Question for all you philosophers....?

Question

Can we all not agree that belief in God and Evolution both require a bit of faith as both cannot be totally physically proven?

Thank you all for your answers so fara, very interesting but I have to leave work now.

Answer 1

I've got a cold beer waiting at home I'd rather think about.

Answer 2

I don't think that is a completely accurate representation. God requires all faith, nothing else. Other than some texts that were written quite some time ago, there is no other evidence that God exists. No tangible, verifiable proof. Evolution, on the other hand, cannot be proven from this point back, but we can observe fossils and other evidence to make logical conclusions. In addition, we can observe current life forms to see if evolution is an ongoing process, which is what we do see at this time.

Eventually, evolution will become a law of science since we are now looking at it very closely. With God, unless he intervenes, the end of the world comes about, or something else happens, there is no proof that God exists.

Answer 3

Dream on. How can you get agreement between people who have no common understanding of faith and others who will accept no philosophy or doctrine that cannot be reduced to a bean count or a knee jerk response in the lab?

Until such time as the asker, and those who answer, have some agreed upon definitions, these matters cannot be intelligently argued let alone answered.

The problem is compound by religious definitions, personal definitions and dictionary definitions that are not the same.

Webster's Dictionary has unworkable if not invalid definitions for faith and belief; however street functional. Parties do not always know what concept of evolution is held and not all religious people reject every principal of evolution.

I have been on some sites where parties were bragging how they got some Christians on Answers to admit to one of their ideas about evolution. This type of mentality will never produce any common ground. Some religious groups run in packs with their doctrinal baggage and deserve what little criticism they get. And so it goes ----

Nice thought, but as they say --- I think it will be a cold day in...........before any real agreement is reached

Answer 4

I don't think you understand the idea what a scientific "theory" is. It's not just some half ****** idea any jackass comes up with. your acting like it's a guess. That would be a hypothesis, a hypothesis is a educated guess. A theory is pretty much a fact. There is all kinds of evidence for evolution. You'd have to be completely uneducated to not believe it. Evolution is real, it's a fact, and the most avid creationist know it is deep down. Here's the question though, does Evolution prove there is no god? I don't think it does. What better way to make life then start from the bottom up.

Answer 5

Well, evolution is potentially observable, while "God" is not - depending on your definition of God. Now my definition of God is the energy that drives the life of everything, the energy that makes us all related, no matter the species. Looking at it that way they are both observable and neither is based on faith, but observation. I believe in both and I don't see why either option should negate the possibility of the other.

Theology and the drive to discover are both innate human needs. Pitting one against the other doesn't further the cause of either. When science and religion kiss and make up they will both benefit by it.

Answer 6

No, whilst belief in evolution like all our scientific beliefs cannot be proven and thus requires belief, that belief is based on a rational weighing of evidence and subject to criticism and scrutiny.

Faith, is different from mere belief and is not based solely on evidence or at least not on empirically testable evidence.

That doesn't make it lesser just different

all the best PP

Answer 7

No.

God cannot be proven because God is not falsifiable.

Evolution is falsifiable, and has stood up to the tests of generations and the discovery of DNA. Ultimately, we cannot prove evolution, because we cannot honestly prove most things. We cannot prove gravity; we cannot even prove that there will be a tomorrow, much less that the sun will rise. However, we have lots of evidence, and its the same with evolution.

This is only a "debate" in Turkey and the United States. Just goes to show...

Answer 8

Sure, both are theoretical concepts inferred from observation and thought, so you can't demonstrate them since God is supposedly non-physical and much of evolution was a unique occurrence in the past.

But that doesn't mean that because both require faith, both are equally probable based on what we know. Beyond that, when you start introducing faith into the mix, we're departing somewhat from pure scientific reasoning. The question of whether or not faith or a non-demonstrable, intuitive knowledge of something existing or being true is debatable and much debated.

Answer 9

That is correct. Even though the evidence we see for evolution is overwhleming, I could be imagining everything I see. We could be missing some detail somewhere. 100% proof of anything outside of the self and mathematical/logical statements is impossible. That being said, I have to assume reality exists as I see it for practical purposes, and evolution is by far the most likely explanation for the observed phenomena.

Answer 10

The difference is in whether faith is maximized or minimized.

The minimum we really have to have "faith" on is that our senses give us relatively good information. Though, even our sensory input is taken as more of a working assumption. We taken things that are relatively consistent as truth until otherwise shown differently.

Religions, on the other hand, tend to promote faith because they really have no real evidence that their god exists. They gain and keep converts mainly through emotional manipulation and childhood indoctrination.

Answer 11

Actually God can be proven by science. Physics teaches of four forces that govern the material world, but science had discovered the existence of a fifth force that holds all living things together. Its a force that permeates through all creation and provides the binding force in all of life. Science, right now as we type on this computer, is in the process of proving the existence of the Holy Spirit.