I have a question for athiests who believe in "evolution" ?

Question

Well according to my science book, Earth was here for 4.5 billion years after it "formed" [no explanation offered except the big bang theory that made the universe 6 billion years ago]. Then, one day 200 million years ago, life just started appearing starting with one celled organisms. So where did these organisms randomly come from [according to you] ?? Didn't someone [God] have to make them ? Why did they just appear one day ? What just caused them to form out of the blue 4 billion years after Earth did ? And then, how did humans, which are extremely complex life forms, eventually "evolve" from one-celled algae ? How did the algae know how to form into organisms with brains, nerves, blood, reproductive systems, ect. ? How could this happen without divine intervention somehow.

PS :: I am a Christian & don't understand the logic behind evolution. I personally like how Mr. Garrison explained it on South Park [haha!]

In response to Bryan D. :: Yes, I would actually read and consider the logic of their answer. I'm a devoted Methodist so you won't see me converting to Atheism but I love science [suprisingly] so I'd like to learn a little more about the theory and how it has become part of curriculim despite the holes in it. Thanks for all the answers so far.

Answer 1

Read about the primordial soup in your textbook. Even the most basic high school textbook should cover this. Electric currents (from lightening) can change simple compounds in this soup into complex amino acids, which in turn can create life. This process has been re-enacted in science labs.

This is all I can recall from high school biology. I'll leave this question to some biology major, who I'm sure can do a better job at explaning this.

Evolution is easier to understand. Natural selection. Survival of the fittest. The creature who's genetic mutations are best suited for a given environment are better at surviving, competing, and reproducing than other creatures without this mutuation. If this mutation passes on genetically, creatures with it will proliferate and possibly outnumber or wipe out creatures who do not have this mutation. The "mutations" can be anything from a bigger brain to a longer neck to webbed feet, etc. It's really not hard to understand.

Wait, the idea of human beings evolving slowly over millions of years is incredulous, yet you have no trouble believing you came from clay? Maybe you should put down the bible and read your biology textbook instead.

Answer 2

It is well accepted and well known that humans and all life forms do evolve. We have seen evolution occur. The only possible reasons for not accepting it are blind faith based convistions. Your beliefs are your beliefs, but evolution is fact. Established and observed fact. All of your questions can be answered in any freshman intro to biology text book. If you want the answer to your questions, read one.

By the way....evolution doesn't claim to explain everything. It merely shows established and observable facts about how life forms change and adopt over time. Does evolution have to explain the formation of the planet Earth to show that humans are primates? The human race and sciense has not learned everything there is to learn. I'm sure it never will. There will always be new questions. Just because we don't know everything doesn;t mean that a carpenter had a virgin birth. We learn more every day. And other people look at the sun and call it God.

Answer 3

If that's all your book said then it certainly left a lot out.

When the sun first formed it was surrounded by a whirling disk of gas, dust, and larger bodies. Esentially, asteroids. As this matter whirled around the sun the larger bodies began colliding and, due to gravity, began to accumulate into planets. This was a process that took many millions of years.

As to where the lifeforms on earth came from, the ingredients of life are found throughout the universe. Organic molecules abound in our solar system. On Earth, these compounds became suspended in liquid water. Some of these chemicals developed in ways that caused them to replicate. It was a long time before molecules would form anything as simple as a single cell, and once they did it was another 3 billion years before they advanced any further than algae.

How did the algae "know" how to evolve into more advanced lifeforms? They didn't. They simply went about their business of dividing, absorbing nutrients, growing, and dividing again. A cell is controlled by its genes, which are located on chromosomes, long strands of DNA that provide the blueprints for forming new cells and what the cell does. Occasionally, a gene is not copied exaclty and the new cell ends up with a different genetic code than its parent cell. In the vast majority of cases this causes defects that are harful or fatal to the cell (or the organism which grows from it). But in rare instances it results in a new form which works even better than the one before it. Over millions of years this leads to organisms which have changed drastically from those from which they originated.

That's evolution in a very small nutshell. It doesn't happen because lifeforms "decide" to evolve. Every organism is different in some way and the ones who have an advantage are more likely to survive and produce more offspring.

Answer 4

They didn't just appear one day. Apparently your textbook is a bad textbook. What in hell is with American education anyway?

No one had to make them.

1. The Big Bang theory is the prevalent theory on the creation of the universe. It has NOTHING to do with evolution. Evolution is different. You can't even remotely compare the too.

