does the theory of evolution say that there is no intelligent design or does it just say nothing about it?

Question

i ask this question because i believe in both. but i dont want my kids going to school and being taught that there is no GOD. i dont want them being taught religion in school either.
im not trying to be rude against atheists. i just want everyones beliefs to be respected.

sorry jaicee, i was just asking a question.

Answer 1

The purpose of the evolution theory is to explain the origin of everything without a Creator; if molecules-to-man evolution is true, then God is out of a job. Yes, there are theistic evolutionists like yourself (God used evolution), but your kids will mostly be indoctrinated in atheistic evolution at school.

Answer 2

The theory of evolution does not refer to God or Intelligent Design, nor should it. It is a scientific theory, just like the theory of reltivity, or planetary motion, of atomic sructure, etc. Whether or not God is a motive force behind these processes is not relevant in this context, although it is of course an important question. Science is simply a bunch of theories developed by observation. The conclusions reached are only science if they are verifiable. Non verifiable conclusions are conjecture, and may or may not be true.
That is where religion and philosophy come into it.

Science tells us that a ball falls down when dropped, how it fell, what forces caused it to fall, what the effects of the fall were, etc.

Religion suggests why the ball exists in the first place.

Whilst the theory of evolution clearly causes some issues with many believers, it is accurate. To deny it is to play ostrich. However, there is absolutely no reason why a belief in God should be threatened by this theory which is based on obvervable and demonstrable facts.

Answer 3

It seems that mankind is incapable of actually understanding that some questions have no answers. Evolution, as a theory, is quite brilliant considering that it originated on a ship in the 1800's. It has stood the test of time, but at some point new data may lead to significant changes. It may be in 50 years, or 500.

I do not agree with ID based upon the fact that it is currently 2007. Some of the question posed right now in science may not have an answer for millenia. Humanity in it's infancy created supernatural constructs to understand the world. Religion is a condition of the infancy of our species.

Answer 4

if you believ in both then learn about either of them.

Evolution excludes intelligent design


Quesitoner> why do you always gotta use misinformation? Evolution has NOTHING to do with creation of universe or origin of life at all...It ONLY deals with life adaptation. Seriously, if you wanna bash the Theory then learn what the Theory actually is...sheesh
And the only diff between "theistsic" and "atheist" Evolution is people tagging origin of life onto the Theory, WHICH IS STUPID AS IT IS TOTALLY DIFFERENT IDEA!!!!!!


Deporodh> Um...no. You have it wrong. A Theory is a general rule used to explain WHY the facts+laws work as they do...so it is a HIGHER level. Realitvity, Gravity, Evolution, etc would all NEVER become laws because laws deal only with specific instances. THAT is science.

Answer 5

Why should indefensible beliefs be respected? Intelligent Design is NOT a scientific theory, primarily because it offers no testable predictions. Evolution on the other hand is not only a great and beautiful theory, but it is robust. It has been supported by evidence for 150 years and continues to become stronger with every passing year.

And yes, Evolution by Natural Selection is NOT compatible with Intelligent Design. You cannot "believe" in both. You can certainly believe in ID, but such a belief is mistaken.

In a purest sense you cannot believe in evolution, but you can *accept" evolution as a credible theory which has stood the test of evidence and time, and so is vastly superior to any nonscientific approach to understanding life.

Answer 6

It is entirely possible to believe in both. The theory of evolution just describes a process of change in living things over thousands of years. It says nothing about where the living things came from or what started the process.

It is not an either/or situation. You can easily believe that creation was divine and evolution simply the process it took. You can't take the bible literally and do both, but there are obvious, documented mistakes, mistranslations and deletions to the texts, so I can't understand how anyone could take it literally. It doesn't mean you don't believe in 'god' or that you think it's false - just that some of it is allegory and some of it has been altered by man.

Answer 7

Darwinian evolution does not imply that there is no God (Darwin was deeply religious, btw), it simply places the evolution of species in the same catagory as other things like gravity and chemistry - things that happen on there own due to the laws of nature without the need for divine intervention. Who, if anyone, "wrote" those laws is not specified.

Darwinian Evolution, however, does logically imply there is no specific intelligent design to life on earth. In DE, *random* inheritable (ie, in the genome) variations occur with each new generation. Variations that happen to cause the organism to be better adapted to the environment *naturally* result in an increase in their frequency in the population due to better adapted individuals leaving more offspring than others.

Random and natural processes mean that there is no intelligent design occurring. ID means that some really smart entity like an alien, God, the Cosmic Computer, or (my favorite) The Flying Spaghetti Monster engineered the genome for some purpose. This is a nonrandom and artificial and/or supernatural process, so it not an example of Darwinian Evolution, by definition.

Many people who believe in God find the idea of one who periodically must tune the world up (tweak a genome here, part a sea there) like a mechanic balancing dual carborators, to be antithetical to the idea of Him being perfect. A perfect car would not need a periodic tuneup.

Darwin himself obstained from speculation on the origin of the *first* lifeform, but current thinking is that it too could have formed spontaneously in the early earth enviroment. Something as simple as a molecule that bonds to simpler molecules in the enviroment in such a way as to create a mirror image of itself, which then cleaves off, could suffice in principle to kick things off. Such complex molecules could not survive in today's enviroment because bacteria would find them quite tasty.

Answer 8

The theory of evolution says nothing about whether there is a God. It's not likely that a science teacher, whatever their personal belief, will teach that there is no God.

Many theists accept evolution. You might be interested in reading "The Language of God" by Dr Francis Collins. He's the director of the Human Genome Project and also a Christian. Of course he accepts evolution. Another scientist who is a Christian and has written a book about how God fits with evolution is Kenneth Miller, who wrote "Finding Darwin's God." You might find his website interesting.

Answer 9

Well,

You have a valid point! Darwin's theories do not ask if there is a God or not, but the churches "interpret" it that way, there lies the controversy.

When we are children, we are told stories about aspects of life that are not true, or partially true, because we cannot conceive the full truth at the time (I.E. the birds and bees).

Is it possible then that a "partial truth" is what the Bible gives, and we were meant to discover the rest?

When I was a child, I concerned myself with childish things, could this be the meaning?

Answer 10

The theory of biological evolution is just that, more than a hypothesis, less than a law (speaking solely in the terms of observational science). One current definition:

"evolution can be precisely defined as any change in the frequency of alleles [specific variations of a particular gene] within a gene pool from one generation to the next."

-- Helena Curtis and N. Sue Barnes,
Biology 5th ed. 1989 Worth Publishers, p.974

(An allele is just a specific variation of a gene. All cats have a gene that determines their hair colors, hair lengths & patterns, eye colors, but each one has a particular allele that determines which particular hair color, length, pattern, and eye color that cat has.)

Having said all that, now I will point out that the concept of intelligent design is nowhere mentioned in the theory of evolution. Nor is it discussed by science teachers who are credentialed teachers taught in accredited public universities. Intelligent design is a religious teaching (in my opinion, borne out by more exact facts made public in many places).

Respect for anyone's beliefs, and everyone's beliefs, is something I applaud heartily. De-mystifying the unknown (because many humans fear the unknown) in religion is a task that has been made much easier by the Religious Tolerance non-profit web site, where one may look up facts about any number of tiny or huge religions, from Asatru to Zoroastrianism.