Evolution: A Doctrine in Search of a Theory

[n9newunsixx5150]

^^^^All subjective opinions.

 

[n9newunsixx5150]

i dont really consider people stupid or crazy based on their non beleife of evolution. i think its the fact that its usually only religious people who deny evolution. what a coincidence.

Other people do not so much consider other options because they are satisfied with the naturalist premise. They have no problem accepting that the universe just runs by itself and then at some stage produces living organisms. It just happens that the people who do see an animation principle as existing prior to the universe are also "religious". Another thing is, many people may be inclined to the non-naturalist explanation, but not being so much religious, they consider the question of the origin of life and the species more agnosticly. So the people who are adamantly against evolution are definitely the religious ones because they have attached themselves to a certain teaching.

i think there are many very intelligent religious people. i jsut thiunk they are either ignorant because of tradition OR blind, selfish, self serving, and in denial, because at the root or their essence they are absolutely terrified at the thought of death.

That may apply to some people, but definitely not all. Speaking for myself, I was atheist growing up. My father is atheist and I would always tend to side with his reasoning. It wasn't until I was 18 that I became more open to the idea of God and religion and the philosophy behind it. My coming into being religious was in the category of intellectual inquiry into the nature of existence. I have never had a fear of death. I didn't have it as an atheist and I don't have it now.

the irony is that atheists may life more than these religious folks who claims they do. atheists realize how precious life is where religious people only look past life and towards heaven.

Let's be honest. Atheists basically believe that we have all come about due to sex desire and that life is just a short time in which we can enjoy the senses. Is that the definition of "precious" you were going for?
In any case, "precious" is probably a bad term to use for life. I would say that life is important, especially because it has eternal application.

but it is their defense mechanism, their security blanket, their god and promise of eternal bliss, it is the same promise that was passed down to their parents, and their paretns before them over thousands of years of mysticism and human creativity, corrupt power and the greed of men in pursuit of control. its the supreme conspiracy.

For one, not all people are religious because they were raised that way. Secondly, just because the power of religion has been abused does not mean that religion itself is bad. And although not all theists are such for intellectual and philosophical reasons (some are religious sheerly by sentiment or fanaticism) there are sound inductive and philosophical reasons for accepting the transcendentalist view of existence. Some theists have just jumped past the reasoning and accepted the conclusion.

religions has brought forth many good things along with the bad no doubt. i support many "chrisitan" values, but i liken it to training wheels on a bike. we would not be where we are today without religioun, but i sincerely feel mankind is at a point where it is holding us back.

Then you do not understand the main focus of religion. I recommend studying Vedanta, in particular Bhagavad-Gita, in order to understand the ultimate aim of religion. asitis.com for starters.

 

[HERESY]

lets be honest, scientific minds of the last century, almost all atheist, at least agnostic, have given rise to almost every technological advancement you can think of. the rejection of religion is the one of the foundations for scientific inquiry.

I'm going to make this response as brief as I possibly can. According to you, over the last century the majority of scientific minds may have been atheist. I don't have any facts or stats to validate or disprove your claim, but think about the social/cultural and political climate over the past century. Not only have these men been atheist (according to you), but these men most likely are of WHITE or EURO decent. Would that mean minorities are less educated or incapable of contributing to technological advancements?

 

[ThaG]

Short wikipedia list of some of those scientists who were openly atheistic

some really big names there...

