Post by reverendroxie22 on Oct 14, 2015 0:31:05 GMT
PHIL-8/ Critical Thinking
Professor David C. Lane
By Rev. Roxanne K. Cottell
The question asked is “Why do the vast majority of biologists find evolution by natural selection to be more persuasive than intelligent design/creationism. Conversely, why is intelligent design/creationism still popular in America?” I will answer each of these queries separately.
“Why do the vast majority of biologists find evolution by natural selection to be more persuasive than intelligent design/creationism.”
The simple answer to this question is because, very simply, there is scientific evidence to the idea that we are here and not because we were a nice thought, but because we, as a species, have evolved, over and over again, making the phrase “Survival of the fittest,” the very truth of us all. We can trust that humans have evolved over time because of natural selection. Natural selection is the process by which a species becomes more dominant than do others through a sort of “picking and choosing” who is the strongest and who will be the most able to survive, given certain variables and environmental conditions.
Yet, in the manner that this is being written, my own findings, again, because it is all scientifically based, is that biologists find that evolving via natural selection to be easier to digest as the truth than creationism is easier to believe. They can believe these things because of the same reason that I or anyone else could - because it is all tangible, and everything that we see with our eyes has been researched, experimented, tried again and again, not to prove that these things exist, but to prove that their existence is not something that has been created by anyone's 'God.' This is where the thing about intelligent design comes into play. A lot of people believe that it was all this 'God' guy who created everything, all in a week's time, and got it all right the first time.
I could go on and on about creationism, because that is where I grew up - in a highly restrictive, overwhelmingly religious household, where the God of creationism was the only thing that we were taught was the truth. It was not until a long time later that I started studying the origins of man and realized that we are spectacular in nature, that we are, by and large, not only created in the image of perfection through evolution, but more, that we are NOT created in the image that is “God,” and more, we did not come into being over the course of seven days. Evolution takes time, and becoming strong in one's own bloodline is a process of elimination by which things that are dominant will become things that prove to be that way in all of nature. On the other hand...and to answer the question of why is intelligent design/creationism still popular in America? I offer you the following.
It is hard to grow up believing in something completely unbelievable. It is an unbelievable thing for anyone with a brain in their head, and with a modicum of that thing called “a clue,” to think that this God guy made us all become viable life forms in the time slot of seven days. My thought about this is that the reason people remain glued to their belief in their God as being the only thing in the Universe that could create anything meaningful is because it, I assume, would be a hard thing to have to get over, having to “eat” the truth that it was not this big, scary, abusive God who made us, but rather and only that we were naturally selected as the highest order of organisms to be on the planet.
Because I have spent so much of my life trying to figure out why it is that people are like this, I have come to my own conclusions about the way that intelligent design has clouded the judgment of many good, “God fearing” adults into thinking that somehow, while they do not want to believe that we shot out of the business end of a primate, they as vehemently do not want their theory of creationism rocked and disbelieved because it would make them appear foolish for believing in something that is akin to a Disney flick. The reason that people still believe that way is totally because they do not want to have to save face for believing it. That is the bottom line. That is the thing that I have been told for most of my life, that the one thing that would be most damaging to an entire multitude of believers is that not only are they wrong, but that they believe so strongly in something that they cannot prove is the truth. So, rather than be wrong, rather than learn something new, they hang on to the idea that as long as no one else tells them that it is not the truth, and as long as no one else has the proof available to show these people that it was natural selection, and not some big giant abusive God who made everything in existence, they have no reason to believe otherwise.
This was a topic of debate in my house when I was a kid growing up. I was told that God made the earth and the heavens and everything else in seven days. I questioned this idea because it was also the very thing that was taught at the private Christian elementary school I was sent to. It went on until I got to high school, public high school, no less. It was there that I found out that a whole lot of other people believed the way that I did - it was nice to believe in an entity outside of one's own self, but when it comes to things that have been proven through scientific measure, and proven without a doubt to be the very truth, I have always gone with what is tangible and what can be thought of as being scientifically the truth.
When we are talking about things that are scientifically, “the truth,” and we know that it is irrefutable, there is nothing that anyone “saved” or who believes in the fairy tale nature of the “Creationism Story,” who can say anything to make things be otherwise. When we are talking about peoples' beliefs, we are talking about things that they have taken to heart, that they do not want anyone saying is somehow wrong or completely ridiculous. It is an umimaginable pain in the pride to have to wrap your head around a theory that you know, for sure, is the truth, and that you would rather not it be the truth because in it being the truth, it makes the truth that you have followed for possibly a lifetime look a lot like that Disney movie. Lots of grown men believe in the story of Creation. Imagine what it would be like to be a really big man who believed in a fairy tale that sounded, looked, reads and could pass as being a fairy tale?
Just sayin'...
