Does evolution have a purpose? (Evolution)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Sunday, October 26, 2014, 00:16 (3680 days ago) @ dhw

TONY: Now that being said, no, science and religion are not incompatible, neither are parts of evolution and religion. If taken in its entirety then yes, evolution is anti-religious. The bible actually encourages the use of science, but not with the goal of removing God.
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>DHW: I don't know what you mean by “in its entirety”. There are theistic and atheistic interpretations, but the basis of the whole theory is common descent, which you rightly point out contradicts the biblical version of life's development. However, not every religious person believes that every word of the bible is meant to be taken literally, and religion is not confined to creationists. So what part of the theory is anti-religious? -Since my own words have failed to express the concept, I will rely on the words of others.-“Darwinism rejects all supernatural phenomena and causations. The theory of evolution by natural selection explains the adaptedness and diversity of the world solely materialistically.” 
(“Darwin's Influence on Modern Thought” E. Mayr [evolutionist scientist], Scientific American, pg. 82-83, (July 2000), emphasis added) -“[F]or many evolutionists, evolution has functioned as something with elements which are, let us say, akin to being a secular religion ... [A]t some very basic level, evolution as a scientific theory makes a commitment to a kind of naturalism, namely, that at some level one is going to exclude miracles and these sorts of things come what may.” 
("Nonliteralist Antievolution," Ruse, Michael [evolutionist philosopher of science], AAAS Symposium: "The New Antievolutionism," February, 1993, Boston, MA., emphasis added) -"[W]e have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations…that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.” 
(Lewontin, Richard [evolutionist scientist], "Billions and Billions of Demons", New York Review of Books, January 9, 1997, p. 28., emphasis added) -In short, theories, including evolution, are created and perpetuated by scientist, and their own words mark them as doing so in order to shut out even the possibility of God. " ..materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door."-Science, as a process, is neutral. Theories are developed by scientist, are not. Evolution is a non-neutral theory. It is not a fact (as we have repeatedly discussed here), it is an opinion, an interpretation of facts and opinions, that survives even when the facts disagree with it by ignoring those facts.

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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.