Follow up to my last question. For Atheists (read details please)?

Question

1)a)I’m na evolutionist.
b)The reason i’m asking is because i’m interested in your opinions, i want to know whatyou think. I have nothing against you, i just want to ask politely and discuss

2)In my question yesterday I asked atheists specificly, amongst other things, what would be like if there were poof that evolution was false. Results were:

a)Some people, by not reading the details of my question mistook me by an creationist and proceded to insult me (i’m starting to think some atheists are not the rocket scientist they claim to be. Still, relax, if you’re reading this this is probably not directed to you).
b)Some people simply refused to awnser the question and simply gave arguments like: “Its better to believe in evolution than to believe in fairy tales or the flying spaguetti monster”. Again, no rocket science, still looking back i have to say that i was pretty condescending in my questionand i guess that when you write what you want you end up reading what you don’t want. Heh.
c)Finaly some people awnsered my question throughfully, in a very complete way and more accurately than i usualy am able to awnser questions here on R&S. Still even those people did not, in fact awnsered what would be like if the theory of evolution would be false, they claimed it was hard for them grasping that hipothetical question. Well that got me thinking...

For me its not hard to imagine. If someone came to me and said: “Imagine you just won the lottery 37 times in a row, when you leave home to colect the 37th prize you’re suddenly atacked by a pink dinossaur, he bites of your leg. Just when you think youre about to die, Angelina Jolie shows up in a black mustang, she saves you by killing the dinossaur with a light saber” Is that impossible? Yes. Is it hard for me to imagine that hypothetical situation? Not at all.

Still, it is a completly different situation when people come to me and say: “imagine Jesus never existed” Well, christianity is a big part of my life, its my faith and it changed my life deeply. I have a hard time thinking its all a lie, i don’t feel confortable doing so, its hard...

I usualy hate when people say that it takes faith to believe in evolution, it offends my faith, my work along with my intelligence. So i understand some offensive responses from atheists when faced with the same kind of questioning (i really dislike when people say that atheists have faith in stuff, i think i’ve done a couple of times here but with a lot of reserves, and still the acceptance wasn’t any good, and i understand why).
But i have to say. You sure do treat the evolution subject like fundamentalists, pretty much like its some kind of dogma or immutable law, like me and my Jesus, you have a hard time imagining the world without evolution. Why?
Imagine youre a Jedi
imagine youre an autobot
imagine there is no gravity, that what keeps us on the ground are some invisible strings made of magic energy thats liberated only when we pee
Imagine there is no evolution

Here, let me try:
“Well, my work revolves around an evolutionary approach to insect digestion, so i can kiss my fundings goodbye.So i’m out of a job. My grilfriend is a creationist, so she wont leave me alone for a while, oh and i can forget about showing up at church for the next month i know what the minister will be talking about. In some time, i’m sure the scientists will find out what went on (thats what science is all about, right?), in the meantime i think i’ll go to the R&S section on Y!A, it must be a slaughter house there right now lol.”

Thats my question: Why are you so fundamentalist when it comes to evolution?
Its not hard, and probably not any good, still its been stuck on my head for sometime now

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ah9SZ4__dYcJPuDnAp..w77sy6IX?qid=20070705081403AAFykzK

Thanks people
I can't stay mad at you

Paz de Cristo

humm. Yes. Thank you Unpope

zeb6219- lol. Believe me, i'm an evolutionist. Its just a question. Please, stop accusing me of being an creationist

Answer 1

to be precise, you asked "How would you feel if it was proven beyond doubt that there is no evolution, how would your beliefs be altered"

And I answered that my beliefs would not be altered. Was that unreasonable? I still wouldn't believe in any one of the thousands of gods we invented.

One thing you overlooked maybe, is that if evolution is not responsible for the wild diversity of life, what is? There must be some mechanism. Unless a god just zapped them into existence. But then why do organisms over time seem to speciate?

