Evolutionist: Why doesn’t the average proponent admit that they accept evolution as fact by “Faith”?

Question

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Let me Explain. When I was a child I played baseball (unorganized), I knew the game well as it is simple to learn. Later in life when my son began to play the game, I was asked to be an assistant coach. I was a little rusty on the rules so I purchased the Official MLB rulebook. Wow, was I surprised to see that what I thought were a few simple rules were actually pages and pages of complicated regulations, exceptions, descriptions of plays, etc. The infield fly rule is far more intricate than I had ever dreamed. I spent weeks studying the book and I finally had a good grasp of the game, but often I had to refer back to the book. I reached a point that I could answer almost any question and describe each situation and rule. Then I began to coach the players. Now, knowing the rules was becoming less essential, because the game is actually 9 positions working in unison and each can take years to master with much dedication.

[Continued] Unless you have vast experience in all positions you cannot say you have mastered the game, you may have mastered a portion of the game and only have familiarity with the remaining positions. On the surface baseball seems simple, but when you actually dig deep you will realize it is not Childs play, though children play it every day.

The theory of evolution is vastly more complex than the game of baseball. The details are so intricate that only those scientists who have mastered a “position” are truly qualified to explain their findings. Moreover, many of their conclusions are open for debate among the other players. These scientists may claim they have proof and may legitimately speak to the fact. However the overwhelming majority of people who believe in evolution can not possibility understand it thoroughly enough to have mastered even 1 position, let alone the game. They must simply accept evolution as fact by faith.

For the record, I do not believe in evolution, but I am continuing my study of it, as I have no fear of investigating it. I probably study it more than most people who believe in it.

Answer 1

The facts of evolution:

(1) Parents produce offspring that are similar to, but not exactly like themselves

(2) Not all offspring survive to produce their own offspring.

Those statements have been observed enough to take them as fact. That they can produce change in species over time is an observed empirical fact. That they are responsible for the diversity of life surrounding us is a theory which, while not subject to direct observation, is supported by lots and lots and lots of evidence. There is no significant dissent among scientists that evolution by natural selection is responsible for the origin of species. There is no competing scientific hypothesis. Therefore, whether you call it fact or faith is just a semantic question. It is what it is.

Answer 2

You have posed a great analogy and then looked the wrong way.

Take out your rule book. Do you think some Intelligent Rulemaker wrote it in one sitting? Doesn't it make far more sense to think of it as something that gradually evolved.

As a niche developed for which there was no clear rule or for which the existing rule seemed not to fit, a new rule was added to fill the niche. Gradually what might have been few pages of rules in Doubleday's day became what you see before you.

Even the similarities and differences in the rules themselves point to a common ancestor for some of them. You could look and say that these two rules started as one and diverged to fit two different situations.

What you have in the rulebook is a perfect example of evolution. Even though it is incredibly complicated, there is no need to propose an Intelligent Rulemaker and, indeed, viewing it as having evolved makes more sense. So too with evolution.

Now if you want to believe that god is directing his creation using the mechanism of evolution, feel free. For me, I have a hard enough time believing the baseball commissioner exists.

Answer 3

Faith is belief in the absence of evidence. If you have evidence for your belief, it is not faith.

There is a great deal of evidence for Evolution. Much of it is all around us, if we are objective about it. I've gone a bit further, and studied Evolution in biology classes and in materials available on the internet. So, I feel there is a great deal of evidence to support my belief, which means my belief is not faith.

Now, you are right that their is a great deal of subtlety to fully understand Evolution at the level that the experts in the world understand it. To some degree, there are claims made by these experts that I "take on faith", since I have not spent the time to independently examine the evidence for their claims. But I know they that have made their evidence available, and that their claims are consistent with my understanding, so I trust their claims are true.

You seem to be saying that none of us can trust the claims of anyone who has more expertise than we do. I think that is totally, totally wrong.

Answer 4

Evolution is a fact of nature, just like gravity.

Ignorance of evidence is not an excuse for assuming that no evidence exists.

Every dog on this planet is a product of selective breeding from wolves. Unless you would assert that a Chihuahua is the same as a timber wolf, then you will also agree evolution exists.

Answer 5

To use your analogy, even though I have not mastered baseball in all it's detail, I still recognize the game for what it is. Enough where I can recognize it when I see it being played, and I understand most (but not all) of the rules. Same with evolution. Of course we haven't nailed down all the nuances, but we have a pretty basic concept of how the game of evolution is played, and we're just getting around to reading that thicker playbook. But in the meantime, I still recognize it when I see it.

Answer 6

It may indeed be complicated but the more I study about the vast amount of research, done by scientists much smarter than I, proving that evolution is happening as we speak the more I will know.
I don't need to know the intricacies. I can see it with my own eyes.

Answer 7

Well, I hope you're planning to become an expert in it, because most people just trust the people who get a Ph.d. in the subject as knowing what they are talking about. I know science - I am a scientist. I don't need to understand every field to know how science works and to trust the scientific process. I know the basics of most fields, and they are very scientific.

Answer 8

Good for you.

And you are right. I do have a certain amount of faith in the scientific process. I have faith in Relativity, Gravity, Quantum Mechanics, Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Zoology and a whole host of other things.

Unfortunately, I don't have the time (and probably the intelligence) to get a Ph.D in each of these subjects.

Answer 9

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Sorry, no.

You accept that gravity is a fact -- but yet, I'm willing to bet you can't explain in any real detail how it works. Even the people studying cosmology can't quite do that. Relativity is known, for example, to be flawed in that it is incompatible with quantum gravity.

Does this mean you take gravity as a fact on faith?

Have you ever watched a fetus actually develop over 9 months? But if I hand you a few science texts that describe the process of its development, you'd accept the diagrams as fact.

Does this mean you take fetal development on faith?


Unless you're an idiot, and I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you're not, you would not call these two things 'faith'. The researchers are credible and their results can be duplicated by anyone who wants to -- in fact, they MUST be duplicated before they are considered part of some theory or another.

Same thing with Evolution.

Evolution is a fact, described by the theory of natural selection. Even the best researchers are still figuring out all the details since we don't know all the details. However, all the research so far points to the fact of evolution via natural selection.

No faith needed.

Anything that requires faith isn't worth bothering with.

Answer 10

There is LOTS of simple to understand evidence for evolution. You only need to look at organs like you appendix and you inner eyelids to see that there are things left over.

The order of fossils can be determined by stratification alone. What that means is that older layers of rocks only have certain types of fossils. Here is a chart: http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/fossils/succession.html

You can also clearly see that humans are changing size by looking at a bed that was made in the seventeenth century.

There are so many things that are easy to see that just don't line up with POOF there it all is.