Evolution Quiz for those who accept evolution?

Question

I recently posted this quiz to creationists. I want to see if there is a difference in the level of understanding about what evolution is between those who believe it is true and those who don't. Thank you for your responses.

True or false:
1) According to evolutionists, Humans evolved from apes?
2) There are many proven facts in science, but evolution is just a theory.
3) A transitional form is a fossil of an animal that is part one species and part another.
4) The age of the earth is determined by scientists solely through the radioactive dating of fossils ?
5) The scientific method begins with a prediction and then looks for evidence to support that prediction?
6) The theory of evolution includes the Big Bang?
7) To believe in evolution is to believe that life and matter came from nothing?

Thanks again!

See how the Creationists answered:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/;_ylc=X3oDMTE1MmI4N2IyBF9TAzIxMTU1MDAxMTgEc2VjA2Fuc19ub3QEc2xrA3N1YmplY3Q-;_ylv=3?qid=20071211123628AA0QzoG

Sorry about the term "Evolutionist". I copied this quiz directly from the one I asked creationists and tried to use non-threatening language so I would get more true answers and less bible verses.

Answer 1

True or false: I got all false.
1) According to evolutionists, Humans evolved from apes?
false
2) There are many proven facts in science, but evolution is just a theory. False
3) A transitional form is a fossil of an animal that is part one species and part another. false
4) The age of the earth is determined by scientists solely through the radioactive dating of fossils ? false
5) The scientific method begins with a prediction and then looks for evidence to support that prediction? False
6) The theory of evolution includes the Big Bang?False
7) To believe in evolution is to believe that life and matter came from nothing?False

Answer 2

1) According to evolutionists, Humans evolved from apes?

Humans are apes by definition. Linnaeus classified us as such and he was a creationist.

2) There are many proven facts in science, but evolution is just a theory.

False due to a misunderstanding of the word theory. A fact, in science, is a discrete point of information. Theories connect facts and explain them. There is no higher classification than theory.

3) A transitional form is a fossil of an animal that is part one species and part another.

False. All organisms are transitional.

4) The age of the earth is determined by scientists solely through the radioactive dating of fossils ?

The age of the Earth was determined by dating a meteor on the assumption that the Solar System was all the same age. All other calculations fit the age found.

5) The scientific method begins with a prediction and then looks for evidence to support that prediction?

It begins with observation. Then a hypothesis is formed from that observation. After the hypothesis is formed, scientists look for evidence to support or falsify the hypothesis.

6) The theory of evolution includes the Big Bang?

False.

7) To believe in evolution is to believe that life and matter came from nothing?

False.

Answer 3

1. False --- Humans and apes have common ancestors. Humans did not directly evolve from modern apes

2. False ---- Depends on the context. "Theory" and "facts" have multiple meanings. A theory is an explanation of a fact.

3. False ---- Species are man-made classifications.

4. False ---- Radioactive dating of rocks/meteorites are used. Fossils are formed from the bodies if dead plants and animals. As plants and animals evolved on earth, at best, the ages of fossils can provide a lower limit for the age of the Earth - a 50 million year old fossil means that the Earth is older than 50 million years, but does not place an upper bound on the age of the earth. Radiometric dating on meteorites provide much more accurate dates.

5. False - Usually, scientists find evidence, and then build theories to explain the evidence.

6. False - The Big Bang is about the birth of the Universe. Evolution is about how lifeforms changed. If you know what they are, you will see that they have nothing to do with each other.

7. False - Evolution says NOTHING about how life started, but it does explain how life changed. There is a massive difference between the two concepts.


There is no such thing as an "evolutionist".

Answer 4

True or false:
1) According to evolutionists, Humans evolved from apes? TRUE
2) There are many proven facts in science, but evolution is just a theory. TRUE
3) A transitional form is a fossil of an animal that is part one species and part another. FALSE
4) The age of the earth is determined by scientists solely through the radioactive dating of fossils ? FALSE
5) The scientific method begins with a prediction and then looks for evidence to support that prediction? TRUE
6) The theory of evolution includes the Big Bang? FALSE
7) To believe in evolution is to believe that life and matter came from nothing? FALSE- everything starts from somthing

