer need.

I think people who say evolution is false never even study anything but their own religion (Christianity) so they have never had a chance to agree or disagree. You cannot just accept even G-d without inquiry.

I studied and learned, and changed from Christianity to Judaism. It is so much more logical. G-d is One, not a trinity.

Answer 7

Anyone who says that evolution is "just a theory" understands nothing about evolution or science in general.

In science, theories are the highest, most established, tested, factual levels of scientific understanding. Gravitational Theory is another example.

A scientific theory is the furthest thing from a guess as you can get.

Answer 8

I haven't studied it in depth (although once I get out of university, I have a full intention to read The Selfish Gene and others) - but I at least understand the basics.

1. Genetic Drift leads to genetic changes (radiation, DNS copying errors) - very random
2. Natural Selection - opposite of random - selects out "the best" changes
3. Ecological Niches - allows for speciation.

Seems simple enough on the surface. It's amazing how many people can't get that part straight. "Analogies" of 747's coming together comes to mind...

Answer 9

i used to believe in evolution. i found out about it and looked into it and thought is was right for a while but i started looking deeper and things weren't making sense so i looked at other opinions and views on it. then i started reading and watching documentaries and found intelligent design and i always thought it was some religious nut theory but it made a lot of sense and i believe in that now. now i think in schools they should not teach intelligent design because it does have to do with faith (separation of church and state) but i do think evolution should be proposed but they should emphasize it is only a theory and is a disputed theories and there are other theories out there.

Answer 10

Chance Life - Ridiculous Improbability

What would be involved in the accidental development of a single living cell? The fact is that the most elementary form of life is more complicated than any manmade thing on earth. The entire complex of New York City is less complicated than the makeup of the simplest microscopic cell. It is more than ridiculous to talk about its chance production. Scientists themselves assure us that the structure of a single cell is unbelievably intricate. The chance for a proper combination of molecules into amino acids, and then into proteins with the properties of life is entirely unrealistic. American Scientist magazine made this admission in January of 1955:

"From the probability standpoint, the ordering of the present environment into a single amino acid molecule would be utterly improbable in all the time and space available for the origin of terrestrial life."

A Swiss mathematician, Charles Eugene Guye, actually computes the odds against such an occurrence at only one chance in 10(160). That means 10 multiplied by itself 160 times, a number too large even to articulate. Another scientist expressed it this way:
"The amount of matter to be shaken together to produce a single molecule of protein would be millions of times greater than that in the whole universe. For it to occur on earth alone would require many, almost endless, billions of years." The Evidence of God in an Expanding Universe, p. 23.

How can we explain the naive insistence of evolutionists to believe something so extremely out of character for their scientific background? And how can we harmonize the normally broad-minded tolerance of the educated, with the narrow bigotry exhibited by many evolutionary scientists in trying to suppress opposing points of view? The obvious explanation would seem to be rooted in the desperation of such evolutionists to retain their reputation as the sole dispensers of dogmatic

truth. To acknowledge a superior wisdom has been too long cultivated by the evolutionist community. They have repeated their assumptions for so long in support of their theories that they have started accepting them as facts. No one objects to their assuming whatever they want to assume, but to assume happenings that go contrary to all scientific evidence and still call it science is being dishonest.

Answer 11

There's no arguing with this. People who view evolution as a threat will even study it and pick it apart and convince themselves and others that objective, scientific measures were applied and have shown evolution to be false. And there's no wa to convince them otherwise. When fear and hope are involved, reason and logic go out the window.