What best describes your view of evolution?

[BurtWorm]

(PS: Thanks to DinoBoy for wording on viewpoint 4.)

[Bunny]

1. I voted for the fourth choice, but I can't understand why religious people

shouldn't accept the second or third choice. If you believe in God, why is it so hard to believe that God "created" evolution?

[Marrah_G]

6. and one more even.....

Some religions don't believe the Earth was created by deities, but rather that it is home to both us and Them.

[Ediacara]

13. Because they think that if one part of their Holy Book is...

open to interpretation or metaphor.... or just plain wrong, then that means the whole thing is open to interpretation or metaphor, or just plain wrong.

[msongs]

2. just finished reading "The Origin" a docudrama type Novel about Charles Darwin

there is a wealth of material about him online and you can read most of his books online as well.

Interesting that he knew the commotion over his theories would live long after he died and that forces of religion
would be battling his views forever.

Msongs

[anonymous171]

3. I picked the 3rd choice.

Makes the most sense to me. I'm always hovering in between (liberal) Catholic Theist and Deist.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. Evolution is a continuing process

that is part of All That Is.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

5. I think life is a holy course or trial by fire, but I don't truly understand it. :) nt

[rasputin5]

7. Choice 4 is about right but evolution and biogenesis are different things.

And the distinction even depends on exactly what "life" is intended to mean in the discussion. :-)

[GodlessBiker]

8. Using the words "created" and "designed" when talking about evolution is really misleading,

even with the quotation marks.

[BurtWorm]

10. I know biologists who do it all the time, though.

Not to excuse it. Your point is well-taken. How would you phrase it?

[GodlessBiker]

14. Leave creation out of it altogether. Species develop and emerge, I would think.

And those biologists should be ashamed of themselves.

Although I like Dinoboy's formulation below.

[BurtWorm]

18. Me too.

I borried it.

[Ediacara]

19. neat

:-)

[smoogatz]

9. I don't believe belief has anything to do with it.

Based on my understanding of the evidence, it's my considered opinion that evolutionary science offers the best and most coherent explanation for the origins of species and the structure of and relationships within the biological order. If other, better evidence presented itself, I would revise my opinion accordingly.

[hfojvt]

29. I think it does though

most people have a belief and scant aquaintance with the evidence. "Now you might be an exception to the rest of us, but don't drag me into your private hell." Joe Friday :P

[smoogatz]

35. Most people who share my opinion do so on the basis of the evidence.

Those who hold otherwise do so entirely out of blind and unreasoning faith.


:evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin:

[TahitiNut]

11. I believe 'Creation' included Time ... so it's not like a Cosmic Bowler at one end of the alley.

The idea that 'God' is somehow subject to time -- gets old, has a schedule, 'starts' Creation -- is nonsense to me. I also regard the idea of 'God' as some Cosmic Santa Claus -- where a prayer is like a Letter to Santa -- to be abject nonsense.

[Ediacara]

12. I chose "I believe nature 'created' life and species are 'designed' through natural and sexual s.."

But the wording is a little off IMHO, and uses a few loaded words like "created" and "designed" (granted with quotation marks). Although I don't think it was the OP's intention to make it sound as though trustees in the scientific method worshiped at the alter of natural selection.

But perhaps something like:

"I believe life arose through purely natural processes and speciation occurs via natural and sexual selection."

Might be a little clearer.

[The2ndWheel]

15. Whatever it is, we seem to be activity trying to stop it

We seem to be trying to intelligently design the planet in our image, to fit the narrow range of needs/wants/desires of a single mass produced economic system based on unending and exponential growth.

[ismnotwasm]

16. Other

It's a beautiful and continuous process that seems to have created environments and life that intersect without any special design or purpose. Art for arts sake so to speak. (designed life would have a little more perfection and efficiency to my mind) Even so, remarkably efficient all things considered.

"People say life begins at conception, I say life began about a billion years ago and it's a continuous process" George Carlin

[Swamp Rat]

17. Other

We are devolving.

[Two Americas]

20. both

There is no contradiction. The controversy is all a trumped up phony bunch of nonsense from right wingers to use for political purposes.

We would not argue about whether music moved our spirits or vibrated our ear drums and sent signals to our brains, and claim that it must be one or the other and only one or the other.

[melody]

21. The last one -- beats the hell out of me

Insufficient data to determine anything.

[Speck Tater]

22. Other: Reality is a simulation game.

We come here to forget who we really are because absolute perfection and omniscient knowledge is dreadfully boring. So we deliberately enter a state of temporary induced amnesia, forgetting who we really are, and are born into this simulation to play the game of life, with all it's pleasures and pains. After the Big Game Over, we might again enjoy being perfect for a little while, but when boredom once again sets in we "reincarnate" back into the game to play another round. Frankly, there's not much else to do when you're already perfect.

Even though "God", as such, does not exist, "heaven" is real, "reincarnation" is real, but there's nothing "mystical" or supernatural about either. It's pure technology. Highly advanced, of course, but then "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." "Heaven" is simply the realty where we really live, between rounds of "The Big Game".

