Is The Theory of Evolution mandatory for the modern worldview

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I certainly agree with this. On the other hand, some scientists (and even more alarming, the general public) seem to believe that either science HAS explained everything, or will soon and it’s only a matter of time. And these same scientists seem to ignore the fact that their own apple cart (evolution) may get overturned in a major way.

But this having been said, if by definition “no” scientific theory is ever complete and proven, why would Pope John Paul II need to state: “But it is also true that theory of evolution is not a complete, scientifically proven theory.”?

Edwest and I don’t agree on everything obviously, but I agree with Ed that the Pope sees a danger here and is sending us a message. I think the message is that science (as a whole, not speaking of anybody here or anybody in particular) is replacing God as the new god, and the theory of evolution (as commonly presented) is their weapon of choice. On another thread, I posted results of a survey of college professors, and (as I recollect) between 60% and 70% of those teaching biology self identified themselves as atheists. Those percentages are obviously much larger than the world as a whole.

It may not be effective at CAF because our faith is strong, but I think one has to admit that they are unfortunately making inroads elsewhere.
I think Pope John Paul II had a more open mind than some. He said the same thing that has just been said here. Why repeat it?
 
Barbarian observes:
Be honest with yourself. Pope Benedict XVI has acknowledged the fact that evolutionary theory is supported by a vast body of evidence. Natural selection is part of that theory. Don’t try to pettifog your way out of this.
Natural selection is the part of the theory that he thinks is absurd.
I’d like to see that one. Show us.

Meantime, Cardinal Ratzinger writes:

And, vice versa, the theory of evolution seeks to understand and describe biological developments. But in so doing it cannot explain where the “project” of human persons comes from, nor their inner origin, nor their particular nature. To that extent we are faced here with two complementary – rather than mutually exclusive – realities. Cardinal Ratzinger, In the Beginning

Here he endorses the theory of evolution (of which natural selection is the basic tenet) as a “reality.”

So you can surely understand that people are skeptical of your unsupported assertion that he thinks it’s “absurd.”

Barbarian observes:
I can’t believe you’re serious. Pope John Paul II said:
“All the observations concerning the development of life lead to a similar conclusions. The evolution of living beings, of which science seeks to determine the stages and to discern the mechanism, presents an internal finality which arouses admiration. This finality which directs beings in a direction for which they are not responsible or in charge, obliges one to suppose a Mind which is its inventor, its Creator.”
Since the pope did not mention natural selection,why did you use that quote as proof that the popes have said that natural selection is reconcilable with God being the cause of causes?
Notice that our present Pope has written that “the theory of evolution” is a reality. The theory of evolution is about natural selection.

Barbarian observes:
Methodological naturalism is a method that relies on evidence.
Methodological naturalism is not a method,it is a principle for interpreting natural evidence.
No, it’s a method. That’s why it’s called methodological.
Any principle of interpretation can be said to “rely on evidence” of the object under study.
No. For example, ID depends on faith in an unorthodox religious doctrine.

Barbarian observes:
Two ways of saying the same thing. Methodological naturalism is a method that relies on evidence.
just like sola scriptura leads protestants to their conclusions.
Barbarian asks:
What evidence do you think supports sola scriptura?
Protestants believe that scripture itself supports it,and they believe that scripture is the only infallible rule of faith.
So there isn’t any evidence, after all? So much for that argument.
What evidence supports the principle of methological naturalism?
It works. Spectacularly well. Predictions made on the basis of methodological naturalism have been confirmed by later evidence. Nothing we can do works better for understanding the physical universe.
If there isn’t any,then your argument collapses.
But as, you see, there is abundant evidence for it.

Barbarian suggests:
Perhaps you never learned the difference between evidence and faith.
Perhaps you never learned the difference between evidence and a principle of interpretation.
You don’t understand the difference, because you aren’t a scientist, and you seem to have not paid attention in school. The difference between evidence and interpretation is quite strict in the scientific method.

