The Consequences of the Theory of Evolution

[SensibleManiac]

In response to the original posters' question about morality, I think that relgion is largely to blame for the decline in morality we are seeing and will continue to see.
Rather a failure of religion. Many people equate religion as the only avenue of morality and the fact that they doubt religion and see it as failing makes them doubt morality as well.
True ethics can be better developed through reason and therefore, humanities' ability to reason can help us here as well.

Unfortunately the propogation of reason is quickly falling by the wayside as societies are being dumbded down so that governments can take further advantage of the general populations.

 

[fangjian]

Why is that? The theory has been around for a loong time-religion endures. Evolution is both theory and fact.

I would imagine that religious belief will always endure. Even if/when humans (or whoever) solve the question of 'how the universe was created', there will likely be more questions. Whenever there is phenomena that is not understood, there will always be someone there to offer their 'belief'. All of the Greek/Roman gods are regarded as 'mythology', and we now have explanations for all of the phenomena like lightning, oceans etc, through scientific inquiry. So they all 'went away' for the most part as the people received more 'education'.


I'm pretty sure that the more educated a community/state/country is, the less religious belief there is. The studies do exist. Accepting the ToE is a matter of science education.

So, the more people accept the scientific explanations for things like evolution, lightning, planetary movement etc., the less of a chance they will attribute it to a god/goddess or whatever. Hence the community will be less religious.

Th

 

[elder999]

I So, the more people accept the scientific explanations for things like evolution, lightning, planetary movement etc., the less of a chance they will attribute it to a god/goddess or whatever. Hence the community will be less religious.

Th

Many religions siumply don't offer alternate explanations or attributions. Correctly, neither Chrisitianity nor Judaism do: the Gneesis creation story hould be interpreted as an allegory-and mostly was until the middle ages, the writings that show as much are still with us. Thus it is that taking the creation story literally is literally "dark ages" thinking.

And, in fact, many communities are more or just as religious as they were 100 years ago, especially in this country.

 

[fangjian]

Many religions siumply don't offer alternate explanations or attributions. Correctly, neither Chrisitianity nor Judaism do: the Gneesis creation story hould be interpreted as an allegory-and mostly was until the middle ages, the writings that show as much are still with us. Thus it is that taking the creation story literally is literally "dark ages" thinking.

And, in fact, many communities are more or just as religious as they were 100 years ago, especially in this country.

Many religions DO offer alternate explanations. They do not view it as just symbolic. This is the entire conflict! Morality, evolution, cosmogony etc. Of course, religions offer alternative explanations. What are you talkin about? Did I misunderstand something?

Half of America doesn't accept the ToE, because they don't understand it. It hasn't been thoroughly explained to them. I understand why they don't accept it.

 

[fangjian]

Half of America doesn't accept the ToE, because they don't understand it. It hasn't been thoroughly explained to them. I understand why they don't accept it.

This is usually how it goes.

"If humans came from monkeys, why do we still have monkeys?"

"Well what the scientists say is, 'First there was some slime then magically, it turned into dinosaurs, then through luck, they turned in to humans'. Do you honestly believe that?!?!!"


lolz.

 

[cdunn]

The only connection that Evolution has with Atheism, really, is that it is the last step we needed to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist. We now have a valid answer to "how did we get here?" That alone won't even dent the meme of religion. Might it start a few more down the pathway of deconversion? Possibly, but only the few who feel lied to or cheated.

What would happen immediately is that millions of tax dollars would be saved as texts full of outright lies are discarded, and lawsuits over injecting religion into the school curriculum would hopefully mostly cease. That's about it from direct effects, though.

I would hope that, within two decades, we would have a medical and technological revolution on our hands, as a larger fraction of the children of today would discover that, yes, biology really is a deep, complex, and interesting science, as they are taught its fundamentals by interested and aware teachers, rather that read a script from a book by a teacher who is too afraid of the community to teach it properly or who believes he should be teaching them something else. Without the lenses of evolution and development, absolutely nothing in biology makes sense. If nothing else, maybe we'd finally get a handle on the human-forced evolution of antibiotic resistant bacteria. But, really, who knows?

 

[bushidomartialarts]

If the US were to wholeheartedly accept ToE as fact, the switch itself would have very little affect.

However.

This would only happen if the parties that used ToE vs Creationism as a political tool had finally lost that ability or stopped doing so.

That, I suspect, would have far-reaching consequences....or would be the consequence of other significant changes.

Imagine...a country without judgment over consensual sexual practice, where abortion was a decision based on the medical and social facts, practical application of stem cell research and a sensible policy about voluntary end of life....

 

[elder999]

Many religions DO offer alternate explanations. They do not view it as just symbolic. This is the entire conflict! Morality, evolution, cosmogony etc. Of course, religions offer alternative explanations. What are you talkin about? Did I misunderstand something?

In the case of CHristanity, where the fundamentalists insist on strict literal interpretation of Genesis?

They're wrong.. As in not in accordance with Christian teaching. Mistaken. Led astray.

View Genesis as allegorical and there is no conflict with evolution.