Natural Selection
evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/evo_25
National Center for Science Education - Creationism
ncse.com/creationism+
Professor David C. Lane
By Rev. Roxanne K. Cottell
The question asked is “Why do the vast majority of biologists find evolution by natural selection to be more persuasive than intelligent design/creationism. Conversely, why is intelligent design/creationism still popular in America?” I will answer each of these queries separately.
“Why do the vast majority of biologists find evolution by natural selection to be more persuasive than intelligent design/creationism.”
The simple answer to this question is because, very simply, there is scientific evidence to the idea that we are here and not because we were a nice thought, but because we, as a species, have evolved, over and over again, making the phrase “Survival of the fittest,” the very truth of us all. We can trust that humans have evolved over time because of natural selection. Natural selection is the process by which a species becomes more dominant than do others through a sort of “picking and choosing” who is the strongest and who will be the most able to survive, given certain variables and environmental conditions.
Yet, in the manner that this is being written, my own findings, again, because it is all scientifically based, is that biologists find that evolving via natural selection to be easier to digest as the truth than creationism is easier to believe. They can believe these things because of the same reason that I or anyone else could - because it is all tangible, and everything that we see with our eyes has been researched, experimented, tried again and again, not to prove that these things exist, but to prove that their existence is not something that has been created by anyone's 'God.' This is where the thing about intelligent design comes into play. A lot of people believe that it was all this 'God' guy who created everything, all in a week's time, and got it all right the first time.
I could go on and on about creationism, because that is where I grew up - in a highly restrictive, overwhelmingly religious household, where the God of creationism was the only thing that we were taught was the truth. It was not until a long time later that I started studying the origins of man and realized that we are spectacular in nature, that we are, by and large, not only created in the image of perfection through evolution, but more, that we are NOT created in the image that is “God,” and more, we did not come into being over the course of seven days. Evolution takes time, and becoming strong in one's own bloodline is a process of elimination by which things that are dominant will become things that prove to be that way in all of nature. On the other hand...and to answer the question of why is intelligent design/creationism still popular in America? I offer you the following.
It is hard to grow up believing in something completely unbelievable. It is an unbelievable thing for anyone with a brain in their head, and with a modicum of that thing called “a clue,” to think that this God guy made us all become viable life forms in the time slot of seven days. My thought about this is that the reason people remain glued to their belief in their God as being the only thing in the Universe that could create anything meaningful is because it, I assume, would be a hard thing to have to get over, having to “eat” the truth that it was not this big, scary, abusive God who made us, but rather and only that we were naturally selected as the highest order of organisms to be on the planet.
Because I have spent so much of my life trying to figure out why it is that people are like this, I have come to my own conclusions about the way that intelligent design has clouded the judgment of many good, “God fearing” adults into thinking that somehow, while they do not want to believe that we shot out of the business end of a primate, they as vehemently do not want their theory of creationism rocked and disbelieved because it would make them appear foolish for believing in something that is akin to a Disney flick. The reason that people still believe that way is totally because they do not want to have to save face for believing it. That is the bottom line. That is the thing that I have been told for most of my life, that the one thing that would be most damaging to an entire multitude of believers is that not only are they wrong, but that they believe so strongly in something that they cannot prove is the truth. So, rather than be wrong, rather than learn something new, they hang on to the idea that as long as no one else tells them that it is not the truth, and as long as no one else has the proof available to show these people that it was natural selection, and not some big giant abusive God who made everything in existence, they have no reason to believe otherwise.
This was a topic of debate in my house when I was a kid growing up. I was told that God made the earth and the heavens and everything else in seven days. I questioned this idea because it was also the very thing that was taught at the private Christian elementary school I was sent to. It went on until I got to high school, public high school, no less. It was there that I found out that a whole lot of other people believed the way that I did - it was nice to believe in an entity outside of one's own self, but when it comes to things that have been proven through scientific measure, and proven without a doubt to be the very truth, I have always gone with what is tangible and what can be thought of as being scientifically the truth.
When we are talking about things that are scientifically, “the truth,” and we know that it is irrefutable, there is nothing that anyone “saved” or who believes in the fairy tale nature of the “Creationism Story,” who can say anything to make things be otherwise. When we are talking about peoples' beliefs, we are talking about things that they have taken to heart, that they do not want anyone saying is somehow wrong or completely ridiculous. It is an umimaginable pain in the pride to have to wrap your head around a theory that you know, for sure, is the truth, and that you would rather not it be the truth because in it being the truth, it makes the truth that you have followed for possibly a lifetime look a lot like that Disney movie. Lots of grown men believe in the story of Creation. Imagine what it would be like to be a really big man who believed in a fairy tale that sounded, looked, reads and could pass as being a fairy tale?
Just sayin'...
Natural Selection
evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/evo_25
National Center for Science Education - Creationism
ncse.com/creationism+
