Gallup 'Darwin's Birthday' Poll: Fewer than Four in Ten Believe in Evolution
Reader Comments
Natural Selection
Man, I'm about to jump into some serious stuff here. Anybody who speaks truth in this venue becomes a candidate for roasting over a slow fire. Oh well, here goes:
Evolution is not a theory. It is a observable phenomenon of nature. Just like the fact that the Sun comes up in the morning and goes down in the evening. There is no such thing as a "theory of evolution." Much like the geocentric presumption of the biblical scribes, which was later proven wrong by Copernicus and confirmed by Galileo, much to his chagrin, as he lived in Italy, well within reach of the Pope, and got to choose whether to recant or roast; Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection would never have survived the Inquisition of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of Rome. That has absolutely nothing to do with it's merit. That has to do with raw temporal power. That's why the founders were adamant to separate church and state. When the church has temporal power it will use it to supress whatever it finds offensive. Amen.
Darwin's theory has been abused since its inception to confirm a Calvinist Christian concept that has since been named "Social Darwinism." The ridiculous extrapolation that the rich are rich because they deserve to be and the poor are poor for similar reasons. Darwinian Natural Selection applies to speciation, not to competition within established species. If you choose to try to understand science from what you hear on Faux News, you will never understand anything.
A Christian Perspective
I am a Christian with a bachelor's in biology. I'm going to add my two cents here.
First, I often hear many Christians saying there is "no evidence" for evolution. I am the first to admit that that is a very stupid statement. There is plenty of evidence for evolution. The reason many Christians become defensive in regard to evolution is because they believe it contradicts the Bible. I would argue that it only contradicts a long standing interpretation of Genesis 1. There are biblical passages that speak of the sun "hurrying back to its morning position." Clearly, this is a rendering of the perspective of the psalmist, but it was interpreted as geocentrism until heliocentrism was proven correct. Interpretations can be faulty. Properly interpreted, the Bible can still be God's Word and coincide with evolutionary theory.
All that being said, I'm still of the opinion that man did not evolve from animals (though I am convinced that all other life has evolved). Yes, I will recieve fire from most all scientists on that, but as of yet I remain unconvinced. Could God have given a Spirit to Adam and Eve at a certain point in the evolutionary line? Yes, and if the evidence for human evolution appears incontrivertible to me, then I will adopt that position. There actually are holes in the evolutionary theory (for example, to my knowledge no specimen has been discovered yet that has an intermediate between feathers and scales - feathers simply appear). However, I do not find the argument from silence valid, as many biblical cities, etc., were considered false until they were discovered and validated later by archaeology.
Belief in the evolutionary theory does not negate belief in God. The only thing that really bothers me is when atheistic scientists refuse to accept the possibility of a Supreme Being interceding when no scientific explanation is possible (e.g., something coming from nothing). They don't have to believe that a Supreme Being is responsible, but when there is no scientific explanation, then it should remain a possibility.
Natural selection
It's silly to believe that evolution is really in existence. To think that we have evolved from apes or even that over billions of years a micro bacteria has evolved and a couple billion years later turned into us is simply ludicrous.
Now what I do believe and makes perfect sense is natural selection. Survival of the fittest and from the fittest become the fittest. During the civil war there were several southerners that were claiming to be the fittest and declaring that the black man was not the fittest and that they were simply following the natural selection pattern. This idea is simply baseless and has no value. Who created you to be above another man whether he be black or white, tall or short, strong or weak. What I'm trying to say is that natural selection applies to the world around us and our environment and to us as well but because of our "Advanced society" we have not turned into animals. "And that's why barn yard animals don't rule the world."
So if you were to ask me if I believed in evolution I was say that evolution is a real thing and it does occur through natural selection but there is no such thing as transpecy evolution.
a question
There isn't any anthropologist who rejects the theory of evolution. (If there is one, I'd be glad to learn). Is it meaningless?
Ken
Ken, you mention how "evolutionists" have fallen to the level of not arguing with creationists because it is beneath them. There are so many errors in your logic that I'm afraid there are not enough hours in the day to point out all your errors. With that, and my limited time, I would have to agree that arguing with you would be beneath me. You aren't even worth my time.
Good day.
PS
PS to my comment above.It is not a Christians responsibiliy to "convert" others to Christ. It IS the Christians' responsibility to share the 'good news'.The rest is up to the other.
Ken
Belief In Evolution/Creation
Many creationists believe that discussing their scientific views with evolutionists will perhaps help change the evolutionists opinion. It usually doesn't. The religion of the evolutionist is closed to any dissenting view. It doesn't matter to the evolutionist that many of the great names in science(Pascal,Pasteur,Kelvin,Newton,Kepler,Werner Von Braun,etc.were creationists. To evolutionists,all the creationist scientists and their Ph.D's, M.D.s, Sc.D's etc are somehow worth less than an evolutionists degree.
Both sides have the same info, they just start with different suppositions. I found it interesting that 30-40 years ago the many evolution vs. creation debates held in churches and on college campuses slowly died out due to creationists such as Morris,Gish or others usually voted to have presented their case better than the opponent.(keep in mind that these were open audiences with beliefs ranging from atheism through fundamental evangelists.)As time passed, the radical name calling evolutionary turned to the strategy of saying that debating a creationist was "beneath them".It's interesting that some in the field resorted to inventing and/or falsifying data in their zeal for fame/fortune or perhaps just to 'help' the evolutionists point of view. I am unaware of creation scientists doing the same.
