Is Evolution a religion?

Question

Since there is no scientific evidence to show conclusively how life began on Earth and since we would need life in order for it to evolve, is the theory of evolution then a "religion"? By the recent definition of "faith" being "belief without proof", since those who believe in evolution have no proof for the origin of life. No one has demonstrated or proven that abiogenesis is how life began or that it is even possible and the Miller Urey experiment was inconclusive at best.

Darwinsfriend - Variation with a species or micro-evolution has been proven and I accept that as fact. Macro-evolution, the transition from one species into another, however has some huge problems. Where is the evidence that this has happened? Some quotes on this subject include:

“In the years after Darwin, his advocates hoped to find predictable progressions. In general, these have not been found-yet the optimism has died hard, and some pure fantasy has crept into textbooks.”
- Raup, David M., “Evolution and the fossil Record” Science, vol. 213 (July 17, 1981).p.289

-and-

“I fully agree with your comments on the lack of evolutionary transitions in my book. If I knew of any, fossil or living, I would certainly have included them. I will lay it on the line-there is not one such fossil...” - Dr. Colin Paterson, Senior Paleontoligist, British Museum of Natural History in correspondence to Luther Sunderland quoted in Darwin’s Enigma 1988 p.89

Answer 1

Evolution theory is a religious belief that fundamentally requires adherence to the religion of atheism and/or the religion of pantheism. “Evolution” is a hypothetical, unobserved process (without any known scientific mechanism) by which all things in the universe are said to have created themselves from nothing without needing the existence of a Creator. Evolution is a hypothetical process of onwards-and-upwards self-improvement where all things somehow create themselves and somehow increase their complexity of their own accord.

Answer 2

Research in abiogenesis has come a very long way since the 1950s (Miller-Urey). Check out the research coming out of Szostack's lab at Harvard or some other labs like Scripp's. It's pretty clear that natural chemical reactions form a variety of macromolecules which could form nucleotides which could bond to form shards of phenotypic RNA, starting an evolutionary process. Scientists are so convinced that this chemical process is so simple that they now believe wherever in the universe you find water you will find life. Therefore the government is now planning to spend millions of your tax money to send a hot probe to Europa and melt its way beneath the frozen ocean there, looking for life.

Answer 3

Evolution is a scientific theory based upon decades of careful observations and evidence. Accepting its validity has nothing to do with origins. It only states that life forms change over time. Regardless of how it began, it is clear how modern humans have changed over time from an ancestral primate. To understand the theory of evolution, we don't need to have a concrete theory about the origins of life. Evolution is about ongoing processes that are observable now.

Answer 4

Evolution doesn't deal with how life began on Earth. Only with how it diversified and grew more complex over millions of years. And there is plenty of evidence to support that evolution occurs, and *is* occurring, as we speak. Just check out crimsonandclover's question about MRSA.

Religion in itself is more than belief without proof. That is the defintion of faith, yes. There are people who believe in ghosts, fairies, leprechauns, Bigfoot, and the Loch Ness Monster, but I wouldn't call it their religion. And I'm not equating evolution to any of those things, by the way.

Answer 5

Evolution is a scientific theory. Science is not religion. There is plenty of proof for evolution. You are confusing evolution with abiogenesis though in your question. Evolution doesn't explain how life arose nor is it meant to. Evolution just explains what evidence shows us happened to life since it arose.

Answer 6

Science is not a religion. Here is a chart to show the difference:
http://www.wellingtongrey.net/miscellanea/archive/2007-01-15%20--%20science%20vs%20faith.html

And evolution is about how life diversified, it has nothing to do with how it started. But they can do it as far as viruses in the lab. In 3-5 years they will be building bacteria totally from scratch. They are pretty close now, including creating totally new genomes.

Answer 7

In arithmetic axioms are handiest assumed precise for the rationale of seeing what outcome from that assumption. There isn't any assumption made headquartered on observations of the truly international. Nor is there any assumption that the ones axioms are themselves precise in any experience. Mathematics is rather well-nigh the ones integral truths of the type "If X then Y" in which X is composed of units of axioms and Y is composed of integral conclusions headquartered on the ones axioms. Historically The church fought for years towards non-euclidean geometry. So so much in order that the creation of non-euclidean geometry was once not on time considering mathematicians (particularly Gauss ) feared for his or her saftey.

Answer 8

Research into the beginning of life is sporadic as we are still learning about the conditions at the time, but it does continue.

Evolution is not a religion and nothing is taken on faith. You are welcome to believe what you will, but realize science is built on facts and evidence. As what we know now may change, science is not only accepting of new theories, it actively seeks them and corrects its mistakes. Several of the early mistakes (nebraska man?) were not found by outsiders but were discredited by other scientists.

Answer 9

Life is proof of an origin of life. Not knowing the exact mechanism does not make the subsequent development a religion.

Answer 10

Faith is not "belief without proof". It is "belief without evidence". We have tons of evidence for evolution. Further, Evolution is the fact biological populations ( specifically their allele frequencies ) change over time. It has nothing to do with Abiogenesis.