What Christians can't seem to understand is that evolution only talks about the change in a life form over time that sometimes results in a new species. It does NOT talk about how life began, or how the universe began.

Please Christians, get that through your heads.

2. Its alot more involved than "there was boom, the earth formed, and there was life". You act like it happened in a snap of the fingers.

However, there's no way I can explain the processes over the internet in 1500 words or less so you're going to have to actually do the research yourself.

3. As I said, it didn't just suddenly appear. You also need to learn the processes for that.

And please, please, learn what evolution actually says.

Answer 5

I am not an Atheist but I will answer the question anyway. The Universe , according to science, was created 15 billion years ago..not 6. And the Earth 4.5 billion as you stated. The Earth took millions of years to simply create what led up to a single celled amoeba. If you look back and take the basic building blocks of what ALL living things are made of..then they ALL have the same 50 components. Not some of them..ALL of them. Everything is made up of the sam components...all living things. Take , for instance , the chart of elements. It is all basically derived from hydrogen. Hydrogen is the first on the chart and has one proton, one electron and one neutron. Split the proton/electron and you then have Helium. A totally different substance. This was created by electrical splits. We have 93 natural splits..all the way up to Uranium which is used to make nuclear bombs. To NOT believe in Evolution is to NOT understand science. If you have the money, buy "The Cosmos" by Carl Sagan. He even has a DVD set for this. Watch the DVD and then say you do not get it...I doubt you will fall into that category!

Answer 6

Well let me start off with the big bang, I guess.

Approximately 13.4 billion years ago (not the 6 nillion your book says), the Big Bang occurred when gases became unstable. At first, the universe was so hot that all that could exist was energy. Hundreds of millions of years later, the universe began to cool, some of this energy converted into matter (because e=mc^2 proves that matter=energy). Eventually, through nuclear fusion in stars, the elements of hydrogen and helium evolved into the vast array of elements we see and know of today. Some of these elements began to clump together due to gravity, forming the planets in our solar system (and likely planets in other solar systems as well).

The earth was a purely chemical planet (not biological) for the first 1 billion years of our sphere's existence. However, about 3.5 billion years ago, very complex molecules became alive in the form of amino acids, the building blocks of life. These amino acids evolved into the basic unicellular organisms that we evolved from.

Humans didn't evolve from algae; we're not related to any organism alive today. Those one-celled organisms didn't 'know' how to evolve. Natural selection plays the role of the blind watchmaker. It gives the appearance of design (the watchmaker part) while at the same time having no purpose or direction in mind other than survival (the blind part).

PS: Most Christians will never understand the logic of evolution (it is quite logical) when their sources of biology information are coming from their preachers and ministers, 99% of whom did not attend college in any relevant fields.

PPS: Your science textbook is way off.

Answer 7

Single cell organisms have been around for 2 billion years and 200 million years dinosaurs where kickin. The start of single cell organisms have many theories but I wasn't there to see it. However it happened single cells banded together and now we have multi-cellular organisms with specialized cell structures and organs. Most of the single cell organisms are still alive. Coral is the an interesting observation of how cells use a structure to survive. Just remember a billion years is a long time.

Answer 8

It seems you don't know what evolution is...The Big bang has nothing to do with evolution nor the querstion where life came from. You are talking about a very different subject.

Here's a clue: Evolution means "In fact, evolution can be precisely defined as any change in the frequency of alleles within a gene pool from one generation to the next." - Helena Curtis and N. Sue Barnes, Biology, 5th ed. 1989 Worth Publishers, p.974


If you don't know what is evolution, how on Earth can you understand its logic?

Answer 9

I understand thatyou aren't familiar with some concepts and it sounds like your book doesn't go in depth. First let me address the statement "how could this happen without divine intervention somehow". Well, how could God just exist without some other divine intervention or evolution? See where this is going?

Since you want to understand more about evolution I suggest you go to a bookstore and buy a book that goes more in depth.

Here are some links with more info:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/evolution.htm
http://www.livescience.com/othernews/051109_evolution_science.html

Its good to keep in mind that evolution has more to do with what happened after life came to be than with how it got here.

I hope this helps!

Answer 10

I really have no desire to even know but I don't find a natural mystery grounds for superstitious beliefs or mythology as the explanation of deities to explain it just does not necessitate this
Some day they will have even more thorough scientific explanation ... The big bang is not evolution it's speculative and evolution is DNA approved .you should go to the science venue of YA not the R and S venue.what does Christian mean and do you think it has anything to do with science?