Barbarian observes:
Direct observation. For example, one sees it happening in Africa right now. Elephants are being shot for their ivory, and an increasing number of male elephants are born tuskless. Natural selection is now favoring those without tusks.
So do you suppose that the elephants are conscious of the intentions of hunters,and have figured out a way to manipulate their own genetics so that they won’t grow tusks?
You really think that’s what evolutionary theory says? Amazing. Of course not. What happens is that elephants with tusks tend to get shot, so the alleles for tusks tend to become more and more scarce, and so tusks get smaller or absent altogether. This is 8th grade science. Why don’t you know it?
I do know it.
Then why did you pretend it was about elephants figuring out how not to grow tusks? Do yourself a favor. Be honest.
But that is not an example of natural selection. The only selection that is going is on the part of the hunters,who are blowing away the elephants with tusks.
It would work the same if (for example) there was a virus that was fatal for elephants with tusks. You’re running out of excuses.

Barbarian chuckles:
And you didn’t know that this was what evolutionary theory predicts?
If evolutionary theorists call that an example of natural selection,they are idiots.
I don’t think name-calling is going to save you at this point.
 
Your claim is that science can say nothing at all about consciousness since it isn’t a material thing, nonetheless it does exist in man and not in animals.
How do you know that? It is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to devise an empirically water tight test for the existence of consciousness. Strictly speaking, I do not even know that anybody other than me is conscious; although it does seem highly likely.
Darwin stated that his theory would break down if any organ exists that could not have evolved. Do you assert that consciousness does not meet the criteria because it is not a physical organ - even though it exists as the ultimate saltation event and Darwinism cannot possibly explain it?
So far as I know not even materialists postulate the existence of an organ called consciousness.
 
We won’t be around to see that. Even if an asteroid were to collide with the earth again as one did 65 million years ago, that would not constitute the end of the earth. If might bring about the extinction of the human species, but the earth as a planetary body – and probably some living species – would survive.
We’ll be around to see the end of OUR earth, death, and who knows, maybe even the end of everyones. You don’t know when that day will come and neither do I, and NO scientist can tell us when that day will be either.
As far as if an asteroid ever hits earth. even thats in God’s Divine Providence, if that ever happens. As to what would happen to life on earth if it did, your only guessing, just like men have done for centuries. My guess is as good as yours. But I think I’ll leave all that up to God, HE KNOWS, HE doesn’t have to guess.
 
Barbarian observes:
Be honest with yourself. Pope Benedict XVI has acknowledged the fact that evolutionary theory is supported by a vast body of evidence. Natural selection is part of that theory. Don’t try to pettifog your way out of this.

I’d like to see that one. Show us.

PHILIPP: I suggest that we RETURN TO EARTH and discuss the well orchestrated and artistic evolutionary trees that ET/TE theorists like to present to the unwary on this thread whether they are trees of our alleged ancestors or of whales. Let’s start off with a few quotes from evolutionists themselves.

BASIS OF “FAMILY TREE,” ROGER LEWIN, Ed., Research News, Science, “The key issue is the ability correctly to infer a genetic relationship between two species on the basis of a similarity in appearance…can be deceptive, partly because similarity of structure does not necessarily imply an identical genetic heritage: a shark (which is a fish) and a porpoise (which is a mammal) look similar…” Bones of Contention, 1987, p.123

PROVEN? R. C. LEWONTIN, Harvard , “Look, I’m a person who says in this book [Human Diversity, 1982] that we don’t know anything about the ancestors of the human species. All the fossils which have been dug up and are claimed to be ancestors - we haven’t the faintest idea whether they are ancestors. …All you’ve got is Homo sapiens there, you’ve got that fossil there, you’ve got another fossil there…it’s up to you to draw the lines. Because there are no lines.”, Harper’s, 2/84

UNRELIABLE “TREES,” J. LOWENSTEIN & ADRIENE ZIHLMAN, “But anatomy and the fossil record cannot be relied on for defining evolutionary lineages. Yet, paleontologist persist in doing just this. …the subjective element in this approach to building evolutionary trees, which many paleontologist advocate with almost religious fervor, is demonstrated by the outcome: there is no single family tree on which they agree.” Nature, 1992, Vol.355, p.783

MARY LEAKEY’S CONCLUSION, According To Associated Press, "Since scientists can never prove a particular scenario of human evolution, Leakey said “All these trees of life with their branches of our ancestors, that’s a lot of nonsense.” 12/9/1996
 
(asssertion that the Pope says natural selection is absurd)

Barbarian suggests
I’d like to see that one. Show us.

