The THEORY of Evolution as a religion - Does it fit the criteria? Keep it polite & intelligent. Please.?

Question

It seems to me that evolutionists are deluding themselves into believing themselves to be somehow smarter or better educated than anyone who chooses to believe in either Intelligent Design or Creationism theories. Quite of few of the die-hard evolutionists that I've talked with seem to feel that any system of religion diminshes them, but... Random House College Dictionary & Dictionary.com defines religion as - "a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe", "a deep convition of the validity of religious beliefs & practices", "a point or matter of ethics & conscience". Merriam Webster - "a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith". Encarta - "a set of strongly-held beliefs, values, and attitudes that somebody lives by" & "an object, practice, cause, or activity that somebody is completely devoted to or obsessed by". By these definitions, wouldn't the scientifically unproveable THEORY of evolution be a religion?

Thanks to all of you for a great discussion! Biologist by training & field work my profession. My undergraduate was in pre-med, chemistry & agriculture & a Master's in Zoology from a well respected college in the US. The difinitions for the word 'religion' came from 3 real dictionaries that millions of everyday people use so how can they be wrong? That's an opionion. Evolution, as proposed by Darwin, has not been proven & can't be proven in the field. The theory must be taken on faith. Just because enough people believe something, does it make it fact? It takes no more faith to believe in the theory of intelligent design. Neither can be repeatedly tested with closely matching results. Nice Wikipedia definition though. The hypothesis of evolution can't be tested though. Since evolution can't be expiramentally tested, maybe it should by a hypothesis & so should intelligent design? These are just observations & thoughts put out to cause [hopefully?] objective discussion.

Oh, & while I don't personally believe in evolution, I don earnestly believe in natural selection as I have personally observed this.

Answer 1

Evolutionists have their entire lives and reputations resting upon Darwin's theory. They're committed to their religion, just as any true Christian is committed to his. If an evolutionist changes his views, then he denies and forsakes his fellow scientists and former educators. He becomes a "black sheep," loses his job, his reputation, and his social standing. Since he has studied and worked his entire life to get where he is, he isn't about to throw it all away. So the committed evolutionist chooses to strive harder and harder in his effort to disprove the Genesis account. He will ignore all facts which support Special Creation. He is not open to anything other than "evidence" to prove his theory. All evidence which proves CONTRARY to his theory is discarded and ignored.

Answer 2

Well, I'm not going to get into any debate about whether evolution is a religion or not but well - educated, trained, well-meaning, caring, loving scientific evolutions have credible findings to support their hypothesis or "religion."

I'm no evolutionist and at this point in my life I simply don't care right now. I don't disagree that it is a THEORY but nonetheless it is a theory with some scientific foundation. There are even educated Christians and other God believing individuals that agree with the "theory."

Years ago when I was "interested" and studying Creationism, by such luminaries as Henry Morris and Duane Gish, we were told some things to support the Creationist "theory" that I have since found out simply were not true. These Creationists now admit to such subsequent mistakes, i.e man's footprints found along side dinosaur footprints.

For years I read within what I now call the "box." The "box" of Christian thinking by Christian writers and if I dare thought outside the "box" then I was told that that was Satan working his devilish deeds in my heart. I finally searched outside the box and found out there are a whole lot of credible information to refute many Christian beliefs.

Have you read outside the "box"? Read some scientific reviews and books by educated evolutionists and perhaps by some Christian scientists who don't disagree with the theory of evolution. Do this and then let's see if you have a difference of opinion.

Answer 3

While I don't agree that religions must possess a Deity, I offer that evolution can be described as "religious" in nature due to the fact that it is not entirely proven to be the origin of humankind. While there are examples of evolving phenomena (bacteria mutations, human intelligence advancement etc) we cannot in total confidence say that this is a process that has existed all through the ages. It possibly could be a recent phenomenon, we don't know for sure. Without transitional "missing links" people must have a certain degree of faith that what is present now, will be verified at a future time. This element of faith does allow someone to describe evolution as somewhat religious in nature.

By the way, just an FYI here;

THEORY
Pronunciation: 'thE-&-rE, 'thir-E
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -ries
Etymology: Late Latin theoria, from Greek theOria, from theOrein
1 : the analysis of a set of facts in their relation to one another
2 : abstract thought : SPECULATION
3 : the general or abstract principles of a body of fact, a science, or an art
4 a : a belief, policy, or procedure proposed or followed as the basis of action b : an ideal or hypothetical set of facts, principles, or circumstances -- often used in the phrase in theory
5 : a plausible or scientifically acceptable general principle or body of principles offered to explain phenomena
6 a : a hypothesis assumed for the sake of argument or investigation b : an unproved assumption : CONJECTURE c : a body of theorems presenting a concise systematic view of a subject

Scientifically acceptable does not equate to scientifically proven!

Answer 4

No, no a religion. It is actually a scientific theory and is backed up by serious research and experiment. It is not faith bassed at all.
If you think about science you will find it structured as skepticism.
Researchers try to poke holes in evolution theory just like any other theory. If somebody could find a better explanation of evolution then the theory would be changed.
Religion works the exactly opposite way.

Edit later:
By the way.
Both of Schebb's copy paste quotes are lies.

1) The Lewontin quote is terribly out of context. Lewontin was a very strong evolution scientist famous for population genetics. His argument was against certain features of the theories. He was a coworker of the late Stephen J Gould.

