Why Do So Many Have Trouble Believing In Evolution?

[웃 910]

Why Do So Many Have Trouble Believing In Evolution?

Updated on Thursday at 1:15 p.m.: After reading your comments, I feel it's important to clarify a couple of points concerning human hereditary descent and horizontal gene transfer. Please see the bracketed additions below.

The evidence is clear, as in a February 2009 Gallup Poll, taken on the eve of the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birthday, that reported only 39 percent of Americans say they "believe in the theory of evolution," while a quarter say they do not believe in the theory, and another 36 percent don't have an opinion either way.

The same poll correlated belief in evolution with educational level: 21 percent of people with a high school education or less believed in evolution. That number rose to 41 percent for people with some college attendance, 53 percent for college graduates, and 74 percent for people with a postgraduate education.

Clearly, the level of education has an impact on how people feel about evolution.

Another variable investigated by the same poll was how belief in evolution correlates with church attendance. Of those who believe in evolution, 24 percent go to church weekly, 30 percent go nearly weekly/monthly, and 55 percent seldom or never go.

Not surprisingly, and rather unfortunately, religious belief interferes with people's understanding of what the theory of evolution says.

The evidence for evolution is overwhelming. It's in the fossil record, carefully dated using radioactivity, the release of particles from radioactive isotopic decay, which works like a very precise clock. Rocks from volcanic eruptions (igneous rocks) buried near a fossil carry certain amounts of radioactive material, unstable atomic nuclei that emit different kinds of radiation, like tiny bullets. The most common is Uranium-235, which decays into Lead-207. Analyzing the ratio of Uranium-235 to Lead-207 in a sample, and knowing how frequently Uranium-235 emits particles (its half-life is 704 million years, the amount half a sample decays into Lead), scientists can get a very accurate measure of the age of a fossil.

But evidence for evolution is also much more palpable, for example in the risks of overprescribing antibiotics: the more we (and farm animals) take antibiotics, the higher the chance that a microbe will mutate into one resistant to the drug. This is in-your-face evolution, species mutating at the genetic level and adapting to a new environment (in this case, an environment contaminated with antibiotics). The proof of this can be easily achieved in the laboratory (see link above), by comparing original strands of bacteria with those subjected to different doses of antibiotics. It's simple and conclusive, since the changes in the genetic code of the resistant mutant can be identified and studied.

However, there are creationist scientists who claim that mutation is not the true mechanism of resistance. Instead, they claim that bacteria already had those genes in some sort of dormant state, which were then activated by their exposure to antibiotics. For example, Dr. Georgia Purdom argues that this inbuilt mechanism is "a testimony to the wonderful design God gave bacteria, master adapters and survivors in a sin-cursed world." I couldn't identify [in her paper] any data to back her hypothesis that bacterial resistance to antibiotics comes [exclusively] from horizontal gene swap and not mutation. [Clearly, horizontal gene transfer is a primary reason for bacterial antibiotic resistance. It's just not the only one, as Dr. Purdom argues.]

Does evolution really need to be such a stumbling block for so many? Is it really that bad that we descended from monkeys? [Formally, we didn't "descend from monkeys" but shared a common ancestor with monkeys in the past. In fact, all common living species shared a single common ancestor, known as LUCA, for Last Universal Common Ancestor. LUCA was probably a single-celled organism.] Doesn't that make us even more amazing, primates that can write poetry and design scientific experiments? Behind this strong resistance to evolution there is a deep dislike for a scientific understanding of how nature works. The problem seems to be related to the age-old God-of-the-Gaps agenda, that the more we understand of the world the less room there is for a creator God. This is bad theology, as it links belief to the development of science.

Even though I'm not a believer, I wonder why those who are need to equate God with the hard work of designing people, bacteria, dinosaurs, or some 900,000 known species of insects. (Probably there are more than 10 million in total.) Surely there are better ways to find God or other paths toward spiritual meaning in life?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2012/01/18/145338804/why-do-so-many-have-trouble-with-evolution

[SMOKE 1,426]

i don't have a problem believing in evolution. i'm sure humans have evolved during our span on earth. what i have a hard time believing is we are a fungus that grew on the side of a rock after something somewhere at sometime blew up. hell, thats worse than the mormon spaceship story.

Edited January 19, 2012 by SMOKE

[Dan J 277]

Science is not about belief. Its about being able to test and support any proposed theory. Sometimes the semantics throw people off. Gravity is still considered a "Theory", but even the most religious people accept that it exists.

Of course as we gain better understanding, we improve the theories. Evolution was proposed when we had no idea that DNA existed. But with DNA it gives us a more complete understanding of how Evolution works. Even our understand of gravity is not complete. While it works in large scales, it breaks down in atomic scales.

