Do you believe Evolution

[Fisher]

And if they don’t should we teache are kids Creationism?

How Old Is The Earth?

Before the 1800s, almost everybody believed that the world was only six or seven thousand years old. They held to the creationist or the Christian world view of history. It has always amazed me how two people can look at the same thing and come to opposite conclusions as to what they are seeing. For instance, two people can both be looking at the Grand Canyon and come up with opposite conclusions on how it got there. The evolutionist stands there and says, Wow! Look what the Colorado River has done for millions of years. They creationist says, Wow! Look what the flood did in about 30 minutes. Somebody is wrong!

 

[jpasta]

Is this a trick question?

 

[StMarkEofE]

Is this a trick question?

Mitigated Evolution has been acceptable in the RCC for years, which states that when man became man (homo sapiens) that God breathed into him a soul. However, and obviously, this is not the more acceptable belief.

 

[Verisimilitude]

As described by Dawin and/or Dawkins…no.
Recent findings cast significant doubt on that theory.

Regardless, I believe in the old Earth/Universe and that life has been present for millions of years. I do not believe Man is an evolutionary being, nor do I think most species evolved from one another from a single organism billions of years ago. Genesis is not disproved by sedimentary rock layers exposed by erosion.

Our schools should teach science and critical thinking skills. We should admit what we do not know, and expand on what we do. The Church’s history with regard to science is interesting, but so is the secular view.

 

[Teeliumtrozzle]

I definitely believe in evolution;Its common sense and scientists have proved that dinosaurs died out thousands of years before mankind existed.The Bible creation story is true, of course, but it uses ‘day’ as a picture word, which I think actually means 'about six million years.Gods days are not the same as our days.

 

[cecilia97]

I’m pretty persuaded by both the Big Bang and evolution, but I don’t think evolution was a clean business going from one species to another in a perfect line. I’d be willing to bet that groups of different hominids lived in different areas at the same time, and maybe even crossed paths from time to time. I believe the hand of God ordered all of this activity from the very beginning, and that there were two original humans (that we call Adam and Eve) who had human souls.

I don’t really see any conflict between creationism and evolution, but I do believe that religious views of ALL sorts should be left out of our public schools.

 

[KarenNC]

I’m pretty persuaded by both the Big Bang and evolution, but I don’t think evolution was a clean business going from one species to another in a perfect line. I’d be willing to bet that groups of different hominids lived in different areas at the same time, and maybe even crossed paths from time to time.

I don’t think you will find too many modern scientific explanations of evolution that describe it as a “clean business going from one species to another in a perfect line” or that there was no overlap at all between different groups of hominids. Like any other scientific theory, the understanding of the evolutionary process continues to respond to emerging evidence.

Folks might find evolution.berkeley.edu/ interesting and useful.

 

[CreosMary]

NO
Micro evolution Yes, macro evolution NO
Read the science…
God can do what he wants at the flick of a switch, or the raising of an eyebrow, why do we keep putting mans thinking over God?

 

[puzzleannie]

evolution belongs to the discipline of science. I do not put my faith in science. I put my faith in Jesus Christ. Saying “I believe in” anything is a meaningless statement. Even the devil believes God exists. Even science believes there are things for which science has not yet developed an adequate model or explanation.

as far as it goes and as far as scientists employ the scientific method properly and prove their claims within the possibilities of the technology and research methods available, I accept their claims as longs as they stay in the realm of science: explaining phenomena of the natural world. When they stray into areas of metaphysics, philosophy and religion I discount them.

 

[cecilia97]

I don’t think you will find too many modern scientific explanations of evolution that describe it as a “clean business going from one species to another in a perfect line” or that there was no overlap at all between different groups of hominids. Like any other scientific theory, the understanding of the evolutionary process continues to respond to emerging evidence.

Folks might find evolution.berkeley.edu/ interesting and useful.

Agreed…I was surprised that the article posted above infers that is a new idea.

 

[buffalo]

Catholic teaching is that God created the first humans Adam and Eve supernaturally and inserted them into the timeline wherever He wished with preternatural gifts. As far as evolution goes it doesn’t matter what may have been happening in the universe at the time evolutionwise.

 

[rossum]

Do you believe Evolution

I accept evolution because the scientific evidence supports it. Belief does not enter into it. If the evidence changes then my acceptance will change.

And if they don’t should we teache are kids Creationism?

