March 1, 2012
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Evolution
So, this semester I took Zoology to fill the last of my required science credits. This is the very first time that I've been learning anything about evolution. Since I was raised in a very strict religious home, and homeschooled, I've never learned the first thing about evolution. I find it to be fascinating, and I can't believe that I haven't ever learned anything about this before, regardless of how it fit into the religion I was raised in.
I was talking to R about how much I've been learning and how it just blows my mind in so many ways. He went to a few private schools which were run by churches until going to governor's school in highschool. He's heard it all from the Bible creation story to the Big Bang. We're both sort of agnostic right now, but I think that R made an incredibly good point last night that really sent my tiny brain spinning."Why would the existence of a higher power negate the theory of evolution? If there is someone who is all knowing, all powerful, and infinite in being, then why couldn't he just go, 'Well I'm just going to set this stuff in motion aaannnnddd' BANG."
I never had thought of it that way before. I know the Bible says that the Earth was created in 7 days, but... I mean come on, so much of the Bible is allegorical and stuff. Personally, I don't take everything the Bible says as absolute fact. It's been changed too much over time, different people have added and taken away parts of the Bible that they don't agree with, and the fact that it's been translated a million times, and so much can get lost in translation (ex. Moses being depicted with horns on his head because of a mistranslation and it was thought that he really had horns on his head.).
Comments (7)
When you buy and ant farm, what do you do? You put some ant in there and watch what happens. You don't go and make the little tunnels for them. If there is an all powerful presence up in the sky watching over us, I'm sure it's doing just that, watching. Evolution can still fit into the possibility of a god. It just doesn't fit into man's explanation for it (the bible).
@Lithium98 - I completely agree you! I'm just amazed that at 23 I'm just now learning/realizing these possibilities. See, growing up I was told that evolution was sinful man's explanation of a world without God, and it is based off of falsified research in order to prove there is no God (ex. the pig's teeth that were put in a fossil that was said to be a previous form of human beings? All I remember is the pig teeth part.) But now that I'm learning more about it, I don't believe at all that evolution rules out God, and I don't think that was Darwin's goal at all. I mean he didn't publish his stuff for forever because of the controversy. If he was trying to prove there is no God, then why was he afraid to publish his works for so long? I don't see how it rules out the possibility of a god at all.
@forever_musing - I've always known and understood the idea of evolution but I can't say I've studied it. You should do something like a top ten facts about evolution that you've learned so far kinda post. Maybe people know a lot less about it than they think.
Did you know that it was a Catholic priest who first proposed the Big Bang theory?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Lema%C3%AEtre
I've always found it so ironic when I meet atheists who tell me, "I don't need to believe in a God; I think the Big Bang Theory explains everything adequately enough." But then I point out that the theory was first proposed by a Catholic priest and they don't want to talk to me any more.
Have fun in your class; you are learning some fascinating stuff!
@Ancient_Scribe - I didn't know that! Everything just keeps getting more and more interesting.
You ought to read "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. It is absolutely brilliant and will send your mind into circles and insights that you'd never imagine possible. Many creationists claim that all of the amazing entities that exist in this world, outside of this world, are feelings of surrealism must be evidence of something supernatural or paranormal. A good response to that which Dawkins argues is that any creator of improbable must be even more improbable to be able to create it in the first place.
@Ancient_Scribe - The Big Bang theory fits conveniently into most religion, so no I'm not surprised. Most people of prestige in scientific history were affiliated with the church because that's how you were able to gain the respect and resources to conduct serious investigation in the first place.
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