Evolution: Fact Or Fiction

Whats your religion?

Atheist	39.3%	[ 1138 ]
Protestant	16.9%	[ 489 ]
Catholic	14.1%	[ 407 ]
Hindu	1.3%	[ 37 ]
Muslim	1.8%	[ 53 ]
Jew	2.3%	[ 67 ]
Buddhist	5.1%	[ 149 ]
Greek Orthodox	0.7%	[ 21 ]
Pagan	14.2%	[ 412 ]
Egyptian	4.2%	[ 122 ]
Total Votes:			[ 2895 ]

[shadowcthuhlu]

I believe in evolution. I also believe God created the laws of nature knowing what they would produce.

[I think there4 I am]

Queen of the tigers

ive seen alot of monkeys. ive never seen any of them turn in to men.

yeah about this....does anyone know why(if there is evelution) then why didn't all the apes evolv...... sweatdrop

[Jaaten Syric]

Discussed numerous times in this thread: We did not evolve from modern day apes, we share a common ancestor. Stop using this argument.

[BurningWitchTWS]

I think there4 I am

Queen of the tigers

ive seen alot of monkeys. ive never seen any of them turn in to men.

yeah about this....does anyone know why(if there is evelution) then why didn't all the apes evolv...... sweatdrop

There is evolution, though we don't live long enough to notice it.

As Jaaten just posted, we share a common ancestor. We evolved into our current state by adaptation to different environments. What in monkey's name is so friggin impossible to understand about that? sweatdrop

[A Lost Iguana]

shadowcthulhu

I believe in evolution. I also believe God created the laws of nature knowing what they would produce.

Ever met Epicurus?

[A Soporific]

I think there4 I am

Queen of the tigers

ive seen alot of monkeys. ive never seen any of them turn in to men.

yeah about this....does anyone know why(if there is evelution) then why didn't all the apes evolv...... sweatdrop

They did evolve. Some ape ancestors evolved into humans, others evovled into modern apes. Modern apes are very different from those that previously existed, just as humans are very different from what we once were.

[starmapguy]

I have a few theories that make me insane. when God created the everything, you have to take into account of what "day" means. in the book of revalation, you see that a week =threeand a half years. but assuming there is natural selection, that would take approximatley 700000000000 years. thats too much, but nor is it possible that we appeared from nothing. God had something to do with the process to stop random adoptations. so, I hold that middle ground I guess.

[A1ucard]

First of all, humans did not evolve from chimpanzees. We both have a common ancestor.
Second, people who say evolution is just a theory and not fact is making a misconception about scientific theory. The definition of a theory in science is:

"a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world that can incorporate facts, laws, inferences, and tested hypotheses.
The contention that evolution should be taught as a "theory, not as a fact" confuses the common use of these words with the scientific use. In science, theories do not turn into facts through the accumulation of evidence. Rather, theories are the end points of science. They are understandings that develop from extensive observation, experimentation, and creative reflection. They incorporate a large body of scientific facts, laws, tested hypotheses, and logical inferences. In this sense, evolution is one of the strongest and most useful scientific theories we have."

[Nadina-chan]

Well me... im a christian and don't believe we share a common ancestor..only because of the fact that their has been humans for hundreds and hundreds of years... why haven't we evovled?Besides if you reallt study up on it..you will find out that Charles Darwin was an amiture naturalist...and only went to school for a lil bit.So...yeah...also he never said we evolved....for a fact..in one of his quotes he states thatit was just a guess..that he only figured from what he studied...they didn't have a lot of knowledge like we do today too.

[Sinner]

Nadina-chan

Well me... im a christian and don't believe we share a common ancestor..only because of the fact that their has been humans for hundreds and hundreds of years... why haven't we evovled?

1. We have.

2. Evolution takes millions of years, not hundreds.

Nadina-chan

one of his quotes he states thatit was just a guess..

No.

Nadina-chan

they didn't have a lot of knowledge like we do today too.

Which is why we've used our modern technology and information to prove that evolutionary theory is, in fact, correct.

[Ryau]

The end all *clickey*
Evidence

For those of you who dont want to read that, Ill summerize some bits of it; (its a bit long, read it or dont, but dont whine about how long it is)

Quote:

Description

Evolution is the process by which populations of organisms acquire and pass on novel traits from generation to generation. Its action over large stretches of time explains the origin of new species and ultimately the vast diversity of the biological world.

The understanding of evolution is based on the theory of natural selection, natural selection is the idea that individual organisms which possess variations giving them advantageous heritable traits are more likely to survive and reproduce and, in doing so, increase the frequency of such traits in subsequent generations.

