I'm an agnostic, rather interested in the beliefs of people and as such I tend to wander religious boards. Now, I for one am pretty open to any belief, with the one corollary that it does not clash with readily available evidence. Ideas like flat earth or Young earth creationism are simply stupid, since the evidence to disprove them is readily available to even the average man on the street. But evolution seems to be a tricky one. Indeed there is more evidence for evolution then there is for Gravity! But the problem is that it's fairly complex and requires a good deal of study to understand all the little details. I can understand then, that a person who understands the basics of evolution may still be a little reluctant to except it whole sale. Indeed thats the kind of skepticism I like, the kind that refuses to believe anything until it knows enough to actually make an informed decision.
What I can't stand though, is people who run around, screaming insults against science and all who use it, lying through their teeth about this theory and others simply to allow themselves to feel justified. I've heard so many self confessed creationists spout utter garbage about what they think the theory of evolution says. And it's not just ignorance on their part, it is a conscious effort not to understand. I swear that every conversation with these people generally starts out well enough but after answering a few of their demands (since they demand an answer, not just ask a question) the break down into name calling, saying that evolution caused the holocaust or just plain making things up!
So, rather then just complain about it, here's a short list of the very basic errors that I see being made all the time. To all the creationists out there, of any religion, please, just look at these, read over the Wikipedia article and try to actually understand the basics of this theory before you argue about it.
1.Evolution does not say anything about the origin of life, it simply explains the changes from generation to generation.
2.The original theories of Darwin have been vastly improved over the years, to the point that the Theory as it exists today is far removed from what Darwin's original thinking was. The theory HAS changed in the last 100 years and it has changed to better fit with the evidence.
3.There is no "missing link" as the God of Gaps fallacy implies.
We have a pretty amazing amount of evidence and data on the path of evolution, and if you don't believe me then look at this
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/28_03_07_mammalstimeline_pdf.pdf
caution, its a pdf that will probably take roughly a minute to load if you look at it online. It shows the evolutionary paths of just the mammals, and only a fraction of them. You'll have to zoom in to roughly 1600% to read it.
4.Evolution does not violate the second law of thermodynamics, because the second law it true only within a closed system and the earth is by no means a closed system.
5.Transitionals do exist and exist all over the world. For some reason many creationist don't want to except that transitional fossils occur. When they ask for a link between dinosaurs and birds they seem to want something like this
rather then like this
They seem to think that transitionals should be more like some sort of bizarre cross-section, like a centaur, rather then a hybrid like creature. Of course many of them simply contend that these are not transitionals at all, but unique species; But if they want to be willingly ignorant then thats their choice.
6.Evolution is not racist, not by a long shot. Some people put forth a social Darwinism that says that only the strong should survive, but this is indeed the opposite of what Darwin concluded and what evolution says. Evolution says that for a social species to survive it's society must work well together. As the Decent of man said
"With mankind, selfishness, experience, and imitation, probably add, as Mr. Bain has shown, to the power of sympathy; for we are led by the hope of receiving good in return to perform acts of sympathetic kindness to others; and sympathy is much strengthened by habit. In however complex a manner this feeling may have originated, as it is one of high importance to all those animals which aid and defend one another, it will have been increased through natural selection; for those communities, which included the greatest number of the most sympathetic members, would flourish best, and rear the greatest number of offspring."
Others will point out certain racist terms within the text, however I would like to remind them of a few simple facts of the beliefs around at the time:
Whites, Blacks, American Indians, and Asians are all different species
The races are static and created by God, and should thus never be mixed
There are superior and inferior races and the superior whites have the right to dominate the inferior blacks and Indians
There are distinct delineations between the races
Different races are not related to each other
Interbreeding of races leads to degeneration
God originally created civilization, and that whites have stayed true to God, and thus maintained civilization, but the darker races have degenerated and lost civilization as they have become more savage and further from the word of God (This was published by Archbishop Whately and the Duke of Argyll )
In light of these common ideas of the time we can see that in the realm of racism Darwin as actually extremely ahead of his time in tolerance.
That is all I have to say on the subject and I hope it helps a few people better understand the subject. All I can say is that I really hope that creationists will take the time to actually learn what this theory says before they just outright refuse it and begin making outrageous claims.
What I can't stand though, is people who run around, screaming insults against science and all who use it, lying through their teeth about this theory and others simply to allow themselves to feel justified. I've heard so many self confessed creationists spout utter garbage about what they think the theory of evolution says. And it's not just ignorance on their part, it is a conscious effort not to understand. I swear that every conversation with these people generally starts out well enough but after answering a few of their demands (since they demand an answer, not just ask a question) the break down into name calling, saying that evolution caused the holocaust or just plain making things up!
So, rather then just complain about it, here's a short list of the very basic errors that I see being made all the time. To all the creationists out there, of any religion, please, just look at these, read over the Wikipedia article and try to actually understand the basics of this theory before you argue about it.
1.Evolution does not say anything about the origin of life, it simply explains the changes from generation to generation.
2.The original theories of Darwin have been vastly improved over the years, to the point that the Theory as it exists today is far removed from what Darwin's original thinking was. The theory HAS changed in the last 100 years and it has changed to better fit with the evidence.
3.There is no "missing link" as the God of Gaps fallacy implies.
We have a pretty amazing amount of evidence and data on the path of evolution, and if you don't believe me then look at this
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/28_03_07_mammalstimeline_pdf.pdf
caution, its a pdf that will probably take roughly a minute to load if you look at it online. It shows the evolutionary paths of just the mammals, and only a fraction of them. You'll have to zoom in to roughly 1600% to read it.
4.Evolution does not violate the second law of thermodynamics, because the second law it true only within a closed system and the earth is by no means a closed system.
5.Transitionals do exist and exist all over the world. For some reason many creationist don't want to except that transitional fossils occur. When they ask for a link between dinosaurs and birds they seem to want something like this
rather then like this
6.Evolution is not racist, not by a long shot. Some people put forth a social Darwinism that says that only the strong should survive, but this is indeed the opposite of what Darwin concluded and what evolution says. Evolution says that for a social species to survive it's society must work well together. As the Decent of man said
"With mankind, selfishness, experience, and imitation, probably add, as Mr. Bain has shown, to the power of sympathy; for we are led by the hope of receiving good in return to perform acts of sympathetic kindness to others; and sympathy is much strengthened by habit. In however complex a manner this feeling may have originated, as it is one of high importance to all those animals which aid and defend one another, it will have been increased through natural selection; for those communities, which included the greatest number of the most sympathetic members, would flourish best, and rear the greatest number of offspring."
Others will point out certain racist terms within the text, however I would like to remind them of a few simple facts of the beliefs around at the time:
Whites, Blacks, American Indians, and Asians are all different species
The races are static and created by God, and should thus never be mixed
There are superior and inferior races and the superior whites have the right to dominate the inferior blacks and Indians
There are distinct delineations between the races
Different races are not related to each other
Interbreeding of races leads to degeneration
God originally created civilization, and that whites have stayed true to God, and thus maintained civilization, but the darker races have degenerated and lost civilization as they have become more savage and further from the word of God (This was published by Archbishop Whately and the Duke of Argyll )
In light of these common ideas of the time we can see that in the realm of racism Darwin as actually extremely ahead of his time in tolerance.
That is all I have to say on the subject and I hope it helps a few people better understand the subject. All I can say is that I really hope that creationists will take the time to actually learn what this theory says before they just outright refuse it and begin making outrageous claims.
