Creationists:?

Question

Disclaimer: I am asking about your understanding of a theory- not whether you believe it's true or not, or whether its a "moot point"...

Can you explain the theory of evolution as you were taught in school (regardless of the fact that you do not believe in it, but can you give a description of how it is said to work)?

Also- cut and paste answers and quotes from scripture will be disregarded when deciding who gets the 10.

I'm asking you to explain your understanding of a subject you disagree with. Not quote scripture- I know the argument against it, I want to see the conclusions made around that argument- not the choices that led you to make these decisions.

C4ndygirl is on the right track.

thank you for taking my question seriously enough to answer. My underlying question was "Were Creationists ever given the proper information on this subject (whether they accept or reject it) or were they victims of biased or poorly educated teachers? Was the theory ever even presented or just ignored or scoffed at? A lot of light has just been shed on this subject, and frankly: If this theory was presented to me the way it was to you, I wouldn't believe it either.

As for those of you saying "yes I can"... yes was not the answer I was asking for- I wanted you to explain it to me, so I know where you're coming from...

For the two of you talking about the "Truth"... how do you know with nothing to compare to? Do you always take the first explaination of every subject that you're handed? Do you look outside your views to see how other views fit in with your own? Why even argue that the Bible is truth, when you've never even exposed yourself to "the lies"? I believe the term for that is "closed minded"... Just so you have a clear definition. The rest of the people who answered all managed to recite their knowledge on this theory... they made a choice, which proves them as much stronger in their convictions than you two. They saw a (flawed version of a contraversial) theory, and decided to reject it as such (and, considering the explainations, I can see why). You two answered complaining that you cannot answer without the bible! This wasn't a biblical question!

Answer 1

I took an anthropology class a few semesters ago in college, and the one thing that my teacher said that made me completely reject any type of thread of belief that evolution could have happened was when she said that a type of monkey must have floated on a piece of wood from one continent to another. I think I stopped listening after that. But from what I can remember, from class and my trip to the Natural History Museum, was that we came from apes, who after time slowly became upright, and lost hair, and became more intelligent.


However I do not believe any of it.

Answer 2

Theory presented by Charles Darwin to explain natural selection and the continued growth and mutation of cells and organisms. In conjunction with evolution, the “Big Bang” theory was also taught to explain how life began to form. From the cosmic soup, came single celled amoeba to multicelled to fish and then the fish began to develop a way to walk on land. This progression can be seen today in some fish that does walk on land though I do not remember its name anymore. Furthering into the mutations that caused humans to split off the gene pool from apes and begin our progression from cave man to present day. Cells are always mutating and changing, natural selection and need for adaptive skills causes these changes to occur. Sometimes on a fast scale or a very slow scale. Proof as it is, can be hard to come by due to lack of scientists being alive when the first single celled organism mutated into a multicelled organism.

No where in these theories does it ever explain how the “Big Bang” or even the materials for life really came from because no one knows 100% where or why or how it really happened. That is why all of these are theories or our best guess at this time.

Answer 3

I believe this. Regardless of whether one believes in creationism or evolution matter, time and space all currently exist. Where did matter , time and space originate? There are two possibilities.1. Either these things always existed and have no beginning. 2. Some where some how Some thing came out of absolute oblivion all on it its own. I believe that both possibilities imply the existence of something infinite and nearly inexplicable by scientific laws. The universe appears to be both infinitely great and infinitely small. What is this if it is not God? Is it necessary for creationism to be mutually exclusive and antagonistic?

Answer 4

I'm sorry I'm not a creationist, but I just wanted to point out that it makes sense that those who have answered have chosen to be creationists based on what they think evolution is. The same can be said about the people who have no idea what it is.

As for monkeys floating, this is what happens when our teachers aren't subjugated to frequent evaluations. Saying stupid stuff like that is the reason that child chose to believe in magic, since the "science" she learned wasn't science at all.

Scientists can create life currently with "non-living" molecules. I don't see what the current complexity of cells has to do with the formation of the first "living" things. I guess this person doesn't believe there were neanderthals, since all people are now sapiens. (Applying the same illogical criteria.)

Evolution is as much a fact as hydrogen atoms combining with oxygen atoms to make water (H2O) molecules. Applying the same criteria to this--as a rational person would--means you don't believe in atoms either.

I just want to say that it makes sense that people who cannot understand science choose magical explanations instead. Great question!! It is very revealing of what America is dealing with, compared to other industrialized nations. (And they wonder why our kids are falling behind.)

Answer 5

How I was taught in school about evolution, mind you it was 15-20 years ago (and even taught in Catholic school)

In a nutshell...

X billions of years ago, the Earth was mostly all water, this water brought forth single celled organisms, over a long period of time, these single cells broke into multi-celled organisms and then eventually evolved into fish and other sea creatures. Eventually, the waters resided and dry land appeared, and some of the sea creatures came up on dry land and eventually lost their fins and gills and gained feet. Over more time, they mutated into various ways, some became extinct from bad mutations and some thrived with good mutations and became a wide variety of different creatures who continued to mutate in different ways and become nothing like sea creatures anymore but mammals and what we know as Dinosaurs today. Along with the primates, came an ape-like creature who eventually stood upright as a homosapein, who later evolved into modern man.

Thats it in a nutshell as I remember it best.

Answer 6

I am not a creationist; I do believe the account as recorded in the Bible and do not believe evolution. That being said:

The theory is that, without intelligent direction the universe came into being, and eventually life appeared upon the earth. Over time, this life adapted to various conditions, the most fit for each specific condition surviving and passing on the genetic informartion that allowed it to survive to its offspring so that it had a better chance of surviving and propogating. And so on. Thus various supposedly were formed and here we are today.

Answer 7

I was not of The True Christian Faith in Highschool but even back in the 60s it was taught as fact in many schools... even I as a very poor student knew the difference between a theory and a fact...and I lost much respect for the teacher who said it was fact.. The Theory of Evolution is a valid tool for scientific study... but it is... and will always remain... a theory... unless someone can invent a time machine so scientific observation can take place.... or if mankind can last a few more million years to collect sufficient data to confirm it.... I personaly have no problem with using the Theory... it is the teaching of it as fact that is wrong...it is a THEORY..... not a fact.

btw...I have read Voage of the Beagle by Darwin and it is, in many ways very frightening if you relate it to what has happened to the world since then...man is in fact destroying this world... I have a copy of it somewhere.. should dig it out and reread it.

Answer 8

They didn't teach evolution when I was in school or college. I used to read a lot of stuff about dinosaurs and such but never saw the term evolution, even now it's a rarity to see it in a scientific text unless it's mentioned as an alternate view point to something.

Answer 9

As I was taught in school...

Evolution is the theory that all life originated from a single cell and slowly, through time evolved into life as we know it.

I think that was the exact sentence in the science book. We didn't dwell on it long and went straight into geology or whatever.

Answer 10

Short and simple, it was that all-life-evolved-from-a-simple-cell....which is, of course, a ludicrously unbelievable idea now that we know that even single cells are not the least bit "simple", but rather massively complex. I also recall the wonderful "horse series", which I later learned was a complete fabrication - it saddened me deeply to find out there never really was such a thing as an eohippus.
One of the really "cool" things about the theory of evolution though is that it changes about 15 minutes now - which is about how long it takes for the previous theory of evolution to be shown not to fit the available facts.

Answer 11

Actually, I don't remember being taught about evolution in school. (Not to sound like a -ick, but even in highschool to be honest.) Maybe a mention of it, but nothing really of the method. When did they start teaching evolution in schools? I'm lost...