Evolution is science and should be taught in science class. Creationism is religion and should be taught in religion class.

How Old Is The Earth?

About 4.5 billion years.

Before the 1800s, almost everybody believed that the world was only six or seven thousand years old. They held to the creationist or the Christian world view of history.

Jews, Christinas and Muslims believed that. Hindus, Buddhists and Jains believed that the world was either many hundreds of billions of years old, or was infinitely old and had always existed. I am not sure about other religions.

It has always amazed me how two people can look at the same thing and come to opposite conclusions as to what they are seeing. For instance, two people can both be looking at the Grand Canyon and come up with opposite conclusions on how it got there. The evolutionist stands there and says, Wow! Look what the Colorado River has done for millions of years. They creationist says, Wow! Look what the flood did in about 30 minutes. Somebody is wrong!

Yes, the creationists. Some of the rocks in the Grand Canyon are sub-aerial, they were formed wy wind, not water. A bit difficult to do that in a worldwide flood.

rossum

 

[Tommy_Joe]

As one who knows in his heart that God alone created everything, I’ve never felt “enlightened” enough to debate the subject.

God created it all, and that’s all I’ve ever felt the need to know.

 

[StMarkEofE]

Catholic teaching is that God created the first humans Adam and Eve supernaturally and inserted them into the timeline wherever He wished with preternatural gifts. As far as evolution goes it doesn’t matter what may have been happening in the universe at the time evolutionwise.

I like your explanation and believe in it but in elementary (parochial school circa 1950) they allowed for the belief in Mitigated Evolution and these were nuns as well.

 

[newbetx]

As one who knows in his heart that God alone created everything, …
God created it all, and that’s all I’ve ever felt the need to know.

Me too! How he created it was up to Him. I’m convinced we were not around to be food for T-rex’s. I think that science continues to unravel the mysteries of God’s hand. This by no means diminishes, to me, the miracles that they are! (although many seem to think that once they know the secret of the magic trick, it’s no longer magic)

 

[colliric]

As one who knows in his heart that God alone created everything, I’ve never felt “enlightened” enough to debate the subject.

God created it all, and that’s all I’ve ever felt the need to know.

agreed.

I am however personally a theastic evolutionist, and I believe in the Genesis narrative(As was written by Moses), BECAUSE it describes the process of evolution, to me personally. The seven “days” could have been any amount of time and when you consider that, you can begin to see how accurate the bible is on this issue.

 

[Deconi]

NO.

There is no such thing as Evolution! It is an ‘observable’ theory!
“Observable” because it is inferred and implied by what we see…i.e ‘observe’

But examination and investigations have found that the data actually goes AGAINST the theory. Eg. Molecular research show that our DNA is similar to the banana, chimp and closest to the mouse. The theory then must be that we either share the parentage, or we are the upper forms of one of these!??! Every other tennet of the theory has similar problems.

Evolution is good as a theory, as far as theories go. But it is not FACT! The overwhelming ‘evidence’ the science world keep harping on about is actually non-existent and doesn’t hold up to scientific scrutiny. But it pays the bills.

The Catholic position is that all human reason is a Divine “gift” and therefore, theories are legitimate. But the conclusions and findings must be truth, for all truths belong to the ONE Who Is Truth Personified.

No early father departed from the Biblical version, accept Origen, who suggested that perhaps ‘one day’ may be several years or millenias. But even he stated that if his reasoning may be faulty he concedes to proof of Truth!

If the Biblical account is correct, then there cannot be an evolution progression because the Sun is required for everything to grow and it cannot come along four millenias later!..since it was made on the fourth day!

I believe in Jesus Christ. God from God. When He qouted Scriptures, the question is settled. Although there is much within Scriptures that we have yet to fully comprehend, through Him I must accept it as being CORRECT.

It is a question of faith, and it matters not what the other religions believed or understood. That is one of the reasons He came, so that we can chose the correct one.

 

[rossum]

But examination and investigations have found that the data actually goes AGAINST the theory. Eg. Molecular research show that our DNA is similar to the banana, chimp and closest to the mouse. The theory then must be that we either share the parentage, or we are the upper forms of one of these!??!