(no one can find it)
Isn’t that surprising?
I suggest that we RETURN TO EARTH and discuss the well orchestrated and artistic evolutionary trees
Good idea. Let’s start with cytochrome c phylogenies. Turns out that even though it depends on the random neutral mutations that alter the site on cytochrome c that don’t change its function, these mutations sort out into a phylogeny of all living things that very closely matches those obtained by other methods. Can you give us an alternative explaination (other than Godmustadunnit)?
Let’s start off with a few quotes from evolutionists themselves.
Ah, the quotemining game. OK. Hold onto your socks…
ROGER LEWIN, Ed., Research News, Science, “The key issue is the ability correctly to infer a genetic relationship between two species on the basis of a similarity in appearance…can be deceptive, partly because similarity of structure does not necessarily imply an identical genetic heritage: a shark (which is a fish) and a porpoise (which is a mammal) look similar…” Bones of Contention, 1987, p.123
This is the problem of homologous vs. analogous organs. For example, a shark and a dolphin look superficially the same, because they had the same selective pressures and natural selection brought them to the same solutions. But a closer look shows why they are analogous, and not homologues. The shark has a vertical tail fin because the primitive myotome system of chordates was set up for side-to side motion. But because whales evoved from animals that swam like otters with and up-and-down motion,(ambulocetids) we see a vertical fluke. And of course, the heart, lungs, digestive system, etc. of whales is all mammalian, and the shark all those of fish. And DNA shows the whale to be the relative of ungulates, not fish.

And yes, we have numerous examples of primitive whales and certainly can trace their ancestry through transitional fossils. And the DNA analysis shows that it is correct.

The others are equally edited to make it appear that they don’t believe what they know is true. Lewin was pointing out the necessity of doing more than a superficial “well they look kinda the same” analysis.

Never quote something you don’t understand. It will always embarass you.
 
I don’t know what God wants, nor do you, but science and religion must stay separate or we risk losing both.

Religion addresses the supernatural and science is totally silent about the supernatural, by definition.
Maybe it shouldn’t be!!!
 
It is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to devise an empirically water tight test for the existence of consciousness. Strictly speaking, I do not even know that anybody other than me is conscious; although it does seem highly likely.
I agree with you. I believe that consciousness has been dealt with mostly as a philosophical construct. If it exists only in you then the world is not at all as it seems; you are in something like the matrix. For practical reasons that’s not all that interesting to presume.
So far as I know not even materialists postulate the existence of an organ called consciousness.
True … I thought I made that point as well. The issue is that consciousness exists in man so it must be presumed to have evolved but it is also non-material so science cannot explain it or say anything at all about it … at least this is what The Barbarian claimed way back in post #8.

Ender
 
The Barbarian;3375236:
Barbarian observes:
Be honest with yourself. Pope Benedict XVI has acknowledged the fact that evolutionary theory is supported by a vast body of evidence. Natural selection is part of that theory. Don’t try to pettifog your way out of this.

I’d like to see that one. Show us.

PHILIPP: I suggest that we RETURN TO EARTH and discuss the well orchestrated and artistic evolutionary trees that ET/TE theorists like to present to the unwary on this thread whether they are trees of our alleged ancestors or of whales. Let’s start off with a few quotes from evolutionists themselves.

BASIS OF “FAMILY TREE,” ROGER LEWIN, Ed., Research News, Science, “The key issue is the ability correctly to infer a genetic relationship between two species on the basis of a similarity in appearance…can be deceptive, partly because similarity of structure does not necessarily imply an identical genetic heritage: a shark (which is a fish) and a porpoise (which is a mammal) look similar…” Bones of Contention, 1987, p.123

PROVEN? R. C. LEWONTIN, Harvard , “Look, I’m a person who says in this book [Human Diversity, 1982] that we don’t know anything about the ancestors of the human species. All the fossils which have been dug up and are claimed to be ancestors - we haven’t the faintest idea whether they are ancestors. …All you’ve got is Homo sapiens there, you’ve got that fossil there, you’ve got another fossil there…it’s up to you to draw the lines. Because there are no lines.”, Harper’s, 2/84