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

i don't have a problem believing in evolution. i'm sure humans have evolved during our span on earth. what i have a hard time believing is we are a fungus that grew on the side of a rock after something somewhere at sometime blew up. hell, thats worse than the mormon spaceship story.

First off please expand on the mormon spaceship story.. Growing up mormon and having held the priesthood for many years I am surprised I am not aware of this amazing tale..

As far as the fungus: That would actually be an offshoot on another branch and would not be on the direct path... However I did read a few days back that for the first time scientists have observed and filmed single celled organisms evolving into multi-cellular organisms.. amazing stuff: http://www.nature.co...lar-life-1.9810

On the belief thing: You can choose to believe whatever helps you cope through your life.. The agenda of science is a search for the truth no matter where that leads.. Evolution is not something scientists wants to be true.. Where the path leads is not what is important, what is important is that it be correct.

Edited January 19, 2012 by OnMyWayID

[SMOKE 1,426]

First off please expand on the mormon spaceship story.. Growing up mormon and having held the priesthood for many years I am surprised I am not aware of this amazing tale..

As far as the fungus: That would actually be an offshoot on another branch and would not be on the direct path... However I did read a few days back that for the first time scientists have observed and filmed single celled organisms evolving into multi-cellular organisms.. amazing stuff: http://www.nature.co...lar-life-1.9810

On the belief thing: You can choose to believe whatever helps you cope through your life.. The agenda of science is a search for the truth no matter where that leads.. Evolution is not something scientists wants to be true.. Where the path leads is not what is important, what is important is that it be correct.

first off i think you're full of it about being a priest..google mormon spaceship story if you want to read it.

fungus: yanno a bunch of stuff stuck together after an explosion. add time..poof...people & stuff...BS!

i don't need anything to 'get me through my life'. i'm fine w/ myself & my beliefs. i think you're missing a lot of back story on the OP & his views of religion & those that believe in a higher power.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

I don't know about evolution, but I sure as hell believe in devolution. It's the only way to explain the idiots who voted for Obama and continue to support him.

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

first off i think you're full of it about being a priest..google mormon spaceship story if you want to read it.

fungus: yanno a bunch of stuff stuck together after an explosion. add time..poof...people & stuff...BS!

i don't need anything to 'get me through my life'. i'm fine w/ myself & my beliefs. i think you're missing a lot of back story on the OP & his views of religion & those that believe in a higher power.

There are no "priests" in the mormon church, I said I held the priesthood...Technically I still do but then most regular male members do.. My then Father in-law was a Bishop... I baptized my wife and several others while I was active. I'm not sure why you find that hard to believe. I do not knowingly lie or make things up.

Well anyway let me clue you in: Mormons do not incorporate any type of spaceship in the religion. If there was talk of a cool spaceship I might have stayed active longer... I did Google it as you suggested.. The top link talks about mormons but also about other cults including an unrelated one that incorporates spaceships.. There were also two links where a person asked the question and was told "no".. They seemed to be getting mormons and scientologists mixed up.. The #2 link was perhaps the best - it was a discussion from prodigy back in 1992 where a person made the claim but was corrected. If you feel the need to know for sure you can go to mormon.org and click the "chat online" or call 1-888-537-6600 and a missionary will pick up the phone and answer the question for you directly...

Oh.. I also googled "mormon spaceship story" .. Here is the deal with that since you did not read the links: The creator of the television show "Battlestar Galactica" was a mormon and he based some (read: "borrowed" ideas) for some of the series off of the mormon religion.. Such as the name of the planet "Kobol" and Quarem of 12, etc etc.. He also borrowed from ancient Greek Culture for some for other names and beliefs and of course he stole ideas from Star Wars. That is a work of fiction.

The fungus: "nothing" is less than a fungus... "God" is greater than man.. The distance is far greater between those two points and you have no problem with that..

On the OP: No I do not know his/her agenda or back-story, I'm not sure why that matters?

Edited January 19, 2012 by OnMyWayID

[mox 298]

There are those who will say Mormon spaceships is a completely ludicrous idea, and then in the same breath, explain in all seriousness, that woo such as virgin births, raising people from the dead, a 6,000 year old earth, a great flood in which two of every animal was put onto a boat smaller than an aircraft carrier, and angels, really did happen. If you believe in miracles, or angels, or that "God has a plan," you have no business laughing at mormon spaceships. (not that I'm saying the poster who brought them up believes in them) Quite frankly, Mormon spaceships is about one of the least ludicrous ideas I've heard from religion.

But it's all based on bronze age creative writing, and the fact that any of it is taken seriously in the 21st century is truly mind numbing.