That said, I have no amnosity toward people who don't share my point of view. I feel my purpose is to express my opinion in the hope that it may cause others to think. I also have to say that of the comments that I did read about this article,most showed a respect for opposing views(which is refreshing compared to the hate in my area. Thank you
Evolution vs. Creationism
The Evangelical Christian mindset is impenetrable. The Evangelical will never accept any fact, argument, or thesis that in any way contradicts his precious bible. He wants you to try to convince him that the theory of evolution is scientifically sound because it presents him with the opportunity he most covets: the chance to convert you to his particular version of Christianity.
Many atheists possess mindsets similar to fundamentalists that they love to skewer. Their belief that chance alone accounts for our world is unshakable. To hardcore atheists, if you believe in a deity, you are hopelessly ignorant or a weak minded individual who sought out a religion that would replace his rational questions with highly improbable answers.
Can chance alone account for the universe and the variety of life that inhabits it? And from where did the original material for the stars, planets, etc. come from? Can something ever come from nothing? The question is impossible to answer. The religious answer that God created the world. Problem solved. The atheist or agnostic replies, "Who created God?" Neither position is particularly enlightening. To the combatants, the lines are drawn and the issue, as well as the answer. is black and white. You believe in God or you believe in Evolution. The real answer is, as it is usually, grey.
The Book of Genesis is about the least compelling "theory" of the origin of the world. It represents little more than one man's struggle to explain the universe 3000 years ago. I believe in Theory of Evolution, to a point. i believe there's sufficient evidence to support evolution as the process by which simplistic life forms evolved into more complex life forms. But, as a complete explanation, evolution leaves much to be desired. As I understand it, the first cells were simplistic, carbon based "organisms." These cells somehow managed to extract sufficient nutrients from their environment, process energy, and duplicate themselves, without dying in the process. And somewhere along the line, each cell developed some rudimentary DNA. How, exactly, is all that possible? Pure chance produced DNA? It would appear that chance alone cannot explain the vast majority of these early cellular changes (or improvements).
While i cannot offer an explanation for the origin of God, I do not believe an evolutionary process, without some divine intervention or guidance is possible. Both the atheists and the fundamentalists are, to some degree, correct.
Logical Tumbleweed by both sides
Hi. I'm an agnostic. I always stress the necessity of understanding not just the discoveries of science but how these discoveries are made and corroborated. If more people went beyond "science shows species evolve" and tried to understand how do we know what we know and why is this true, it's quite likely evolution would be better accepted. Moreover, if religion is indeed your cup of tea, it would be a delicious sweetener to try to understand the rules by which the Universe abides. Careful to confuse this with Intelligent Design, which completely misinterprets scientific theory and fact to suggest that they cannot happen without a Designer. But that's another debate.
I want to address RB of XX to show that comments of atheists and agnostics being just another "faith structure" is false, and that unfortunately some outspoken atheists make it seem that way. RB, when you want to prove a point, far from stating a fact and requiring that people take it at face value, you quote or cite your information. People will ask how do YOU know the top 10-11% of "smart" people are atheists. A lot of surveys does not complete that. And what a delicious false dichotomy: "Anyone who believes in the Bible are either idiots or brainwashed". Are those the only TWO possible explanations? What about both? What about neither? And what do you mean by Belief in the Bible? You believe it's a historical document? The word of the judeochristian god? The work of prophets creatively inspired?
There is nothing to be gained by spitting these comments and hoping it'll serve influential. Not only does this apply to fundamentalists, but also to angry atheist ranting. It'll never convince anyone of anything, and it'll just serve to kick start anger.
It does sadden me, however, that the immense majority of Americans disregard evolution with only very basic information at hand, instead of going deeper, yet they accept other theories without applying the same disregard they applied to evolution, by twisting the definition of theory. If you genuinely do not believe in the theory of evolution, do yourself a favor and ask yourself why, instead of jumping the popularity bandwagon. Remember, just because something is popular doesn't make it true or worthwhile. Unless you think you should smoke because some 40 million americans do so (http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4559).
Take home message: Atheist and agnostics, do not follow RB of XX's example. Doesn't work here, won't work anywhere else. Theists and Deists, (Christians in particular), do not, by any means, think that the numbers posted on this blog is evidence of anything, except maybe the need for better evolutionary science teaching and less flack from evolution-creation (science-religion) incompatibility supporters.
Re: Believing in Evolution
Dear Dr Dog of XX,
Actually I am involved in the scientific field of Biology.
The 'belief' in science is NOT like religious belief. 'Belief,' in science and scientific theories is an acceptance of a collaborative analysis of evidence derived from studies of observable phenomena in the natural world.
Religious belief is based on the flawed circular logic that the bible (i.e. holy text) is true because the bible says so which makes it the surrender of the only thing that separates human beings from every other organism on this planet: Our ability to reason. It's a mixture of spirituality, ancient myths, and religious dogma to form a mortar for a wall built with the bricked bodies of believers present and past.
Check out my Youtube channel called Russell's Flying Pig and watch the video entitled Eroding God: An Atheist's Paradox which addresses the paradox of believing in a god and accepting science.