Answer 5

To take your questions as written

1. False - Humans and apes shared acommon primate ancestor.
2. True - Evolution, like several other accepted ideas is a theory that has sufficient evidence to be presented as being as close to scientific fact most proven theories, but there are still a feew things that we do not have sufficient understanding to explain.
3. False - A transitional form is a fossil that shows signs of the changes taqking place (like the living fossil the Coelocanth that has the primitive beginnings of limbs that would later become legs.
4. False - There are many other factors that go into determining the age of the earth, including the distance of other astronomical bodies away, the speed at which they're traveling, the age of various samples of minerals among other things
5. true AND false - While that is ONE way the scientific method is used, it is also used in experimentation to see what a particular course will result in and it can also be used to find evidence to contradict or discount a particular idea
6. True - This is the case in that the idea that the "Bid Bang" is seen as the catalyst that eventually led to the circumstances that allowed the earth to from and life to arise.
7. False - Science teaches that matter and/or energy cannot be created, only changed from one state to another (like ice melting into water, and evaporating into steam) and thus all hte matter and energy in the universe came into existance at the big bang, and have spent the 14 or 15 billion years of the universes existance organizing itself into the form we currently recognize it as.

Answer 6

1) Humans and apes evolved from a common, now extinct, ancestor

2) Aaargh! There are no "facts" aside from immediate sensory observation, and some mathematical propositions (such as 1+1=2). A theory is an explanatory paradigm that includes a multiplicity of observations and connections to other theories.

3) It's an intermediate form.

4) Radioactive dating of fossils? Fossils themselves are not amenable to radioactive dating---in a true fossil, all the original biological material has been replaced by minerals at some time after its deposition, and radioactive dating would not be particularly useful. Furthermore, the Earth is a couple billion years older than the oldest fossil. The age of the Earth can be determined by radioactive dating of minerals, by the timescales of geological processes, by the dynamics of the solar system, and by the comparison of the Sun to other stars and to stellar interior models.

5) Well, sometimes it does. In other cases, falsifying data are sought. Sometimes observations are simply collected and then categorized.

6) No, the theory of evolution is strictly about the origin of species, and does not include the origin of life or the origin of the Universe.

7) No, evolution is strictly about the method whereby one species arises from another.

Answer 7

1) In simplest terms, yes. To be exact we evolved from a common ancestor that would be similar to todays apes.
2) "Theories" are based on facts. The Theory of Evolution is based on proven physical data. Somebody who claims that Evolution can't be taken seriously because it's a theory should remember that Gravity is also a theory.
3) False.
4) False
5) Kind of, generally it's more they begin with a question and try to solve that question.
6) False, the theory of evolution has nothing to do with the big bang.
7) False, evolution doesn't talk about the origin of matter or life, only how it has evolved. The creation of life is a completely different branch of research.

BTW: There is no such thing as an "Evolutionist". You make it sound like a religion.

Answer 8

1. Humans ARE apes
2. A scientific theory is based on facts, and BTW, "theory" doesn't ever mean "guess" in the English language.
3. Transitional fossils show the adaptations between on species and another.
4. There are many things that support radio carbon dating of the earth.
5. The scientific method begins with observation.
6. The Big Bang is cosmology and Evolution is Biology. The two theories are not related (well, they are in that the Big Bang happened a long long long LOOOOOOOOONG time before evolution started on earth).
7. That is just dumb and not supported by any science that I have ever read.

Answer 9

True or false:
1) False. Humans and modern apes had a common ancestor.
2) False. A theory can never be proven, only disproven - which happend if a piece of evidence comes to light that is opposition to the theory. Once it is disproven, it ceases to be a theory.
3) False. All animals are "transitional." The ransition occurs through changes in the gene pool over time.
4) False. Astrophysics and other disciplines date the earth as well.
5) Kind of. But they also look for instances in which the prediction is NOT true.
6) False
7) False

Answer 10

1) False, we evolved WITH apes.
2) Evolution is a theory, just like gravity.
3) False, there is no such thing as an absolute transitional fossil, its evolution, not a step-by-step childs book.
4) False, the absolute dating of the earth (4.5 Billion years) is done with radioactive Isotopes.
5) Yes and No
6) Big Bang is Astronomy and Physics, not biology.
7) Again, evolution is about life, not matter. But to answer your question, everything comes from energy, not 'nothing'. Study up M Theory and String theory.