Consider the odds. If any given highly advanced civilization is capable of running several thousand such simulations, the odds strongly favor the conclusion that any world you find yourself in is a simulated world, simply because simulated realities outnumber actual realities by a huge margin.

[Ghost in the Machine]

23. Other: Alien Creation

It's a combination of intelligent design AND evolution that was started by beings from another planet who were looking for somewhere else suitable to sustain life, much like our very own space exploration program today.

This other planet was possibly becoming overcrowded and was running out of natural resources, or it was quite possibly facing devastation from nuclear holocaust or world war. The government there was seeking somewhere else to start life, and found this planet (earth) in their explorations. They visited here and found the atmosphere suitable, plus we had air, water, light, etc. to sustain life.

They came back and brought plants, which they set out on different areas of the planet to see how they would grow, change and adapt to their surroundings. They saw how well the plants survived, grew, reproduced and thrived. It was good!

Next they brought insects and did the same thing, with the same results, and it was good... so they moved on to larger mammals... which also survived, grew, reproduced and thrived. It was all good!

Cavemen were an experiment of crossbreeding with primates, but they never developed intellectually the way they wanted them to, so they "made" man either by creating the dna, or by test tube babies and/or cloning. That's the reason scientists can't find the missing link between cavemen and modern man. There is no link in that chain. The experiment with the crossbreeding ended, and the cavemen eventually died off, and were quite possibly killed off to exterminate them from the face of the planet as an experiment gone awry.

"God" was the leader/top scientist of one part of the other planet and "Lucifer" was from a different part of that planet. God was a facsist and totalitarian who wished to use this new species (us) as slaves and he wanted us to bow before him. Lucifer was a liberal, and wanted us to be free. You can pick that out of the bible where it talks about adam & eve hiding from God because of their nakedness. God asked them "who TOLD you that you were naked"? .... what Lucifer did that was so wrong in the eyes of god was that he taught adam & eve to read and write. It pissed God off and he said "now they are like us, they have become gods". They learned to read, write and think for themselves.

[Oregone]

24. Why are you mixing God and evolution?

Evolution doesn't claim much more than that adaptations (via means of natural selection) in reproductively isolated populations can and does lead to speciation (a sub-population that can no longer interbreed with its former population). We can observe speciation as occurring currently in nature, and this is called "science".

Beyond that, its a game of Occam's Razor, whichever way you are cutting it. This poll almost insinuates the two concepts (God and evolution) are dependent or interfere with one another. Evolution is not really the theory of the origin life itself (much less on the origins of the universe/matter/time). Rather, it is a theory On the Origin of *Species* by Means of Natural Selection.

[baldguy]

25. I believe God created the world and is guiding evolution.

But what I believe and what I can prove are two entirely different things.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

26. Sheer chance. The mistake is to think that evolution has a direction.

We like to think that we are the epitome of evolution while the evidence shows that we're nothing special. Just another species that adapted a certain way to survive.

We're extraordinary only because we like to tell ourselves we are.

[Kali]

33. mostly agree with you

all chance - we are not some end goal, but I do think we are rather extraordinary

[hfojvt]

27. How many consider point #4 to be a "proven scientific theory"?

Because you went from evolution and speciation (Darwin)(a verified scientific theory) to creation (Oparin)(not a verified scientific theory which is nonetheless conflated with evolution in the public perception).

[Ediacara]

32. Wha?

[Uncle Joe]

28. I see the universe as an uterus, and the Big Bang was just that,

the universe has been expanding just as any pregnant animal would.

The early barren rocky planets forming after-wards were as unfertilized ovum, over millions of years of being struck by countless asteroids and comets serving as sperm cells bringing life giving compounds, they began dividing in to multi cells serving different functions. I believe what we know as life and non-life are literally part of the same fetus, continually recycling and developing in to different states via evolution.

Dark Matter serves the purpose of being a universal placenta of sorts holding everything together while it develops.

When Jesus said no one comes to the father except through him, he was speaking of humankind's need to adopt the Golden Rule in order to survive the final stages for a live universal birth to take place.

Of course this is just my hypothesis, but it works for me.:)

[ThePowerofWill]

30. I do believe in evolution.......

I don't however discount the idea of the involvement of some other being(s) starting the process though. I don't believe something(s) was involved, i just don't discount the idea. For the record i don't believe in teaching intelligent design in schools. My thoughts on outside involvement are just a musing i often ponder, and have no evidence for. Evolution on the other hand has plenty of evidence to support it though.

[LWolf]

31. Other:

Take "god" out of choice # 4, and replace it with "creator," which can be defined much more freely than "God."

It doesn't have to indicate diety, or religion, but it could.

For those of us who believe that there is something, but who prefer not to limit that something with human definitions.

[Ichingcarpenter]

34. Butt Hair and Ear hair growth in us old farts proves

Intelligent Design is joke that you can't hear and rubs your ass the wrong way.

[Edweird]

36. I don't necessarily believe that scientists have it 100% right at this moment.

But I sure as hell don't believe in god or any 'magical' bullshit.

[Aristus]

37. Evolution is proof that God respects our intelligence.

Now if some of us would just USE it...