GOD and EVOLUTION - Survey (Nov/23/2007 )

Hi All,

If you have an opinion on GOD and EVOLUTION... cast your views through this survey....

http://tebuffer.byethost13.com/

-TEB

---

Hi everybody,

I'm really surprised there are no more comments, what a great topic. I've always thought that microbiologists were in a unique position with respect to evolution. When you see the inner workings of archaea, procaryotes, eucaryotes, it so easy to see how it happened and to understand it in a way that people who say "God must have done beacause it's too complicated" would not understand, because the whole story is right there. I'm not trying to step on anybody's toes and I'm really curious to hear from other microbiologists. As a Christian, I'm mystified that somehow it became a religious issue. I can accept the criticism that religious faith is unscientific, but I've never seen anything in the new testament about evolution. Would someone's faith be shaken by evolution? Christianity somehow survived heliocentricity. Thanks in advance for your replies. Everyone's opinion is welcome and I would not presume to change it. I've raised the question against the backdrop of Chrisianity because I have seen it painted in that light. I realize that many of you are from other backgrounds, and wonder if other religions dissagree with evolution (or something else you feel strongly about.) I would love to hear about that.

my very best,
Daniella

---

Hi there,
The lack of comments probably comes from the fact that this topic has been discussed and debated, to the point that an entire board on Bioforum has been dedicated to debates about evolution. Evolution vs. Creationism. Evidence for evolution and extinction etc…..
Evolution and Darwinism

Thus aside from being a well discussed topic, a debate or discussion on evolution in ChitChat feels wrong when there is an entire board dedicate to it.

You could visit that Evolution and Darwinism board and read what people have already written. Perhaps add your comments or start a new topic if desired.

---

I just found out that a museum dedicated to criationism is opening here in Portugal!

I might go there with some friends, out of curiosity (and for the laugh of course).

But it's worrying this kind of anti-science is beggining to spread - I thought it only happened in the states, but apparently no-one is safe

---

My apologies. I'm really new here, and I should have looked at the topics more thoroughly. It's one of my favorite topics, glad to see it's so active here.

daniella

---

Hi daniella,

Anything is forgiven here except for that but welcome to the forum anyways. I like your intro..identifying yourself a Christian and all that...we're sort of a minority here in this infidel stronghold so I give you fair warning...it's better not to have one of those heated discussions (involving religion, belief or faith) which usually degenerate into flame wars so we stick with the science...it's more safe, more sane, more forum-friendly. Enjoy and learn.

your self-appointed welcome committee member,

casandra

---

nothing wrong with being a christian.

---

I surely hope not.. and maybe it's not even a question of the "wrongness" nor the "rightness" of being one...

---

"As a Christian, I'm mystified that somehow it became a religious issue."

Because evolution is only a theory ... we all know God really did it.
Because it's a stealth way of getting religion into science class (look at what is going on in America - at this point also check out http://www.conservapedia.com/Main_Page and http://creationwiki.org/Main_Page - if you want to read more check out how the theory of evolution is responsible for the holocaust ...)

You could argue that it is the fault of Plato. For the concept of irreducible complexity we remain ever thankful to Dr Michael Behe of Lehigh University and The Discovery Institute.

Yours,

The Troll.

---

i work in the evolution lab here at the catholic univeristy of chile... contradiction anyone? i say not.
god created the world in 7 days. he took mud and blew life into it. woman came from a male rib. man is the supreme creation.
i do not find that this contradicts evolution at all. remember, the church has used metaphores all its existence to bring gods word to the people. in these times people were very ignorant, and hardly anyone even knew how to write or add. to date, most people are simple minded and need these kind of metaphors to understand the holy word.
but thinking deeper....
in the begning there was nothing until god decided to create the world. this would be the singularity that cause the big bang. this is accepted by the vatican to date.
when god took mud and blew life into it, i would think of that as the first living cell that arose fron the primitve soup. life, tho expected for such a complex system as a cell as a means to lower free energy of an organized system by getting even using entalpy from chemical reactions is a fortune "accident". or divine intervention.
it evolved into all life known today, including man. in a macho society such as those when the bible was written, it would have been normal to think male came before female, but the metphor could go deeper as to say that sex evovled from a species that was split into two different sexes, a clear example of this is F- and F+ bacteria.
evolution therefore, is only a process that ocurrs doing the creation, which i think has not been finished yet. 7 days is a metaphor, most people, especially in those day, could not understand the atemporality of god and the concept of infinity. i think we are living in those 7 days and creation is not finished yet. evolution ocurrs within these metaphoric days of creation, and is still happening. because god did not make the world in 7 24 hour days, but is still making it. we can not be so proud to think that it is already over. we are a part of this ongoing creation, which explains why we see evolution.
we are not the supreme creation in terms as the finished product, but we are the only species with the sufficient capacity to understand god due to our evolved brains, which is why we are his "image and likeliness"; we are the only people who can start to comprehend the mysteries of god, and therefore the only ones who can create an "image" or in better terms, a concept of god. and we have the whole creation at our disposition as "superior" creatures in the same sense, we are the only one capable of understanding a little bit of nature.

i am deeply catholic and by no means has this been a problem for my scientific point of view. theology and deep thinking and not crude religion, and taking the holy world literally, is the key to understanding the world around us in scientific terms and being able to realize that there is a god behind this. the more i learn as a scientist, the more convinced i am that all of this his makes sense in a world with god.

---