even more on evolution?

Question

Why do most religions discount evolution?We all know what we have learned in school.There were dinosaures yet the bible dosn't mention them...We know the Earth is over 500 million years old yet bible schollers say that according to the Holly bible it is between 8 and 12 thausand years old...so why are we so scared to embrace facts,and so scared to discount fiction?

Answer 1

The propaganda against evolution is pretty determined. People like Mark who suggest there are only 4 intermediate forms obviously is accepting what others have told him and not researched it in science classes as he has claimed. There are millions of so called intermediate forms. Animals tend to evolve relatively quickly till they reach a form that is suitable to a particular enviroment. The reason turtles, coelecanths, and crocodiles have remained relatively unchanged is because they have achieved a form that is extremely well adapted to its envirnment and additional evolution is not required to enhance its form. Being a geologist, it is so obvious to me that the earth is millions (actually billions) of years old.

Answer 2

All religions do not discount evolution. You are making a generalization based on a relatively small group.

The major 5 religions in the world are Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Of these 5, Buddhism and Hinduism actually hold a view of the universe that is consistent with a scientific view of the universe (including evolution) while also embracing all sorts of things you would call fiction. Almost a quarter of the world's population follow some form of Hinduism and Buddhism, so right away your claim is off.

Of the last three (the Christians, Muslims and Jews) their beliefs are similar because they all come out of the same tradition and a similar culture. All of them believe in the Old Testament stories of Eden, Abraham, Moses, etc. Naturally then their worldviews are going to have similarities. If you take a literal interpretation of these stories, they seem inconsistent with scientific views including evolution. But not all members of these religions take a literal view of their stories. If you read the first few pages of the book of Genesis philosophically, you will find that God is dividing the lightness from the dark and making a creation out of nothing that gives order to the chaos. Next, he created the planet and began to grow life on it, including all the animals. Next came man, who was innocent like an animal until he ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and grew conciousness. This step made him develop beyond self-awareness and knowledge of immortality beyond that of other animals. The only thing that separates him from God now is the knowledge of life and death or immortality which is the other tree of eden that is guarded and which we can never return to. We can't return to that primal state of nature in Eden because we have evolved past that.

Now, what in this story is inconsistent with the process by which the universe formed and man evolved? It simply doesn't go into the technical details. Most truely religious people are able to reconcile this story with a more detailed and literal scientific view. And all of the remaining three religions believe this same story of Genesis, so there are plenty of people who have no problem believing in both.

Answer 3

As other responses have noted, "most" is a generalization. Now, the Earth, according to the most recent scientific analysis, is approximately 4.6 billion years old. For now.

Your question brings up an interesting point. According to Bronislaw Malinowski, religion and belief systems are man's way of acknowledging his mental and physical shortcomings. I've often found that a very nice, politically sound way to define something so mammoth. However, I think you're asking about organized religion, and why certain institutions refuse to accept the theory. Well, organized religion, in theory, is a beautiful concept. It allows members of a very social species to celebrate their beliefs en masse. Though individuals have corrupted many of these institutions, using them as tools for social control. Because individuals are often more accepting of change than institutions and bureaucracies, such religious institutions, to maintain control/power/etc., will rebel against change -- in an attempt to slow the changing sentiment within their congregations.

I would wager that, within time, most organized religions that now dispute evolution will come to accept it.

Answer 4

Most religions discount evolution because it is a hoax. Even the Laws of thermodynamics disprove the THEORY (not fact but theory) OF EVOLUTION. The first law states that matter can neither be created nor destroyed yet the "Big Bang" theory says that in the beginning there was nothing but some clouds of hydrogen and that everything in the universe came from this thin air(hydrogen). That is all the stars, planets, you, me, EVERYTHING. As you should know, matter takes the form of solids, liquids, or gasses. Do you actually believe that the first form of matter was helium and that the 2 other forms came from THAT? Where did the helium come from? It can not be created nor destroyed?