Quote:

Evidence of Evolution

The process of evolution has left behind numerous records which reveal the history of different species. While the best-known of these are the fossils, fossils are only a small part of the overall physical record of evolution. Fossils, taken together with the comparative anatomy of present-day plants and animals, constitute the morphological record. By comparing the anatomies of both modern and extinct species, biologists can reconstruct the lineages of those species with some accuracy. Using fossil evidence, for instance, the connection between dinosaurs and birds has been established by way of so-called "transitional" species such as Archaeopteryx.

Although we cannot obtain the DNA sequences of most extinct species, the degree of similarity and difference among modern species allows geneticists to reconstruct lineages with greater accuracy. It is from genetic comparisons that claims such as the 95% similarity between humans and chimpanzees come from, for instance.

Other evidence used to demonstrate evolutionary lineages includes the geographical distribution of species. For instance, monotremes and most marsupials are found only in Australia, showing that their common ancestor with placental mammals lived before the submerging of the ancient land bridge between Australia and Asia.

Scientists correlate all of the above evidence – drawn from paleontology, anatomy, genetics, and geography – with other information about the history of the earth. For instance, paleoclimatology attests to periodic ice ages during which the climate was much cooler; and these are found to match up with the spread of species such as the woolly mammoth which are better-equipped to deal with cold.

Quote:

The Beginning

The chemical evolution from self-catalytic chemicals to life is not a part of biological evolution.

Not much is known about the earliest developments in life. However, all existing organisms share certain traits, including cellular structure, and genetic code. Most scientists interpret this to mean all existing organisms share a common ancestor, which had already developed the most fundamental cellular processes, but there is no scientific consensus on the relationship of the three domains of life (Archaea, Bacteria, Eukaryota) or the origin of life. Attempts to shed light on the earliest history of life generally focus on the behavior of macromolecules, particularly RNA, and the behavior of complex systems.

The emergence of oxygenic photosynthesis (around 3 billion years ago) and the subsequent emergence of an oxygen-rich, non-reducing atmosphere can be traced through the formation of banded iron deposits, and later red beds of iron oxides. This was a necessary prerequisite for the development of aerobic cellular respiration, believed to have emerged around 2 billion years ago.

In the last billion years, simple multicellular plants and animals began to appear in the oceans. Soon after the emergence of the first animals, the Cambrian explosion (a period of unrivaled and remarkable, but brief, organismal diversity documented in the fossils found at the Burgess Shale) saw the creation of all the major body plans, or phyla, of modern animals. This event is now believed to have been triggered by the development of the Hox genes. About 500 million years ago, plants and fungi colonized the land, and were soon followed by arthropods and other animals, leading to the development of land ecosystems with which we are familiar.

Quote:

Misconceptions about modern evolutionary biology

Many critics of evolution claim that the theory robs life and the universe of any transcendental meaning. Indeed, one of the great strengths of evolution by natural selection is that it has no need for a supernatural intelligence or any intelligent design. As Louis Menand has pointed out, what was radical about Darwin's theory of speciation through natural selection was not the notion of evolution — a concept people espoused before Darwin, and a word that does not appear in The Origin of Species — but his materialism: "Darwin wanted to establish ... that the species — including human beings — were created by, and evolve according to, processes that are entirely natural, chance-generated, and blind" (Menand 2001: 121).

Nevertheless, many critiques of the modern evolutionary thought involve misunderstandings of the theory itself, or of science in general.

[shadowcthuhlu]

A Lost Iguana

shadowcthulhu

I believe in evolution. I also believe God created the laws of nature knowing what they would produce.

Ever met Epicurus?

No. Can you tell me more about him?

[Jaaten Syric]

shadowcthuhlu

A Lost Iguana

shadowcthulhu

I believe in evolution. I also believe God created the laws of nature knowing what they would produce.

Ever met Epicurus?

No. Can you tell me more about him?

Here You Go

[I think there4 I am]

A Soporific

I think there4 I am

Queen of the tigers

ive seen alot of monkeys. ive never seen any of them turn in to men.

yeah about this....does anyone know why(if there is evelution) then why didn't all the apes evolv...... sweatdrop

They did evolve. Some ape ancestors evolved into humans, others evovled into modern apes. Modern apes are very different from those that previously existed, just as humans are very different from what we once were.

but why not all of them....... ? Is it becuase they where in different locations...where they different species.....different needs...does anyone know?

[BurningWitchTWS]

I think there4 I am

A Soporific

I think there4 I am

Queen of the tigers

ive seen alot of monkeys. ive never seen any of them turn in to men.

yeah about this....does anyone know why(if there is evelution) then why didn't all the apes evolv...... sweatdrop

They did evolve. Some ape ancestors evolved into humans, others evovled into modern apes. Modern apes are very different from those that previously existed, just as humans are very different from what we once were.

but why not all of them....... ? Is it becuase they where in different locations...where they different species.....different needs...does anyone know?

Because some groups had to adapt theirself to different situations, different environments.