Why do so many have trouble believing in evolution? Because they refuse to use their brains for critical thought. When an idea like "you will burn in hell forever and ever and ever and ever and ever because of something you did or didn't do during an infinitesimal time blip in the life-cycle of the universe" sounds reasonable, your brain is turned off. When an idea like "I let my son, who is also me, be tortured and murdered so that I, an almighty deity who didn't have to do something so deranged if I truly was omnipotent, could make a concept like "forgiveness" possible" does not sound like the ravings of a lunatic, your brain is turned off.

Science and religion are fundamentally incompatible. So if you believe in a magical sky man, you're very likely going to have trouble not just believing in evolution, but actually understanding it.

[SMR 368]

There are those who will say Mormon spaceships is a completely ludicrous idea, and then in the same breath, explain in all seriousness, that woo such as virgin births, raising people from the dead, a 6,000 year old earth, a great flood in which two of every animal was put onto a boat smaller than an aircraft carrier, and angels, really did happen. If you believe in miracles, or angels, or that "God has a plan," you have no business laughing at mormon spaceships. (not that I'm saying the poster who brought them up believes in them) Quite frankly, Mormon spaceships is about one of the least ludicrous ideas I've heard from religion.

But you missed the point. Many people don't believe or disbelieve in parts of a religion because they asked you which parts were more miraculous or believable (which you'll admit is an arbitrary distinction).

[mox 298]

Heh, sorry, I'm having a hard time parsing what you just said.

I'm just answering the premise of the OP, using "Mormon spaceships" as an example. To me, the most ridiculous beliefs about religion, whether it's Joseph Smith pulling golden tablets out of his hat behind a sheet, or Noah building an ark to rescue two of every animal on the planet, or Mohammed riding off to heaven on a white horse, are all the same. They're formalized relics from a time when humans had an excuse for being ignorant. Nowadays we have no good excuse for believing in such primitive superstition.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I never figured this out myself. Religion in general is pretty stupid but how dd they miss this?

"Evolution? Why of course! God created a perfect world and gave the creatures he created the ability to adapt to a living planet"

Job Done.

But since they did not, it proves there is no intelligent design.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,235]

Don't you guys bad mouth my God. He wrote the Bible, whereas the Jews' god only split the Red Sea. Looked for it and it wasn't even red, so they have been bullsh*tted, no doubt. Jesus was a moron anyway, otherwise he would have found a way out of the sh*t he found himself in, had the story been true. And them Muslims, give me a break, that's'a terrorist kinda bunch, nuttin' else.

We are a Christian nation, and Osama, Perry, Romney, and this adulterer . . . forgot his name . . . all go to Church on Sunday. That's proof enough for me.

[onwa 6]

I am a Christian who believes in evolution to some extent. However, there are still some huge questions evolution does not answer. One of them is how evolution happened so quick. One example of fast evolution comes from one of our own ancestors, ** erectus.

** erectus lived about 2 million years ago and had a brain size of about 850 cubic centimeters. This brain size could hold about 50 billion neurons. The modern human brain is about twice that size (1500 cc) and can hold about 100 billion neurons. In 2 million years there are only 20 ticks. So if we take that, it would be a great amount of changes in only 20 increments. Another way to look at it is the number of generations. If ** erectus had a child every 10 years, there are 200,000 generations possible. This does not take into account that as the species evolved that time frame would lengthen. Where did the 50 billion new neurons come from? Here are some possibilities.

• Every generation, 250,000 new neurons were added to the ** erectus brain.

• Every 100,000 years, 2.5 billion new neurons were added to the ** erectus brain.

• 500,000 years ago, there was a spurt of 20 or so closely-spaced generations that added 2.5 billion neurons per generation.

• One day, spontaneously, 50 billion new neurons were added to the ** erectus brain to create the ** sapiens brain.

None of these scenarios goes with gradual change over long periods of time as the modern theory of evolution teaches. Also, scientists today are not seeing huge jumps, such as a child being born with an extra 250,000 neurons. Nor do we see spontaneous adding of a huge amount of neurons in a one-time occurrence. Although, maybe one day this could occur in the future. The above is one reason for the theory of punctuated equilibrium, where rapid evolution occurs in a short period of time. However, the mechanism for this rapid evolution has not yet been found.

[Max1gk 68]

i don't have a problem believing in evolution. i'm sure humans have evolved during our span on earth. what i have a hard time believing is we are a fungus that grew on the side of a rock after something somewhere at sometime blew up. hell, thats worse than the mormon spaceship story.

That's exactly what evolution ISN'T.

[TiklingGuy 211]

Theories are not ''The Truth''. They are only beliefs based off of studies and processes of elimination. If a scientist of today says "This particular dinosaur bone that i hold in my hand, existed 2 million years ago'', i am going to laugh in his face and ask him ''How the hell do you know that? Were you there?''.