Do you believe in evolution?

[SlowLX]

I love how the argument is always evolution or God.. as if the two are mutually exclusive.

Nowhere did I state you couldn't be religious and believe in some form of evolution. Find me a theory that has been around that states we as a species haven't changed from somewhere besides the big 3 western religions and I'll be happy to take God out of equation. This isn't meant to spark a religious debate, simple wondered if there's anyone on this board to actually believes we as a species are unchanging. It's not like they don't exist, statistically many Americans outright reject the theory or anything pertaining to it and I was just curious if any of them were on here. I don't personally believe there isn't some sort of higher power or intelligent design at work with the universe, but I wasn't trying to drag this into a religious debate. I simply wanted to see how many people believe in the theory of evolution to some degree or another.

[Hobie]

I believe in evolution and can comprehend how we might develop over the course of a few million years from early primates to now. However, even with the addition of BILLIONS of years I still find it hard to wrap my brain around the idea that we all evolved from single celled organisms. I'm not saying I don't believe the theory of evolution and that there isn't a distinct chance we all did infact come from something that doesn't come close to resembling us, but just fuck that's ALOT of changes.

Don't sweat it, you aren't alone. Humanity deals well with numbers like 1s, 10s, 100s, 1000s, and such, but really can't quite grasp things like billions.

[Blue302stang]

Even the vatican accepts darwins theory of evolution now, so what isn't there to believe about it?

[racrguy]

'We came from monkeys' and 'I believe in evolution' are not actually the same thing. Evolution only implies that we shared common ancestors with monkeys, not that we came from them...
I think most times a person's opinion on it does stem from whether they are religious or not. Scientific minded people who are not religious tend to believe that evolution makes sense. There's a reason why it's called the 'theory' of evolution though - there is no way to prove or disprove it for certain.
Most of the people I have talked to about it don't even understand what evolution really means anyways. It is differential survival of individuals of a species over generations based on traits and environmental pressures that causes a gradual change in the species. A lot of people seem to think that it implies that it happens to an individual during it's lifetime.
Interestingly enough, I believe in evolution and my wife believes in Creation and we are smart enough not to try to argue about it.

Completely incorrect.

[Grape]

contrary to popular belief the flintstones is not a documentary

[stevo]

contrary to popular belief the flintstones is not a documentary

How about the Jetsons?

Stevo

[Silverback]

I believe in magic

[BP]

With the mounds and mounds of evidence, how can someone not believe evolution is true?

Because the heathens fabricated the evidence to test your faith!

Evolution is a proven scientific fact, if you argue against it you're probably someone that'd be willing to drink the cool-aid from guys like Jim Jones.


The last pope didn't renounce evolution:

http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP961022.HTM

He was more concerned with the human spirit than the body.

[TxFordGirl]

The egg. Duh.

The chicken!

[mstng86]

I believe in magic

Do you believe what I believe?

[Trick Pony]

Completely incorrect.

Great post. Care to explain yourself? There are plenty of experts and molecular biologists that don't believe in Darwin's Theory of Evolution. What do you know that makes you such an expert?

[racrguy]

Great post. Care to explain yourself? There are plenty of experts and molecular biologists that don't believe in Darwin's Theory of Evolution. What do you know that makes you such an expert?

Since I've already gone over this same topic in another thread..

I did get you good. I said scientific terminology, not layperson terminology. If we were talking about just random stuff, and not science, I'd agree with you, a theory is an idea. Since we're talking about science, you are wrong. http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemis.../lawtheory.htm

Theory
A scientific theory summarizes a hypothesis or group of hypotheses that have been supported with repeated testing. A theory is valid as long as there is no evidence to dispute it. Therefore, theories can be disproven. Basically, if evidence accumulates to support a hypothesis, then the hypothesis can become accepted as a good explanation of a phenomenon. One definition of a theory is to say it's an accepted hypothesis.

Example: It is known that on June 30, 1908 in Tunguska, Siberia, there was an explosion equivalent to the detonation of about 15 million tons of TNT. Many hypotheses have been proposed for what caused the explosion. It is theorized that the explosion was caused by a natural extraterrestrial phenomenon, and was not caused by man. Is this theory a fact? No. The event is a recorded fact. Is this this theory generally accepted to be true, based on evidence to-date? Yes. Can this theory be shown to be false and be discarded? Yes.

Recent proof evolution is provable, and certain.
Lenski Experiments wiki
Lenski Experiments

Is it possible to disprove evolution, absolutely. But as of yet, no one has been able to do so.

[Chas_svo]

Actually, once the single cell exists, evolution is believable. It's where that cell came from that draws many an argument.

[71chevellejohn]

Actually, once the single cell exists, evolution is believable. It's where that cell came from that draws many an argument.

The cell came from right over there...=======>

[LaserSVT]

You mean we need to come up with a better question for the answer.

Yup, thats it. My bad. Is the ten million years up yet?