2) The Creationist, Morrison has refused every offer made by every accredited scientist to openly debate. His debate challenge is a fraudulent offer.

Answer 5

Sorry it's so long

I really suspect that you don't understand what a scientific theory is. To give you an idea, a good example is the theory of gravity. The theory of gravity is a fact. So is the theory of evolution. Understand? Religion is not something you study skeptically and scrutinize. The difference between science and religion is that science sees a question and tries to answer it, and religion feels they already know the answer and then tries to make everything fit that answer (even when it obviously doesn't). I'm an atheist, but most people who take evolution seriously are actually not atheists. Most of them in the US are Christian. The theory of evolution has been relentlessly tested and though we can never conclusively see it taking place the fossil record removes all doubt.

Answer 6

Ther is no either/or, you can believe in god and Evolution and you can deny a god AND deny Evolution. Even if the Evolution as we know it will be proved wrong (but there is more evidence discovered every day that this is unlikely), it is very clear to science that the Homo sapiens sapiens did never 'just appeared' as he is. What about the appendix, the wisdom teeth, the goose bumps we still get (even though there is no hair), the hair in places where we don't need it, pheromones we are sending out and can't even smell them anymore, DNA fact, the fact that we are more related to Chimpanzees than Chimps are to other Apes... I could go on for hours!! There is just too much evidence to ignore it. We are not so special and superior and that is the problem most ignorants have with evolution.
If god made us (and everything else)as we are, why is mutation even possible???
This creationism stuff is simply too much a fairy tale to me... a desperate clinging to outdated mythology.

Answer 7

Firstly I would like to say, bravo on capitilising the word THEORY, it really shakes the foundations of evolutionary science. I would like you to give me one peice of science that is known as a theorem [something which has been proved beyond all doubt] and not a theory [something for which there is such wide acceptance and evidence for it is beyond reasonable doubt]. Science cannot prove anything, mathematics is the only thing that can do that. Religion cannot prove anything either, besides the burden of proof lies with the theist, not the atheist, since it is impossible to prove the negative statement "God does not exist".

"a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe" - Evolution provides method by which nature exists, but does nothing to explain its purpose.

""a deep convition of the validity of religious beliefs & practices" - A very bad definition since a definition should not use the word being defined. Evolution does not require you to have any religious practises.

"a point or matter of ethics & conscience" - Evolution shows how a man came to exist but nothing as to how he should live his life ethically.

"a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith" - Evolution is not a cause, and it is not a faith because faith implies belief in something for which there is very little or only circumstantial evidence for.

"a set of strongly-held beliefs, values, and attitudes that somebody lives by" - People do not live by evolution, it does not tell you how to live. It tells you how you got to be here.

"an object, practice, cause, or activity that somebody is completely devoted to or obsessed by" - Evolution is not a cause, or a practise, or an object or even an activity. Evolution happens, people don't choose to evolve. Perhaps some people are obsessed by it though.

I conclude that evolution is not a religion.

Answer 8

It is a fact that organisms evolve. The theory addresses the exact mechanisms of how organisms evolve.

Evolution is neither: concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe; a matter of ethics or conscience; a cause, principle, or system of BELIEFS held to with FAITH; something anyone lives by; nor an object, cause, practice, or activity. So, none of those definitions of religion apply to evolution.

Answer 9

Evolution is a religion. It is based on faith. Nobody has seen it, but still evolutionists believe.

They have fabricated "proof" in the form of Peking Man, Nebraska Man, Lucy and a myriad of others. They even try to make their case by pointing to "micro evolution", which is just the survival of the fittest of the variation within a species.

Their deity is Science. They seek to answer metaphysical questions by invoking Science. Their dogmatism is more characteristic of religion than science. And science doesn't hold dogmatically to something that cannot be observed, tested & c. Faith is a characteristic of religion, even when the faith is in a speculative "scientific" theory.

Answer 10

i'm sorry but the fact that you have capitalized "theory" leads me to believe that you don't know the meaning of a scientific theory

SCIENTIFIC THEORY=In scientific usage, a theory does not mean an unsubstantiated guess or hunch, as it can in everyday speech. A theory is a logically self-consistent model or framework for describing the behavior of a related set of natural or social phenomena. It originates from and/or is supported by experimental evidence (see scientific method). In this sense, a theory is a systematic and formalized expression of all previous observations that is predictive, logical and testable.
===============================================

"By these definitions, wouldn't the scientifically unproveable THEORY of evolution be a religion?"
===============================================
ALSO,there's an ENORMOUS amount of scientific evidence ....anyone who WANTED to learn it up would have found those out by now...

theories in science are EXTREMELY well established.....some examples are:gravitaional theory,atomic theory ,acoustic theory etc......

try these links

http://books.nap.edu/html/creationism/evidence.html
http://www.gate.net/~rwms/EvoEvidence.html

macroevolution especially:
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/comdesc/

Answer 11

No. Evolution is a science. It is founded in evidence, is testable, and has been tested. It has extensive evidence and withstands intense (honest) scrutiny. No scientific theory is "provable".

There are no Intelligent Design or Creationist theories. They make no testable predictions. That is religion fully failing to masquerade itself as science.

As for the "keep it polite". Thank you for showing your flagrant hypocrisy in the first line below the question. Evolutionist is a derogatory term. "Deluding" is not exactly a complement.