Why are some so frightened by Evolution?

Question

I don't understand why some of you claim that there is no such thing as evolution. If you believe that God can do anything, then why can't you apply that to your religious beliefs? I don't understand why it is so reprehensible. (I'm a Buddhist)

You also can't deny Evolution, it has already been proven.

Mayor Jim, the Dalai Lama is a major science geek. It has already been said that if science proves a teaching wrong then it will be struck from the all texts.

Answer 1

Because the "story of creation" in the bible and the fact of natural evolution are completely contradictory. They cannot both be true.

Many christians accept the obvious -- that the biblical creation stories are fables, parables...stories (not facts) meant to illustrate a point. They have no problem accepting the fact of evolution by natural selection.

But a small minority of christians are "bible literalists" -- they believe every word in the bible is absolutely, literally true. To those christians, evolution proves their entire belief system wrong, and so despite the facts they can't accept it -- because doing so would invalidate their entire belief system. Never mind that there are literally thousands of other flaws in the bible, things provably false, which already invalidates their literal interpretation...they just ignore those, too.

Remember, these people are taught (usually from birth) to believe all kinds of things for which there is no evidence of any kind. Once you are taught that you don't need evidence to accept things as fact, it's just a short leap to ignoring fact in favor of your non-evidential beliefs. They're taught poor thinking skills, and they stay that way throughout their lives.

Peace.

Answer 2

A lot of people have no understanding of science. None at all. Not even a little bit. They regard it as magic. It scares them.

A lot of people have put all of their faith in religion. Some put too much faith in religion. So much faith that when something comes along that does not really jive with their beliefs then whatever came along must be wrong and religion must be right. These people do not want to adjust their religion to match what science has brought forth because to them, that is insulting their religion. If science can make religion change then that would mean that science is more important that the religion. Some people view the entire argument like that.

History has shown that science has put forth ideas that contradicted religion and religion fought back. The sun revolving the Earth, the Earth not being the center of the universe, the age of the Earth, and now the method that allowed life to grow on Earth, evolution are areas in science that have been resisted by certain religious groups.

There are even some to this day that claim that the Earth is flat because the bible indicates that the Earth is flat. These people refuse to believe that science is right about a round world and they spend their time trying to show how science has its facts wrong. This group of people parallel creationists because they see science as wrong and bible as right regardless of the evidence put forth and the research that has been done.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth_Society

http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/

http://www.alaska.net/~clund/e_djublonskopf/Flatearthsociety.htm

http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/febible.htm

Answer 3

What I want to know is why people dont study evolution before they make a case against it. I'm all for intelligent design, but I think God was "Intelligent" enough to"design" the world, as an adaptable place. And while no, it's not proven, and will always be a theory, a scientific theory is an idea with enough facts to back it up that it is more plausable than not, but unable to be proven due to extenuating circumstances, such as no one's got a videotape of the big bang. It is proven as much as it CAN be proven, whereas the idea that the world is only 6000 years old has been completely debunked. What irks me, is the creationists who say "Show me a half man half monkey" It doesnt work that way. If they cracked a book, they'd know that. It works like this- Heres not a monkey- an ape. A both ground and tree dwelling primate with an omnivorous apetite. Competing with other primate species for territory one family unit learns to spear small animals with gnawed sticks for food. Because of their superior intelect they survive, the others dont. More smart apes are born, and the technique is improved till it becomes a trait of the species. The other apes dont go away (This is where we loose most of the fundamentalists) they just dont prosper as well as the smart apes. Need to hear that again? THE OTHER APES DONT DISSAPEAR. They are now a DIFFRENT SPECIES of ape. Smarter apes learn they can catch more prey on the ground. Out of the trees they come, and use two legs to run, and two to thow spears. They survive, others dont. Their decendants, attach a stine to the end of their spear sticks, they do even better.. as the millenia pass they develop more and more, standing on the shoulders of their ancestors, they find better and better ways to survive... are we understanding now??
Want to see what I mean?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/02/23/MNGCVO9OPJ1.DTL

Answer 4

i am a Christian and I believe in evolution (although not from apes!!!!). I think you are absolutely right that God can do anything.
To say that things are exactly the way they were when He created the earth is a little silly. grounds have eroded, volcanoes have built new lands, some plants and animals have become extinct, etc. Animals and humans alike have changed to adapt to these new situations. Let's just look at viruses: they are changing in our own lifetime. We can clearly see that they are adapting to the medical/chemical treatments we are applying to them, and they are becoming stronger. Why is it that many doctors are now hesitant to prescribe anti-biotics?

