Creation vs Evolution (split from other thread)

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Aspie
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Postby Aspie » Sun Oct 01, 2006 9:31 am

IMHO, creationsm and evolution are both valid theories but that's it, they're still just theories.

So I say, teach them both theories but stress they're only theories.

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Postby AnnetteR » Wed Oct 04, 2006 10:52 am


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Postby Theodore » Wed Oct 04, 2006 1:31 pm


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Postby Theodore » Thu Oct 05, 2006 9:02 pm

There is no conclusive scientific evidence for Creation. Obviously, nobody who was alive back then is still alive today, and even 6000 years is too long to be able to conclusively establish anything from the fossil record, historical writings, etc. That makes Creation a religious point of view, though you can say that archaeology has so far shown the Bible to be historically accurate, and that every culture on earth has some sort of Flood story. It's just impossible to scientifically prove the existence of God.

However, the same exact thing can be said about evolution. Nobody has ever observed macroevolution in action, and it has never been reproduced in the laboratory (millions of generations of fruit flies, not one beneficial mutation). It requires the same level of belief. Nobody's debating that variation (aka microevolution) occurs - it does - but microevolution has no actual connection to the theory of macroevolution. If it did, then you'd see sustainable mutations outside of specific environmental conditions, and you don't. Resistent bacteria lose their resistance when allowed to reproduce in a "safe" environment, because the resistant strains are weaker. The farther from the norm you breed a species of animal, the less fertile it gets. Etc.

Therefore, since both Creation and evolution are belief systems, you should either put both in the textbooks, or neither. I will admit that I wouldn't lose any sleep if evolution were omitted entirely, but given the current social conditions, you pretty much have to learn both if you want to have any sort of discussion on the subject of origins, and it's not like evolution is a threat if both theories are given an equal, unbiased summary in the textbook. I mean, have you ever calculated the chances of a protein forming by random chance, never mind the simplest one-celled organism? All the time in the universe would be a drop in the bucket, even assuming you had the proper conditions for formation through random chance (that's a whole other topic).

Bottom line though, the two points of view are mutually exclusive, and evolutionists currently control the schools and colleges. Since evolution is religion, it's not terribly interested in an unbiased, scientific review of alternative points of view, it just stomps them and moves on.

If you think it would be interesting, list a few of what you consider the most popular Creationist misconceptions of evolution and let's go from there.

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Postby AnnetteR » Fri Oct 06, 2006 1:15 pm


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Postby Aspie » Fri Oct 06, 2006 2:14 pm


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Postby Theodore » Fri Oct 06, 2006 5:13 pm

When the Ten Commandments are removed from school, voluntary prayer during break time is banned, and you get sued just for bringing a Bible, then you obviously aren't the controlling majority. There are many private Christian institutions, but if there are any public institutions friendly to Christians, they're few and far between.

Oddly enough, the much-quoted "wall of separation between church and state" isn't even in the Constitution. It's from a letter by Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist association, reassuring them that there would be no official state religion to the exclusion of all other religions. The exact wording is as follows:

"I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between Church and State." (emphasis mine)

In other words, it is still ok for individual states to pass laws on religion and moral issues, if they so wish, but the federal government is totally prohibited from making any laws for or against any specific religion or religion in general. You may also find the following quote of interest, again from Jefferson:

"Well aware that the opinions and belief of men depend not on their own will, but follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds; that Almighty God hath created the mind free, and manifested his supreme will that free it shall remain by making it altogether insusceptible of restraint; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments, or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion . . . ." (emphasis mine)

Jefferson really had it in for anyone who would try to dictate religion to others (especially Baptist ministers..), but it was not his intent to have religion purged from the schools.

Again, Amendment 1 of the Constitution says:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. (emphasis mine)

Now that we've gone through all that, I'd like to repeat my request that you list some Creationist inconsistencies. If there are really so many, you ought to be able to come up with a few just from memory, and a few minutes and Google should dig up even more. You can't really expect me to find them - after all, my point of view is that they just aren't there. It would be like asking you to come up with 20 reasons why evolution is a fraud and a crackpot.

And while you're at it, you can start explaining some of the odd things I've listed earlier in the thread, like fossilized trees and dinosaurs extending vertically through millions of years' worth of rock layers, and index fossils that seem to keep turning up alive. If you can't, then at least admit that those specific parts of evolutionary theory are bunk. A scientific theory that runs totally counter to the available evidence is supposed to be discarded, right? That's what makes science science, and not religion.