UNRELIABLE “TREES,” J. LOWENSTEIN & ADRIENE ZIHLMAN, “But anatomy and the fossil record cannot be relied on for defining evolutionary lineages. Yet, paleontologist persist in doing just this. …the subjective element in this approach to building evolutionary trees, which many paleontologist advocate with almost religious fervor, is demonstrated by the outcome: there is no single family tree on which they agree.” Nature, 1992, Vol.355, p.783

MARY LEAKEY’S CONCLUSION, According To Associated Press, "Since scientists can never prove a particular scenario of human evolution, Leakey said “All these trees of life with their branches of our ancestors, that’s a lot of nonsense.” 12/9/1996
While your all throwing around books, etc, to read, I challenge you all read, “Chance or Purpose.” by Cardinal Christoph Schonborn.
 
While your all throwing around books, etc, to read, I challenge you all read, “Chance or Purpose.” by Cardinal Christoph Schonborn.
The book in which he endorses evolution? I thought you disagreed with evolution.
 
ID is the wedge strategy designed to get creationism into the science classroom.

ID as science is very bad science. You need to accept the notion that science simply is not interested in supernatural subject matter. That’s it!

And, before you search for evidence of design you must first believe that there is a designer. Science doesn’t deal with that sort of thing at all, ever, never.
The sun is approx. 93 Million miles from Earth. If the Earth was just 10 miles closer to the sun, we would burn up, life could NOT exist. and if we were just 10 miles farther away from the sun,we would freeze. NOW just WHO do you suppose put us and keeps us in the exact spot we need to sustain life here. 10 miles, out of 93 million, hardly seems significant.but it IS. Science, as smart as it is, has never proven that there is life of ANY kind on any other planet besides ours. WHY, tell me why, if you can. Since we seem to have an abundance of varities of life on Earth, why didn’t the same big bang have any effect any other planet. Are we that important to SOMEONE???
 
We’ll be around to see the end of OUR earth, death, and who knows, maybe even the end of everyones. You don’t know when that day will come and neither do I, and NO scientist can tell us when that day will be either.
As far as if an asteroid ever hits earth. even thats in God’s Divine Providence, if that ever happens. As to what would happen to life on earth if it did, your only guessing, just like men have done for centuries. My guess is as good as yours. But I think I’ll leave all that up to God, HE KNOWS, HE doesn’t have to guess.
PHILIPP: I agree. We will never know because the evol ones had it all worng on the dates when catastrophes happened but it could be sooner thant later. ET’s are millions and perhaps billions of years off the target as C-14 dating suggests. I gave an example of one such event with Australites in which C-14 dating gave ages of 7,000 to 13,000 RC years whereas two different methods agreed with each other at ~800,000 RC years but were dead wrong based on C-14. No response from the residents just one little tickler on Pompei dating.

Meanwhile here is another quote from other ET’s:

THEORY DOMINATED DATA, DAVID PILBEAM, Yale, “I am also aware of the fact that, at least in my own subject of paleoanthropology, ‘theory’ - heavily influenced by implicit ideas - almost always dominates ‘data.’ …Ideas that are totally unrelated to actual fossils have dominated theory building, which in turn strongly influences the way fossils are interpreted.” Quoted in Bones of Contention, p.127

PARANORMAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Lord Zolly Zuckerman, “We then move right off the register of objective truth into those fields of presumed biological science, like extrasensory perception or the interpretation of man’s fossil history, where to the faithful anything is possible - and where the ardent believer is sometimes able to believe several contradictory things at the same time.” BEYOND THE IVORY TOWER, p.19

Our poor pope is apparently being deceived by the same theologians and evol believers that haunt CA threads.

God help us.
 