Answer 2

I'm sorry if I don't know much about the Islam religion. But if a person has always been genuine and giving and moral, there has to be something good that she believes in, even if it's not a religion. And if this person is good all her life, why would she go to hell? Why would she suffer eternally? Honestly, I see heaven and hell as a state of mind. When a person dies, they kind of reflect back on their life, and if they believe they have lived life well, they will feel happy and fulfilled as they pass away. If they were bad all their life, their last living moments would be filled with regret and guilt and thoughts like "Why did I do this?" or "Why didn't I do that?" And as they pass away, those will be the eternal thoughts that they carry, the thoughts that sum up their life's worth. Now, I think this atheist person will die with a good conscience and pure heart, knowing that during her life, she contributed to the world around her and made a difference.

Answer 3

wow that was a monstor question, anyway i think what your getting at is what if your reality changed suddenly from what you think to be true, what it tomorow there was infallable proof that jesus and god and the happy clan didn't exist, thats hard to imagine, well the thing is for evoluonist atheists (some say they don't know and don't think its for us to judge) and i think that evolution is the closest thing that we have, if evolution was proved false i think i would go looking for a new theory, science isn't set in stone like religon is it, i mean you can't speak the bible from an unlimited number of angles with science you are only limited by the data taht you have so it always leaves open new doors the whole time, i think I'd watch and wait for the science community to come up with a new theory, and I wouldn't drop on my knee's and start praying i'd think ok well we don't know and thats what science is about, finding out things and exploring new possablities just because evolution in that question is false doesn't make creation true either

Answer 4

It's all relative.
Some people are fundamental about evolution b/c of personality and some are due to past experiences-kind of a knee-jerk reaction.
I was raised Protestant but luckily, not by 'fundies'. I haven't studied a whole lot on the subject but, from what I have seen/read, it makes a lot more sense than any religion of the Abrahamic faith. It involves natural processes-unlike the Bible which tells stories about unnatural events and calls them 'miracles'' and doesn't allow for any reasoning or question.
BTW, I watch a lot of shows that have anything to do with ancient Egypt and there's this one guy, Dr. Zahi Hawass, who has the same attitude of fundie's about Egyptology as many TV evangelists so I know what you're talking about. ('It's my way or the highway!!!')
Very annoying.

Answer 5

Obviously the first mistake you made was claiming to be an evolutionist.

Basically, you're saying to atheists that if evolution wasn't around would we still disbelieve in gods or, rather, God.

Even without evolution, there are blatantly obvious reasons to disbelieve in gods.

My reason for atheism is this:

~ Given the fact that man has always created gods to explain amazing events, why should current ones be treated any different than, say, Egyptian or Norse gods?

Answer 6

See the great thing about people that embrace science is that if a theory is proven incorrect then they ACCEPT it and start trying to find a new theory that incorporates the new data that invalidated the old theory.

That is the beauty of science it has no problems saying oops we are were wrong. But instead of fighting tooth and nail to say this must not be true because I don't believe in it. Science says lets go find out why this is true.

Answer 7

It was hard for me because that hypothetical changes the emergence of mankind. It rewrites history, changes science, and completely throws what I've learned in the garbage bin, which is why I stated first that if evolution never occurred, it would be like we're all just bacteria.

Answer 8

i dont get fundie about evolution.
evolution is just a theory, which seems to make sense given what we know of ourselves and our surroundings.
atheism isn't based on evolution, it is simply a description of someone who doesnot believe in a god, so it can be broad, but many have things in common, as i have found here, i love finding out what others think.
if evolution was proven wrong, it wouldn't bother me, as there would obviously be another feasible explanation.
humans dont know everything. its amazing we've managed to affect our planet as much as we have.but i think our egos get in the way a little sometimes!
you sound like a nice guy, thanks for sharing.
all the best!

edit
have to agree totally with john c.good points there.
the ability to reevaluate.

Answer 9

Someone can't just say evolution does not exist. They would be required to individually prove that each one of thousands of experiments are flawed. Evolution is simply the product of many instances of unrepaired random mutations that occur in DNA replication.

Answer 10

Honestly, it would cause me to re-evaluate the argument from design...

Don't be offended that people responded harshly to your question. A) People here don't tend to appreciate a good hypothetical. B) Many of us have been here long enough to know what a person is getting at, sometimes we're wrong.