Evolution: Does it exist? Is it a religion? Should it be taught in schools?

[MagicRat]

Evolution is a science.
The scientific principle involves thorising then exploration and experimentation to prove, disprove or modify the theory in question.
It is a very good way to discover what is true and what isn't true.
It prevents people from becoming fixated in one belief structure, becuase the application of rational analysis of new evidence and new discoveries allows mankind to refine and change the theories to better understand our origions and the world around us.
I am curious to what extent religious people accept, in part or whole, the theory and principles of evolution.

[Janet Reno]

It takes faith. That is why it is as much a religion as...a religion. Evolution will never be proven. In many cases, scientists are worse than lawyers. Darwinism was rejected by Darwin himself.

According to evolution we evolve because of a need. What was that need. Why did apes or monkeys have that need. They're alive now and surviving, so what was it! Don't they need to be like us? Since there was a need to evolve into a human, they need to be like us. So why is there a remenance of the past, of the old, of what needed to be changed. Think of the first woodpecker. For it to have a need to bang a hole in a tree it would have smashed its own head and died, is that evolution? Many people could go on an on. The theory of evolution and the big bang defies current science and basic laws of this world put in place by proven science. I refuse to believe I'm a walking piece of random matter and all the complex chemical reactions going on in me are are random too.

[Soyo]

religion doesn't mean believing in God or budha or whatever, its something persued with devotion, so basically if you make something a priority or habit its religion, religion is not just about God or whatever its anything you believe or are devoted to. like if you go to work everyday from 5-9 people can say you do it religiously because you devote yourself to it... so if you believe evolution then its your religion... I wish people knew the deffinition

[Soyo]

oh yea and science for the most part sucks... yes some parts are neccessary and accurate(nasa for example, not that we really need to go to the freaking moon) but most of it is THEORY or HYPOTHESIS so it is obviously not fact, yet people take it as fact

[eversio11]

Originally Posted by MagicRat

I am curious to what extent religious people accept, in part or whole, the theory and principles of evolution.

Doesn't sound that way when the title blatantly says 'evolution is NOT a religion'

[lazysmurff]

hmmm. i profess to not be any sort of evolution expert here, but youve seem to have missed a bit of what evolution actually is janet.

no, we did not evolve from the apes we see today. your right on that account. what your missing is that evolution states we have the same evolutionary ancestors as the modern ape.

and need is actually why things evolve. sure, modern apes dont NEED to be like humans, their doing quite well, but im sure, millions and millions of years ago, some body of apes migrated to an area where they needed less fur, and so fur started to be weened out of the population because those born with less fur could actually survive.

but really i think classifying evolution as a religion is pretty ridiculous. by SOYO's definition, NASCAR is a religion. religion is an acceptance that you are subserviant to some other being or force beyond your control. it doesnt involve worship (many buddhists dont worship) or "pursiut with devotion" (actually many buddhists believe pursuing their religions ideals to devotedly results in a tainting of those ideals).

actually, if you want to get real specific, religion is an acceptance of an organization that tells you to believe that you are subeserviant to something besides yourself, and that you owe that something worship and praise.

last i checked, none of the scientist i know were worshiping their microscopes, nor did they ever feel like they owed science anything.

[publicenemy137]

darwin didn't denounce darwinism, he only did that so the authorities are the time wouldn't kill him. On his deathbed though he announced that he believed it to be true and only denounced it before because he was forced to. And evolution isn't a religion, it's just a theory and you can choose to believe it or not.

[thrasher]

Originally Posted by Soyo

oh yea and science for the most part sucks... yes some parts are neccessary and accurate(nasa for example, not that we really need to go to the freaking moon) but most of it is THEORY or HYPOTHESIS so it is obviously not fact, yet people take it as fact

Oh yes, science for the most part sucks. The whole world you live in is built upon technology made possible only through science. God sure as hell didn't give us technology.

[Raz_Kaz]

Originally Posted by thrasher

Oh yes, science for the most part sucks. The whole world you live in is built upon technology made possible only through science. God sure as hell didn't give us technology.

That all depends on what you believe in. If you have a religion then you would say that God made everything and gave us the brain to come up with technology. If you believe in evolutionism then you'd agree that we came up with all the ideas that humans developped their brains to think of clever ways to make their lives easier. Everyones view on relegion is different, some think that a relegion consists of believing in a higher power ie. God, some others belieive it's, as quoted above,

Originally Posted by Soyo

...it's something persued with devotion

. You cannot prove the meaning of religion by a definition in the dictionary because that definition was made up from a majority who agree on it, does not make it true (only true in some cases). I came up with my own kind of theory...adaptation

[DGB454]

"You cannot prove the meaning of religion by a definition in the dictionary because that definition was made up from a majority who agree on it, does not make it true (only true in some cases). I came up with my own kind of theory...adaptation"

You need a standard or no words would have meaning.

[thrasher]

Originally Posted by Raz_Kaz

That all depends on what you believe in. If you have a religion then you would say that God made everything and gave us the brain to come up with technology. If you believe in evolutionism then you'd agree that we came up with all the ideas that humans developped their brains to think of clever ways to make their lives easier

I don't dispute that. What I am saying is that technology is only the result of science, it is not connected to religion. Regardless of how our minds came to be, we have created technology ourselves, and not through religion or with the help of god, but through science.

[Raz_Kaz]

Originally Posted by thrasher

I don't dispute that. What I am saying is that technology is only the result of science, it is not connected to religion. Regardless of how our minds came to be, we have created technology ourselves, and not through religion or with the help of god, but through science.

Ah but who says that science cannot prove relegion? Would that not connect relegion and science? Agreed that the technological advances came through human initiative and conception, but I do not see the reason why you have included science with this whole technology argument.
As for DGB454, I did not quite understand your post, if you can please rephrase

[Marc04]

I read some where that the big bang theory was acutualy written first by a Catholic priest. any one know any more about this?

[Joseph1082]

A religion, a way of life, a scientific belief, all can be said to be a school of thought!!!!!

[Soyo]

Originally Posted by lazysmurff

no, we did not evolve from the apes we see today. your right on that account. what your missing is that evolution states we have the same evolutionary ancestors as the modern ape.

acctually if you look in the biology books today they do teach that we came from apes, I just had biology last year and I had many arguement with the teacher about evolution so I remember it quite well

although if this were true(which obviously I don't believe it in any way) even if they said we came from apes today they'd still have relative ancestors because they would be the same...

so they say we came from the same ancestors, which acctually they say are the apes of today basically, which makes a tough argument of if we evolve so that we can survive then why are apes still living? I mean if we evolved from apes so we could survive then the apes would die because they couldn't right?

oh well they can't prove one bit of it so it shouldn't be taught anyways