The sun is approx. 93 Million miles from Earth. If the Earth was just 10 miles closer to the sun, we would burn up, life could NOT exist. and if we were just 10 miles farther away from the sun,we would freeze. NOW just WHO do you suppose put us and keeps us in the exact spot we need to sustain life here. 10 miles, out of 93 million, hardly seems significant.but it IS. Science, as smart as it is, has never proven that there is life of ANY kind on any other planet besides ours. WHY, tell me why, if you can. Since we seem to have an abundance of varities of life on Earth, why didn’t the same big bang have any effect any other planet. Are we that important to SOMEONE???
It sounds to me as if he has got a garbled version of the strong anthropomorphic principle. The earth’s orbit around the sun is elliptical, and its distance from the sun varies by a great deal more than ten miles each year. If he wants to use science to argue the likelihood of God’s existence, he should at least try reading something like the physicist Paul Davies’ book
first. (“The Mind of God”). Or John Polkinghorne, for that matter (another welll known physicist). Garbled rubbish only gives atheists the ammunition they need.
 
Below is an introduction to a web site regarding fossil human and dinosaur footprilnts together [second paragraph]Another web site www.creationevidence.org is again under reconstruction due to a viscious virus that took it off the Internet and a second time after hackers put in pornogaphy—sorry that is not available but I hope to post some that I save in a later post.

“Below are photos of the Paluxy River TX where dozens of fossil human footprints are found with dinosaur ones.” Go to
www.bible.ca/tracks/taylor-trail.htm for photos and much more.
NOTE: The pictures could not be reproduced here for whatever reason, I did try. I therefore urge that you look at this web site noted above which also challenges some Catholic teachings but NOT of the church fathers or Latern 1 and Latern 2 [as do the evol ones on this thread]. The foundation of Christian faith however is supported by this web site managers as is the data. When the Barbarian, Phil Vaz ad nauseum attacks this and other web sites please also go www.omniology.com for refutation of their outdated claims regarding the Paluxy River fossil footprints.
CONTINUED on the bible we site:

The Taylor Trail:
A series of 14 sequential human footprints on the same platform with at least 134 dinosaur tracks. [Philipp observes that in 1999
the river dired up, and the Taylor trail of dinosasur and human footprints was molded with rubberized material and is now in several museum exhibits for all to see; [Philipp says: I have seen the casts of the molds in one museum - very impressive and destorys the theory of evolution along with the many other prints found in a pristine manner under tons of Cretaceous strata.

Introduction [continued on www.bible.ca/tracks/taylor-trail.htm ]

Here is a photo of the Paluxy River in Glen Rose Texas. This rapidly flowing river runs through the middle of Dinosaur Valley State Park, famous for its dinosaur tracks. Not as well known is the fact that human tracks have also been found, not only in the same formation, but on the same bedding plane and in some cases overlapping the dinosaur tracks. [see web site]

Stan Taylor (pointing at track) began his excavation of the Taylor Trail in 1969 and continued working through 1972. Initially, only two tracks could be seen in the Paluxy River bed.

(Click on photo for high resolution)

By following the trail back under the river bank, seven more very human like tracks were exposed. The process involved removing tons of limestone overburden, effectively eliminating the possibility that the tracks were carved.

(Click on photo for high resolution)

The Taylor Trail, as it normally appears in the river under water. Subsequent excavation has extended the trail to a total of fourteen tracks in a consistent right-left pattern. The entire sequence can be seen through the water in this 1994 photograph, even though a thin layer of mud obscures the details. A trail of three-toed dinosaur tracks can be seen crossing at an angle of approximately 30 degrees.

(Click on photo for high resolution)

The drought of 1999 revealed the entire trail in dramatic detail!

(Click on photo for high resolution)

 
Below is an introduction to a web site regarding fossil human and dinosaur footprilnts together [second paragraph]Another web site www.creationevidence.org is again under reconstruction due to a viscious virus that took it off the Internet and a second time after hackers put in pornogaphy—sorry that is not available but I hope to post some that I save in a later post.

“Below are photos of the Paluxy River TX where dozens of fossil human footprints are found with dinosaur ones.” Go to
www.bible.ca/tracks/taylor-trail.htm for photos and much more.
NOTE: The pictures could not be reproduced here for whatever reason, I did try. I therefore urge that you look at this web site noted above which also challenges some Catholic teachings but NOT of the church fathers or Latern 1 and Latern 2 [as do the evol ones on this thread]. The foundation of Christian faith however is supported by this web site managers as is the data. When the Barbarian, Phil Vaz ad nauseum attacks this and other web sites please also go www.omniology.com for refutation of their outdated claims regarding the Paluxy River fossil footprints.
CONTINUED on the bible we site:

The Taylor Trail:
A series of 14 sequential human footprints on the same platform with at least 134 dinosaur tracks. [Philipp observes that in 1999
the river dired up, and the Taylor trail of dinosasur and human footprints was molded with rubberized material and is now in several museum exhibits for all to see; [Philipp says: I have seen the casts of the molds in one museum - very impressive and destorys the theory of evolution along with the many other prints found in a pristine manner under tons of Cretaceous strata.

