Evolution!?

Question

Do we believe in it?!

I personally don't...

what about every one else?

Answer 1

It's not like a belief, like a belief in God. It's a theory that is debatable and opened to further refinement and reevaluation. Some parts of evolution I believe, some parts I think are sort of funny, and some parts are some pretty big stretches. But it's a much bigger idea now than it was when Darwin wrote his book- it's a developing idea that trying to explain a lot of things- some better than others.

Answer 2

When I was at school I did not believe in evolution and i was ticked off that we had to write an essay on it. Now after actually understanding more of the actual facts I believe in it (as well as still holding firm in God etc).

Firstly the bible (and I am assuming you beleive in the creation theory) has many pieces of information that are not meant to be taken LITERALLY ie the days etc, but of course the order that God created the world is scientifically correct too.

Secondly things are always changing. Most people tihnk about humans and monkeys (well its technically apes) when thinking about evolution. WE forget we animals too. But also monkeys and apes looked very different millions of years ago too and have also changed.

Fossil evidence shows us how lots of animals have changed over time. Elephants and horses are 2 very well known examples where all the links are there to show the main changes in the "looks" or morphology.
Remember fossils are formed under very special cercumstances and only a tiny proportion of animals have ever made it to becoming fossils.
There is also a lot of human fossil evidence (in Africa) where fossils have been found showing many different types of human-like animals. As we go back in time they resemble apes more and more (ie in how they stand, the size of their brains, teeth etc etc) Many were actually found living at the same time (for example the early homo sapiens (or Cro Magnum man)and the neaderthals (or Homo neaderthelensis) and there are even examples of crosses between them...but the neaderthals gradually died (like ALL the other human types....of which there are around 15 or so) out to leave just homo sapiens...or us.

I would never FORCE anyone to believe in evolution...it is just a theory after all. However when you actually see the evidence it begins to dawn that there may be something to it.
We do see evolution happening in small things like bacteria and viruses (ie how they change. like the bird flu). All the little changes add up over a period of time, until things become more and more different.

Answer 3

As an atheist, i strongly believe in evolution. There are many modern day examples, some stated above. Another good example are studies with Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (a single celled green alga which, under imposed selection pressures, can reproduce sexually or asexually to produce individuals that act as heterotrophs or autotrophs depending).

I sometimes think that it requires more faith to believe in the scientific explanations of evolution and the big bang than to say that an 'all-powerful being' i.e. god, did it in one go. Wouldn't that just tidy things up nice and conveniently? Hence religion so effectively plagues on peoples' misunderstandings by providing an easy solution to their curiosity (whilst monopolising on power and profit simultaneously). It's worth noting that as scientific research has progressed and more logical and proven theories have become available (despite the church's objections), the number of 'true' believers in the world has fallen.

Answer 4

WHAT? I still cant believe that people refuse to believe in evolution.

Faith is something that a lot of people hold dear but the reason that god types dont like the theory of evloution is that they dont want everybody to have come from the same place, or at least that is what it seems like to me, if we accept that humans eveloved from hominid promate life forms (austrolepithecnes etc) and that by looking at genetic evidence we can clearly see that our DNA is 99% the same as a chimpanzee and stoip being so bloody stuck up about it maybe we can stop having stupid wars about which religion is the right one, we all come from the same place, we evloved from a primeval soup over billons of years and we are where we are today, I think thats pretty great and dont feel bad that my ancestors once lived in a tree and ate parsites off each other.

REligious nuts please feel free to make any jibe you want i have evloved above you and you outdated fantastical notions!!!!!

Answer 5

Dont be so narrow minded. Do you honestly believe that all the creatures on Earth were put here by some super creature namely God 6000- 10000 years ago. Away

Creationists make me ill, The planet is 70% water and yet more species are land dwelling, if creationism was true then there would be more Water based animals and the dominant species would be aquatic

Answer 6

i do believe in evolution. we evolved to our state and are still evolving however in a way never seen before as we are now independant of our environment. for those who say
"no missing link has been found" this is because evolution takes 1000 000's of years therefore we are not going to go from our small mammal ancestors to humans today in 1 generation. the idea of a "missing link" is as rediculous as monsters under the bed.

Answer 7

The most generalized notion of evolution is that of "natural selection", meaning that the survival of organisms is based around their genetic adaptability. Whether people would like to admit it or not, Evolution has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Two major examples that come to mind:
1: Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria
2: A prevalence of sickled cell anemia in Africa

1: Since bacteria multiply incomprehensibly faster than human beings, it is possible to use them as a model of evolution on an observable scale. What has been seen since the emergence of antibiotics is that many bacteria have spontaneously developed the genetic material needed to not only tolerate these poisonous compounds, but to completely break them down. That is why when people are prescribed antibiotics they are told to finish off the whole prescription, or else they may generate antibiotic resistant bacteria, requiring a different prescription and more time. Eventually there will be pathogenic bacteria resistant to all known antibiotics, and the search for new ones will have to continue.

2: Malaria has been erased from many developed countries, but many parts of Africa have been plagued by it for thousands of years and continue to have problems with it. What has been observed is that there is a significant amount of people with sickled cell anemia in locations where malaria is prevalent in Africa. It has also been determined that sickled cell anemia prevents the malarial parasite from taking hold in a person, and thus people with sickled cell anemia are immune to malaria. This prevalence of sickle cell in Africa was most likely caused by so many people dying from malaria throughout history that sickled cell anemia was a trait constantly selected for.

Of course you are always entitled to your interpretation, but as time goes on more evidence goes towards supporting evolution, and none towards refuting it.

Answer 8

I believe in evolution, because it makes everything slot together. I mean we must have come from somewhere, we didn't just appear, so evolution is the logical answer

Answer 9

Evolution: Definition; change over time. It is abundantly clear that life on earth has changed over time.
Natural Selection: Definition; Darwin's explanation for the mechanism driving evolution. It clearly happens, as demonstrated by bacterial resistance to antibiotics.

The only question remaining is whether natural selection is, in fact the driver of evolution. If you chose to ignore a volunimous fossil record that clearly demonstrates that evolution has occurred, and if you choose to ignore all the geology, chemistry and physics that have successfully shown the age of the earth to be billions, not thousands of years old, and if you choose to ignore the success of the scientific method in our modern, technological world, then you are free to deny the fact of evolution, and ignore the most rational explanation ever offered for that fact.

If you must believe in the biblical creation myth, that is fine. Just recognize that belief for what it is, namely faith, and don't confuse creationism with science.

I dare say your science teachers don't ask you to believe in evolution, only to understand it and why it is the most powerful idea in modern biology. It is your preacher who asks you to believe.

Answer 10

I don't believe in evolution, i know that evolution is factually sound and provable. I may believe in a god more powerful than i, but to question evolution is silly.

Now, what is not silly, is that no scientist to date have factually proven that life can exist OR be CREATED from the basics of our universe. That being from chemical state to living state!

Now there's a question for all religious believers, a question still outstanding by scientist too.