The other glaring "fly in the evolutionist's ointment" is that there are no fossil records of any species that is between a fish and a reptile, or a reptile and a bird, or an ape and a man. They have bones of every known species of animal and even some extinct animals as the dinosaur, but none of a 'tweener.

What facts are we discounting? I'd rather believe that a supernatural being created the universe than believe that we came from thin air which was not created but "just happened to be here". Bible scholars DO NOT say that the earth is only 8-12 thousand years old. That is this present (civilization?) that they are speaking of. Let's not be in too big a hurry to embrace these "facts" that you are speaking of.

The other

Answer 5

What bible scholars say that accordingly the planet is only 5-10 thousand years? Most I know seem to be able to integrated the ambiguous myths and scientific fact to concede that we have evolved along a fairly well understood path where from the First Source and Center and the Personality known as God has established an evolutionary time space relativity that has evolved into us.

Answer 6

Hello,I am a scholar from a christian school,and I discount evolution,but I do indeed believe that God doesnt creat an animal out of knowhere,he gives the animal what it need for living conditions,during the ice age,the small rodents needed large,fat bodies,so God changed them into Wooly mammoths,the bible does indeed mention dinosaurs,but according to the bible,it was dragon like,many dinosaurs had air slits in their heads that suggest they could combine gasses to create an extreemly hot fume.the possible reason of this is because it was of a straggling race of dinosaurs that have died probably,and are in places unexplored,like the loch ness...I do not believe the earth is 12 thousand,its more like 12 billion,but historians either didnt know how to read them,or the artisans who wrote the bible made a slight mistake,how would they really know?

Answer 7

Some of us came to the realization after years of believing the science teachers that the flaws in the theory of evolution were to great to be accepted. They have no explanation for the beginning of life. Abiogenesis or spontaneous generation are farther from fact then when it was first proposed. The Big Bang theory calls for not only exceptions in the laws of Thermodynamics but for a miracle itself. I listened to a discourse on it the other day. The scientist was expalining how there was nothing, then suddenly out of nowhere there was this extremely intense ball of light. Super high temperatures resuted from a incredable amount of energy in a extremely small space the size of a baseball, suddenly expanded at incredable speed. Sounds like Genesis doesn't it?
Where are all the transitional fossils that Darwin said had to be there? The last count I had, science was showing five, all highly dubious and doubted by many scientist themselves.
Not one case of a beneficial mutation with an increase in genetic knowledge has ever been found by biologists. Benefical mutations yes, rare, but it does happen. All of them including those in bacteria have a loss of genetic knowledge, but for evolution to work there has to be an increase in genetic knowledge. The odds of a single amino acid cell forming into a cell complete with DNA and RNA and the right combinations of protiens is higher than picking one atom out of the universe blindfolded.
Not one case of evolution from specie to another specie has ever been observed. It cannot be tested, and it cannot be falsified. So by scientific standards how does evolution get past the Hypothesis stage?
They have found whale fossils they claim are 4 million years old recently, exactly like modern whales. Colinith supposed to have disappeared 25 million years ago is found of Brazil, exactly like the fossils they found. Why no evolutionary change in 25 million years? No evolutionary process, or the dating system used for fossils is way off. It has to be one or the other or both.
You blame Christians for taking something on faith with no proof to back it, yet you do the same with science. The best way to prove a hypoothosis correct is to try to prove it false. Try that with your theory of evolution if you dare to really try it.

Answer 8

Religions rely on dogmas that were said hundreds or thousands years ago. They have a problem coping with the realities of the 2 last centuries.

Answer 9

Most religions don't discount evolution.

A subset of Christianity is pretty much the only group whole heartedly opposed to it...it's not even all Christians.

Answer 10

Many religions are actually just a tool for social control, not spiritual development or enlightenment. To acknowledge that anything they teach is not accurate, it opens the door for other aspect of their teachings to be questioned.