Introduction [continued on www.bible.ca/tracks/taylor-trail.htm
]

Here is a photo of the Paluxy River in Glen Rose Texas. This rapidly flowing river runs through the middle of Dinosaur Valley State Park, famous for its dinosaur tracks. Not as well known is the fact that human tracks have also been found, not only in the same formation, but on the same bedding plane and in some cases overlapping the dinosaur tracks. [see web site]

Stan Taylor (pointing at track) began his excavation of the Taylor Trail in 1969 and continued working through 1972. Initially, only two tracks could be seen in the Paluxy River bed.

(Click on photo for high resolution)

By following the trail back under the river bank, seven more very human like tracks were exposed. The process involved removing tons of limestone overburden, effectively eliminating the possibility that the tracks were carved.

(Click on photo for high resolution)

The Taylor Trail, as it normally appears in the river under water. Subsequent excavation has extended the trail to a total of fourteen tracks in a consistent right-left pattern. The entire sequence can be seen through the water in this 1994 photograph, even though a thin layer of mud obscures the details. A trail of three-toed dinosaur tracks can be seen crossing at an angle of approximately 30 degrees.

(Click on photo for high resolution)

The drought of 1999 revealed the entire trail in dramatic detail!

(Click on photo for high resolution)

Are you serious?
 
PHILIPP: I agree. We will never know because the evol ones had it all worng on the dates when catastrophes happened but it could be sooner thant later. ET’s are millions and perhaps billions of years off the target as C-14 dating suggests. I gave an example of one such event with Australites in which C-14 dating gave ages of 7,000 to 13,000 RC years whereas two different methods agreed with each other at ~800,000 RC years but were dead wrong based on C-14. No response from the residents just one little tickler on Pompei dating.

Meanwhile here is another quote from other ET’s:

THEORY DOMINATED DATA, DAVID PILBEAM, Yale, “I am also aware of the fact that, at least in my own subject of paleoanthropology, ‘theory’ - heavily influenced by implicit ideas - almost always dominates ‘data.’ …Ideas that are totally unrelated to actual fossils have dominated theory building, which in turn strongly influences the way fossils are interpreted.” Quoted in Bones of Contention, p.127

PARANORMAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Lord Zolly Zuckerman, “We then move right off the register of objective truth into those fields of presumed biological science, like extrasensory perception or the interpretation of man’s fossil history, where to the faithful anything is possible - and where the ardent believer is sometimes able to believe several contradictory things at the same time.” BEYOND THE IVORY TOWER, p.19

Our poor pope is apparently being deceived by the same theologians and evol believers that haunt CA threads.

God help us.
Don’t believe everything they say the Pope says cuz much is taken out of context and the meaning is changed.
I think some have put up a big barrier between themselves and the Church and they take it out on the Church. They know they are wrong and thats why they bend over backwards trying to tell us we’re wrong. They have a problem with their faith and it shows.
 
It sounds to me as if he has got a garbled version of the strong anthropomorphic principle. The earth’s orbit around the sun is elliptical, and its distance from the sun varies by a great deal more than ten miles each year. If he wants to use science to argue the likelihood of God’s existence, he should at least try reading something like the physicist Paul Davies’ book
first. (“The Mind of God”). Or John Polkinghorne, for that matter (another welll known physicist). Garbled rubbish only gives atheists the ammunition they need.
I didn’t make this up. I heard it from a scientist that knows much more than you do and he has written text books on the subject!!
 
I didn’t make this up. I heard it from a scientist that knows much more than you do and he has written text books on the subject!!
He can’t be that much of a scientist if he doesn’t even know that the earth’s orbit around the sun is elliptical. In fact I would say he would have to be a complete fraudster to come up with that.
 
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