In fact, there mostly is no conflict with evolution, if one takes the concept of "God's time" into account.

Half of America doesn't accept the ToE, because they don't understand it. It hasn't been thoroughly explained to them. I understand why they don't accept it.

Really? Half? As in 150,000,000 people?

I'd like to see the data.....:lfao:

 

[fangjian]

View Genesis as allegorical and there is no conflict with evolution.

In fact, there mostly is no conflict with evolution, if one takes the concept of "God's time" into account.

Of course there's no conflict if you look at it as just a story. Genesis is just a creation myth among countless myths.

Really? Half? As in 150,000,000 people?

I'd like to see the data.....:lfao:

All the evidence points to about 50% of Americans accepting ToE. This is well known. Just look at the top of Page 2 of this thread. Why? What are you suggesting is the real %?

 

[elder999]

Of All the evidence points to about 50% of Americans accepting ToE. This is well known. Just look at the top of Page 2 of this thread. Why? What are you suggesting is the real %?

How unscientific of you. Since we don't know the polled demographic at all, it can't possibly be considered representative evidence-they could have just conucted the poll in Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri, for all we know.

 

[Empty Hands]

How unscientific of you. Since we don't know the polled demographic at all, it can't possibly be considered representative evidence-they could have just conucted the poll in Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri, for all we know.

Will you trust Gallup's methodology? They describe their sample, their confidence interval, and their error at the bottom of the page. They have belief in the US at 39%, disbelief at 25%, and "no opinion either way" at 36%.

 

[fangjian]

How unscientific of you.

*gasp* You my good sir, are challenged to a duel. I demand satisfaction!!!

Since we don't know the polled demographic at all, it can't possibly be considered representative evidence-they could have just conucted the poll in Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri, for all we know.

Yes of course. I doubt the poll was only of Biology graduate students, as well. I'll ask again though. What do you think the actual % is then?

 

[Sukerkin]

Of course there's no conflict if you look at it as just a story. Genesis is just a creation myth among countless myths.

Indeed, it is just a re-telling of earlier Babylonian and Egyptian myths.

 

[PooterMan]

That sort of jives with the list of "least religion counties" (though not sure how scientific the survey was)listed at:
http://www.gadling.com/2007/08/23/least-religious-countries/
1. Sweden (up to 85% non-believer, atheist, agnostic)
2. Vietnam
3. Denmark
4. Norway
5. Japan
6. Czech Republic
7. Finland
8. France
9. South Korea
10. Estonia (up to 49% non-believer, atheist, agnostic)

Though Iceland is not listed here, but was on that chart listed above in #1 spot of believers in evolution.

shrug....I guess 28% of statistics are made up anyway. heh!

 

[MA-Caver]

ya I am of the group that believes there is no conflict they both can and do exist together. Nothing to see here move on.

Same here... I came to the conclusion that you cannot create something and not expect it to evolve. :uhyeah:

This includes humans.

 

[WC_lun]

In my opinion, most people don't have an issue with the ToE and faith coinciding. I'm not sure why those who are at the far end of the spectrum on the issue believe in only this or that. Perhaps it is fear, ignorance, or arrogance. For the faithful, denying the science would be like denying thier God set creation up to change and contmue. For the scientist that dismisses faith completely, it ignores most human belief and supposes others are wrong when there is no proof one way or another.

 

[fangjian]

For the scientist that dismisses faith completely, it ignores most human belief and supposes others are wrong when there is no proof one way or another.

-no proof one way or the other-

I have to disagree with your sentiment, I think.

Just because we don't know exactly how the universe was created, doesn't make ALL explanations valid.

We can assume one thing. Religions. One of them is right, or all of them are wrong. Using's Occam's Razor, which anwer is most likely?

 

[elder999]

Will you trust Gallup's methodology? They describe their sample, their confidence interval, and their error at the bottom of the page. They have belief in the US at 39%, disbelief at 25%, and "no opinion either way" at 36%.

Sure. I'll accept Gallup's methodology-however, fangjian said fully 50& of the country's populace didn't believe in evolution, while Gallup shows that it's half of that again: 25% don/t believe, while 39%-somewhat closer to 50% than 25%- do.

That 36% don't give a **** doesn't surprise me in the least.:lfao:

Just because we don't know exactly how the universe was created, doesn't make ALL explanations valid.

We can assume one thing. Religions. One of them is right, or all of them are wrong. Using's Occam's Razor, which anwer is most likely?

Stop misusing Ockham's razor that way; you'll cut yourself. :lfao:

 

[Sukerkin]

So whatever way you count the figures, a sizeable portion of American's elect to put their fingers in their ears and do the La-la-la-I'm-not-listening-to-you song?

Crikey! That just goes to prove that you should never underestimate the capacity for stupidity in humans when they amass in numbers in one place. I suppose it's a side-effect of our inate need to 'group'; it's what makes us a social animal at the end of the day. The rejection of evidence and the acceptance of fable by such groups is something that still makes me doubt we'll make it as a species tho'.

 

[elder999]

shrug....I guess 28% of statistics are made up anyway. heh!

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