* David Baltimore (1938&#8212: Professor of Biology at the California Institute of Technology. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1975 for his work on the genetic mechanisms of viruses.[106]
* Paul D. Boyer (1918&#8212: American biochemist and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in 1997.[107]
* Sean M. Carroll (1956&#8212: Theoretical cosmologist specializing in dark energy and general relativity.[108]
* Francis Crick (1916–2004): 1962-Nobel-laureate co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, who described himself as a skeptic and an agnostic with "a strong inclination towards atheism."[109][110]
* Marie Curie (1867–1934): Nobel Laureate in Physics (1903) and Chemistry (1911). First woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize, only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different scientific disciplines.[111]
* Richard Dawkins (1941&#8212: British zoologist, biologist, creator of the concepts of the selfish gene and the meme; outspoken atheist and popularizer of science, author of The God Delusion and founder of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.[112]
* Richard Feynman (1918–1988): American 1965-Nobel-laureate theoretical physicist. [113]
* Sigmund Freud (1856–1939): Father of psychoanalysis.[114]
* Christer Fuglesang (1957&#8212, Swedish astronaut and physicist, identified as an atheist in a Dagens Nyheter interview.[115]
* Vitaly Ginzburg (1916&#8212: 2003 Nobel Laureate in Physics.[116]
* Alfred Kinsey (1894–1956): American biologist, sexologist and professor of entomology and zoology.[117]
* Frédéric Joliot-Curie (1900–1958): French physicist and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in 1935.[118]
* Irène Joliot-Curie (1897–1956): French scientist, the daughter of Marie and Pierre Curie and the wife of Frédéric Joliot-Curie, and Nobel laureate in Chemistry in 1935.[119]
* Harold Kroto (1939&#8212: 1996 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry.[120]
* PZ Myers (1957&#8212 American biology professor at the University of Minnesota and a science blogger via his blog, Pharyngula.[121]
* Richard Leakey (1944&#8212: Kenyan paleontologist, archaeologist and conservationist.[122]
* Ernst Mayr (1904–2005): a renowned taxonomist, tropical explorer, ornithologist, historian of science, and naturalist. He was one of the 20th century's leading evolutionary biologists.[123]
* Jonathan Miller (1934&#8212: British physician, actor, theatre and opera director, and (latterly) television presenter. Wrote and presented the 2004 television series, Atheism: A Rough History of Disbelief, exploring the roots of his own atheism and investigating the history of atheism in the world.[124]
* Peter D. Mitchell (1920–1992): 1978-Nobel-laureate British biochemist. Atheist mother, and himself atheist from age 15.[125]
* Paul Nurse (1949&#8212: 2001 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine.[126]
* Linus Pauling (1901–1994): Nobel Laureate in Chemistry (1954) and Peace (1962). He is also considered by many to be the greatest chemist of the 20th century.[127]
* Steven Pinker (1954&#8212: American psychologist.[128]
* Amartya Kumar Sen (1933&#8212: 1998 Nobel Laureate in Economics.[129][130][131][132]
* Claude Shannon (1916–2001): American electrical engineer and mathematician, has been called "the father of information theory", and was the founder of practical digital circuit design theory. [133]
* Michael Smith (1932–2000): British-born Canadian biochemist and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in 1993.[134]
* Richard Stallman (1953&#8212: American software freedom activist, hacker, and software developer.[135]
* Linus Torvalds (1969&#8212: Finnish software engineer, creator of the Linux kernel. [136]
* James D. Watson (1928&#8212, 1962-Nobel-laureate co-discover of the structure of DNA, identified as an atheist in a Newsweek commentary by his acquaintance, Rabbi Marc Gellman.[137]
* Steven Weinberg (1933&#8212: 1979 Nobel Laureate in Physics.[138]

 

[ThaG]

I'm going to make this response as brief as I possibly can. According to you, over the last century the majority of scientific minds may have been atheist. I don't have any facts or stats to validate or disprove your claim, but think about the social/cultural and political climate over the past century. Not only have these men been atheist (according to you), but these men most likely are of WHITE or EURO decent. Would that mean minorities are less educated or incapable of contributing to technological advancements?

so what - the point was that highly educated people have always been more atheistic than the rest, which is supported by EVERY study you can find

what do descent and race have to do with education and atheism

if you're uneducated, you're uneducated, bottom line

I don't care about your skin color

 

[HERESY]

white europenas are a minority in terms of global population. but i think i see what youre saying and i dont know if minorities (non-whites) are less educated, certainly now it seems not to be the case (think of how many phd's are coming from china or india). I also definitely do not think we are incapable of contributing to technological advancements. everyone plays a role, the needs we create, whether atheist or religious, can be addressed and potentially solved through science, this i beleive.

buddhism is prevalent in some of the same countries that science is gaining strength. i dont think this is sheer coincidence, and i think buddhism as a philosophy fits very well with atheism. No god, only power, nature, balance. Ultimately i think it comes to mindset. Are we going to sit idle until the rapture, or try to progress and solve some of the glaring problems that exist and continue to change as mankind changes. my qualms arent with spirituality.

Thankyou for understanding my post/question and for providing me with a prompt response.