Evolution (Evolution)

by David Turell , Wednesday, February 04, 2009, 17:46 (5553 days ago) @ dhw

Clearly the question the pollsters asked did not include the possibility that people might believe some parts of the theory and not believe others. Nor could they have made allowances for what people understand by evolution, since in so many minds it is now associated with atheism. It shouldn't be presented to the reading public, TV audiences or schoolchildren as a scientific package deal. - There are so many degrees of belief about evolution that you are absolutely correct. The pollsters ask silly incomplete questions, just as they do for politics. - Just a review: 1) 'young earth creationists': Genesis is correct and the Earth is 10,000 years old or less, no evolution at all. 2) 'old earth creationists': the Earth is about as old as science says (13.7 byo), the Hebrew word "yom" means any interval of time, not just a day, but God created all, no evolution. 3) 'Deism': God started it in motion, evolution occurred, but God is not active now. 4)'Theistic evolution': God coded evolution to happen, and He is still around to tweak it, and be available for human prayer. I interpret this as the Catholic position, according to Pope John Paul. 5) 'Theism' as a term covers the previous entries, and an endless variety of others. 6) 'Atheism': It all happened by chance, the universe, life, and evolution. 7) 'Agnosticism': It all happened, but they don't know how or why. 8)'Intelligent design': it is all too complicated to occur by chance. An intelligent force is behind all of it, perhaps imbedded within everything we observe. 8) 'David Turell': Intelligent Design is a reasonable way to look at everything. The Big Bang is a creation until proven otherwise.The universe was coded by physical laws to evolve as it continues to do so. Life could not have started by chance. It is much too complicated. DNA/RNA was coded from the beginning to create Homo sapiens. Religions have no idea about what the intelligent force is. They anthropomorphize. And all this is 'beyond a reasonable doubt' if thoroughly studied.