Science is a beautiful and wonderful way to observe God's magnificant creation. He is not a watchmaker-creator. He is involved in each minute detail.

Thanks for the question. You can love God and and science. The Bible and science do coincide.

Although I don't think he always has the "right" approach, Dr. Kent Hovind has some awesome insight on science and creation.

check out his website or even better, try to watch his video series.

Answer 5

Wow. I love that long list of evidence. Why didn't he just say, "Just look at all the stuff we don't understand! Zeus must be throwin the lightning rods!" It's not hard to see why at all. Because it lends a great deal of support that WE came from the OCEAN! It created such a problem in the time of Darwin that Joseph Smith created Mormons, or, "The Church of Latter Day Saints that all believe we will be God too some day!". Joe denounced all churches as evil heinous wrong churches and quickly added The Book of Morons to the evil vile heinous wrong Bible the other churches were using and called it a new religion! The two books flow as one good book when evil book and good book come together... or something.. and life went on. Until Joe was taken out be a very large, angry wave of Christians that disagreed with the answer.

Answer 6

Evolution is a theory, it has not been fully proven yet. I agree with you and I believe that the reason some people are so against it is because they feel offended that someone has different beliefs than them.

Oh and that woman who said they haven't found the missing link is wrong. They found what they believe to be the missing link a few months ago and it was on the news and in the papers.

Answer 7

Well basically this is a long story but i will still tell you.
Last week, i learnt about this in my college and i was amazed by the things i found out.

In the beginning Charles Darwin came up with the theory of evolution, he was amazed because he found out that us humans evolved from tetrapods(things with 4 limbs). Then, following this great discovery, he presented his ideas to the public but he got a bad reaction. His theory completly contradicted with religious beliefs; the bible and quran say that God made man with clay but evolution had evidence that we evolved from simple creatures similar to tadpoles. Therefore, a war was started between Evolutionists and Creationists. Creationists thought that this was a silly theory so they introduced a "theory" called intelligent design which is basically saying that God is behind the creation of us all.

But to answer you question on the whole, people are scared of the idea of evolution because it proves that religion is nonsense and the text in the bible is wrong. Also, people are scared because God is someone that people are afraid of, therefore they stop themselves from doing bad things such as kill, steal etc. So, if religion is shaken by Evolution, people fear that God will not be believed in anymore and people will act hazardously all over the world.

I know this was long.. but i hope this helps. :)

Answer 8

Evolution has been proven? This must've happened in the last few minutes, because it hadn't been when I went to the kitchen about 15 minutes ago.

When the word evolution is used correctly, no one objects to it. When you use it to say that one species actually becomes an entirely different species, you're talking about something no one can proven and that has not been proven.

There are a huge number of scientists who do not believe in the latter definition of evolution, and I don't imagine that they're any more "frightened" than I am.

Did any of you bother to look up Lion of Judah's citations before you glibly called believers stupid? I'd bet my whole week's allowance that not one of you did, nor will you. There's the open mind at work.

Answer 9

i'm uncertain what you mean by those against evolution being irritating. i've got in no way considered or heard something interior the debate that denotes any style of worry. the priority on the two facets of the evolution situation is the human tendency to vilify or demean warring parties somewhat than work together in clever debate. alongside those traces I particularly have witnessed the two facets hotel to slander and short imprecise comments. If somebody is guard in any conception(medical or religious) they might desire to have the means to guard that view somewhat and state all data somewhat than consistently bearing on massive our bodies of unnamed data.

Answer 10

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Well Evolution isn't 'Proven', but it is the most likely explanation for range of life of earth based on the available evidence.

As to the reason why some people fear the idea, it's because in their simple minds, it robs them of the idea that they're special (or chosen, or whatever they call themselves).
Yes we came from apes, but Apes aren't able to question the nature of their own existence, thus 'Hooray' we're special again.