According to the Theory of Evolution we share a common ancestor with all living things. Hence we share a common ancestor with bananas, mice and chimps. IIRC we share about 50% of our DNA with bananas since most of what goes on inside our cells is the same as what goes on inside the cells of a banana - we both have genes for Cytochrome-C for example. We share more of our genes with mice, since both mice and ourselves are mammals so we both have genes for hair and so forth which bananas do not. Of living organisms we share most of you DNA with chimps, between 95% and 99% depending on exactly how you measure it.

I will need a reference to back up your assertion that we are closer to mice than to chimps, because all the references I am aware of show that we are much closer to chimps. For example our gene for Cytochrome-C is base-pair for base-pair identical to chimps, the mouse Cytochrome-C gene has differences. A quick google gave me this, it has rabbit instead of mouse, corn instead of banana and gives amino acid sequences rather than raw DNA sequences, but the idea is the same:

Human:
mgdvekgkki fimkcsqcht vekggkhktg pnlhglfgrk tgqapgysyt aanknkgiiw
gedtlmeyle npkkyipgtk mifvgikkke eradliaylk katne

Common Chimpanzee:
mgdvekgkki fimkcsqcht vekggkhktg pnlhglfgrk tgqapgysyt aanknkgiiw
gedtlmeyle npkkyipgtk mifvgikkke eradliaylk katne

Rabbit:
mgdvekgkki fvqkcaqcht vekggkhktg pnlhglfgrk tgqavgfsyt danknkgitw
gedtlmeyle npkkyipgtk mifagikkkd eradliaylk katne

Corn:
masfseap
pgnpkageki fktkcaqcht vekgaghkqg pnlnglfgrq sgttagysys aanknkavvw
eentlydyll npkkyipgtk mvfpglkkpq eradliaylk eata

I have adjusted the listing for Corn to show the alignment more clearly as it has a few extra amino acids at the start. The three mammals all start at the same place.

rossum

 

[Tommy_Joe]

agreed.

I am however personally a theastic evolutionist, and I believe in the Genesis narrative(As was written by Moses), BECAUSE it describes the process of evolution, to me personally. The seven “days” could have been any amount of time and when you consider that, you can begin to see how accurate the bible is on this issue.

I argued that exact point in a high-school biology class back in 1969,…you know, back in the old days when you could actually discuss God in a public school.

 

[buffalo]

According to the Theory of Evolution we share a common ancestor with all living things. Hence we share a common ancestor with bananas, mice and chimps. IIRC we share about 50% of our DNA with bananas since most of what goes on inside our cells is the same as what goes on inside the cells of a banana - we both have genes for Cytochrome-C for example. We share more of our genes with mice, since both mice and ourselves are mammals so we both have genes for hair and so forth which bananas do not. Of living organisms we share most of you DNA with chimps, between 95% and 99% depending on exactly how you measure it.

I will need a reference to back up your assertion that we are closer to mice than to chimps, because all the references I am aware of show that we are much closer to chimps. For example our gene for Cytochrome-C is base-pair for base-pair identical to chimps, the mouse Cytochrome-C gene has differences. A quick google gave me this, it has rabbit instead of mouse, corn instead of banana and gives amino acid sequences rather than raw DNA sequences, but the idea is the same:

Human:
mgdvekgkki fimkcsqcht vekggkhktg pnlhglfgrk tgqapgysyt aanknkgiiw
gedtlmeyle npkkyipgtk mifvgikkke eradliaylk katne

Common Chimpanzee:
mgdvekgkki fimkcsqcht vekggkhktg pnlhglfgrk tgqapgysyt aanknkgiiw
gedtlmeyle npkkyipgtk mifvgikkke eradliaylk katne

Rabbit:
mgdvekgkki fvqkcaqcht vekggkhktg pnlhglfgrk tgqavgfsyt danknkgitw
gedtlmeyle npkkyipgtk mifagikkkd eradliaylk katne

Corn:
masfseap
pgnpkageki fktkcaqcht vekgaghkqg pnlnglfgrq sgttagysys aanknkavvw
eentlydyll npkkyipgtk mvfpglkkpq eradliaylk eata

I have adjusted the listing for Corn to show the alignment more clearly as it has a few extra amino acids at the start. The three mammals all start at the same place.

rossum

If DNA is a building block of life, why would it surprise anyone to learn that we have sequences that are the same.

If I have legos scattered on the floor I can build many disimilar things that all contain certain commonalities. So it is with life.

It does not neceassarily mean that I have to build one upon the other.