Does evolution have a purpose? (Evolution)

by dhw, Thursday, October 23, 2014, 15:22 (3682 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

TONY: Some of your challenges I have answered repeatedly. 
-Yes, there ARE people out there that do good without being Christian. (Not sure how many times I have to say this)-But that was not my point. You specifically attacked evolutionists on the grounds that their belief was a “self-delusion fuelled by a desire to defame/eliminate the knowledge of God” etc. Such generalizations do not help your case one iota. 

TONY: Yes, evolution IS used as an attack against religion, and by extension God.
-Of course it is, and my point was that blaming evolution for this is as unjustified as “atheists blaming the bible or the Koran for the crimes committed in God's name.” The theory itself is perfectly compatible with religion.
 
TONY: Let's look at a basic question of accountability then. Should scientist be accountable for their discoveries?-http://www.debate.org/opinions/should-scientists-be-held-accountable-for-the-consequenc...
http://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-future-of-blame-A distinguished American lawyer once remarked that "man is in no sense the maker of himself and has no more power than any other machine to escape the law of cause and effect." The speaker was Clarence Darrow, who, 80 years ago, was trying to help Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb escape the death penalty for having murdered Bobby Franks in cold blood. "Each act, criminal or otherwise, follows a cause," Darrow continued, and "given the same conditions the same result will follow forever and ever."
So you are telling me, that this is not a clear cut case of people trying to use science and evolution as a means of escaping the accountability for their actions? You think this is an isolated event?-Of course it isn't. You frequently complain about cherry-picking, but that is what you are doing here. You have picked on one area of science that links up with the highly contentious issue of free will (concerning which we have had long discussions on this forum). Throughout history some people have used the bible as an excuse to rob, enslave, murder their fellow humans. Does that mean the bible is to blame? Some people use science as a means of escaping accountability. Other scientists will oppose their view. So do you blame science or the scientists for their subjective conclusions? There's no consistency here. If science and the bible are used to justify human actions, it is the humans that are responsible, not the science or the bible.-**************-I'll answer your other important post tomorrow, as well as Casey's. Lovely to see you back, Casey.