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Postby horse_rider1990 » Wed Dec 10, 2008 8:07 pm

While I'm not well aware of the scientific reports on either one, I will voice a few small questions, that I, as a Christian and Creationist, cannot seem to get answers to. I'm involved in several other forums where these debates have gone on and I've the differing sides from fellow Creationist, Agnostics, Atheists and several other relgions.

But, first and foremost I have a question about the belief of Evolution that everything evolved from a common ancestor, and would like it answered by both parties. (First know that my questions and/or comments are not meant as arguementive comments)

If everything evolved from a common ancestor, over millions (or billions, whichever the case may be) of year, how then did the first ameobe (forgive me if that's spelled wrong), proteins, etc, first come into being? Because from what I have heard of evolution, the belief is that everything evolved from these, but no one is willing to explore the origins of these first life forms with me.

Something I've come to realize from both Creationist and Evolutionists, well really it's humans in general, we cannot fathom the world/universe never having a beginning nor an end. Christians say that God always has been. Atheists (and yes, I realize they are many Christians who believe in Evolution) say that we either just "were" (Big Bang Theory) or we evolved over eons from simple lifeforms. This is something I frankly find rather frustrating. Because the human mind cannot comprehend true eternity, we cannot reasonably explore either theory without subjectivism kicking, because we cannot debate that which we don't have a pretty solid theory on.

In our minds, eternity HAS an end and it HAD to have a beginning. That's a little off topic, sorry about that.

And I must disagree and say that Evolution and Creationism are both a faith based belief system. Because neither of us have proof of the beginnings (going back to my questions about the first life forms, if you will) we cannot prove that God did not set those first life forms into motion to evolve, nor that he ever/never existed at all, so we are at a stalemate in this game of intellectual chess.

I believe that humans/creatures have adapted, but I honestly see no evidene to prove that we evolved from one species to another (correct me if I'm wrong in believing that this was/is a thread of Evolutionary thought).

Take the horse for example, the hoof, yes, in my opinion, it may very well have had, what is it? Four toes or three? And could have been the size of a small dog. But I see it adapting to fit it's enviroment more than evolving.

So before anyone tears my head off (although I must say this thread has been very mature considering the topic), I will make one final statement, these questions were not asked to start a fight, I'm genuinly curios as to how both sides would explain this.

Thanks, horse_rider1990
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Postby momo3boys » Wed Dec 10, 2008 8:24 pm

I do strongly recommend for ALL involved in this thread to watch the Ben Stein movie, Expelled. No matter ow you feel about creation, ID or evolution, what is happening in the scientific world is absurd. These men and women only want to be able to keep researching down paths that previous evolutionary thought had led them to. When it leads them to a Intelligent Design possibility suddenly they can't be scientists anymore.

Back on to the question. According to one person on the video, organic life started from Crystals. How organic came from inorganic I'm not sure, and they don't tell you, but that is the theory that one evolutionist spoke of. I heard that the proteins form single celled organisms after lightening hit it.

Interestingly, Astrophysicists have found out that the very first thing that existed, the very beginning of the big bang, was get this......light. Just a thought. Read Gen 1:3.
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Postby horse_rider1990 » Wed Dec 10, 2008 8:32 pm

I do want to see that, I just haven't gotten around to it.

Hmmm, that's curious. Your comment leads me to another random topic I've seen debated several times about how light or other nontangible objects are really the results of subatomic particles that we can control if we find out how to interact with the individual particles.
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Postby Country-at-Heart » Sun May 24, 2009 4:13 pm

You all need to read John D. Morris' "The Young Earth" I would highly recommend it.
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lol

Postby zoodayz » Wed Sep 02, 2009 6:58 am

Not sure if this belongs here or not? Tho I thought I would post it. I am in a tad hurry. check the link. Now off to Teach in 3 min.

http://www.drdino.com/media-categories.php?c=csetv&v=17
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Postby Theodore » Mon Sep 07, 2009 11:04 pm

In case I didn't post this before, here's an interesting article releating to the state of science today, if not precisely creation vs evolution:
http://www.michaelcrichton.net/speech-a ... rming.html

The part about "concensus" science is particularly applicable.

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Postby 4given » Tue Sep 08, 2009 6:27 am

Great article, Theodore!


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