What's With All the Evolution Rhetoric?

Question

If you believe in evolution that's your business just as those of us who don't believe in evolution is our business.

What's with the obsession with evolution or not evolution?

I like Coke you like Pepsi, SO WHAT!

Answer 1

It's formed the core of the American debate about faith. There are other issues equally as valid but none have affected the country the way Evolution has. Are physics labs boycotted because they teach the Big Bang? Is funding cut from schools and parents refusing to send their children there because they don't open with Morning Prayer, or if some of the students are gay?

The two main issues dividing the country is Evolution and Sex Education/Abortion. Abortion and Sex Education is a matter of ethics and it is mainly about enforcing one or another.

Evolution on the other hand is the central debate about which Fundamental Christians and the rest of America are arguing. It isn't really about Evolution at all. It's about how able a person in America is allowed to live their life according to religion. Whether a family can raise their child to beleive in Creation and not expose them to them theory of evolution. It's church and state, fundamental Christians want their religion to be held over that of state law, whilst others want the state to decide what is best.

Answer 2

What you fail to realise is that evolution is not a belief, it is scientific fact. People who say that they don't believe in evolution are basically denying reality. It's like saying that you don't believe in gravity, or you don't believe that the sun generates light and heat. There is over 150 years of scientific data establishing that all life on earth, including humans, evolved from a common ancestor, changing and diverging over millenia into the veriety of life forms tha we see today.

In this country, people have the right to deny reality. It is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. When it becomes a problem is when people want public schools to teach children to deny reality in class. This is not only illegal, it is potentially harmful to childrens futures. If a child has any aspirations to be a medical doctor, or work in any of the life sciences, they will need an understanding of evolution, because evolution is the cornerstone of all the life sciences.

So, the answer to your question is that people only get obsessed about it when certain religious people try to use the government to force their beliefs on others. If they would stop doing this, it would be a non-issue.

Answer 3

Its a little more complicated than Coke vs Pepsi
You may have heard of early scientists like Galileo or DaVinci
These men had ideas about natural phenomena: the Earth was ROUND, the Earth moved around the Sun, when you mate the offspring of TWO animals, these baby animals will be severely deformed.
These 'opinions' differed greatly with the rulers of those times. Those rulers took the Bible literally, including the stories in Genesis. These early scientists were declared to be WRONG, not because of the evidence, or any rational or logical review of their methods. They were refuted because the leaders feared they were disagreeing with Biblical teaching
and that's very similar to what we have today, evolution, and other modern science concepts, dinosaurs, genetic modification, space travel are sacrilegious because they are NOT contained in the Bible
so, to me, those who cannot separate the Bible's excellent moral teaching from the reality of the creation ( and the Creator!!) I fear they have misplaced their faith into the material world and forsaken spiritual matters
Further more I find it somewhat like George Orewell's 1984, where people blindly follow their leaders. A powerful chruch leader can order his followers to dismiss an aspect of science, next their kids are NOT getting vaccinated and gettting smallpox and polio because they were taught to fear science.
Certainly there are leaders in church and in science that are both honest and humble adn those that are power-mad and selfish
does this help?

Answer 4

What do you mean, "so what"? Why should I not have a problem with a movement that's trying to teach our kids that scientists are actually arguing about whether creation or evolution happened? The Intelligent Design supporters are pushing a religious agenda. They're trying to get into classrooms so they can essentially lie to kids and tell them that "creation vs. evolution" is actually a controversy in the scientific community, and that scientists actually aren't sure about whether evolution happened or not. Neither of those statements are true, I'm sorry. Why should I not care when people are trying to get blatant misinformation taught in our education system?

Answer 5

Apparently a lot of people feel it's important that kids in school not be offered more than one theory.

I was taught just evolution in school and I never doubted it, nor did I ever question it, until I became much more mature. Further reading proves that science is loaded with respected men and women who do not accept evolution.

If your mind is not terribly narrow, you'll seek other ideas and your kids would be better educated if they were presented with multiple theories that they could work through themselves. It's called learning how to think.

P.S. I've now read a ton of answers here. The narrow and uninformed mind is alive and well in America.

Answer 6

"If man came from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?!" ..Comedian Rich Hall, as Otis Crenshaw, said.

I believe in Evolution myself, rather than intelligent design. I think this argument is only really an issue for the U.S. education system, as the U.S. administration seems to be pro-Christian / Conservative.
It's a matter of personal belief and choice.

Answer 7

I can understand not believing in evolution, but preferring Coke over Pepsi? That's the 8th deadly sin right there.

Answer 8

The bigger question is why does my child have to be subjected to the so called facts of a theory called evolution? I would call it the religion of evolution.

But other children do not have to be subjected to creation? Makes no sense to me.

Answer 9

Because liking Coke vs. Pepsi is a subjective judgement. Whether evolution happened is not.

Answer 10

What's the problem with discussing and debating evolution vs creation? It keeps it interesting.

BTW, I prefer (diet) pepsi. I expect a lot of thumbs down for that.