Why Do So Many Have Trouble Believing In Evolution?

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

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?''.

If someone tells you that a Dinosaur bone is only two million years old you should be laughing in their face... Now if he tells you it is 65 million years old and is kind enough to take an hour or so out of his busy day to explain to you how this is known... Well hopefully you will be nice enough to say "thank you"..

I was over at Costco recently and there was a large pile of this book called "the Secret". I made the mistake of standing there for about five seconds and an older lady approached me and began extolling all the wonders of this book... Total fantasy land stuff... You know the type... I'm standing there listening to her paint reality with a coat of stupid... .Deciding what I should say... But really there is nothing I could have said that would tear her away from what she wants so badly to be true. Some people need fantasy land. While I am not perfect at it yet I am learning to stop wasting my time on the hopelessly clueless and instead just tell them thanks for sharing and that I appreciate their input.

anyway.. thanks for sharing.

Edited January 20, 2012 by OnMyWayID

[웃 910]

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.

This brings up an interesting aspect of evolution.

Modern medicine is anti-evolution.

If you have a condition as a child or teenager or young adult medicine will allow you to live a normal life. And you will have plenty of opportunity to bear children.

Not too long ago you would die off before being able to have kids and pass on your (bad) genes.

[Darnell 8,478]

I like the approach as explained in 'Job: A Comedy of InJustice' by Robert A Heinlein.

[Used to be broken 143]

If someone tells you that a Dinosaur bone is only two million years old you should be laughing in their face... Now if he tells you it is 65 million years old and is kind enough to take an hour or so out of his busy day to explain to you how this is known... Well hopefully you will be nice enough to say "thank you"..

I was over at Costco recently and there was a large pile of this book called "the Secret". I made the mistake of standing there for about five seconds and an older lady approached me and began extolling alle wonders of this book... Total fantasy land stuff... You know the type... I'm standing there listening to her paint reality with a coat of stupid... .Deciding what I should say... But really there is nothing I could have said that would tear her away from what she wants so badly to be true. Some people need fantasy land. While I am not perfect at it yet I am learning to stop wasting my time on the hopelessly clueless and instead just tell them thanks for sharing and that I appreciate their input.

anyway.. thanks for sharing.

ROFLOL

I took a course on comparative religion in college and it was a christian college so understandably Mormonism came through as a "cult" religion. What I have personally never understood is why they selected "Jesus" and did not just name the Mormon Deity with a unique name. To me it always came off as a little bit crafty. After all the Jesus of the New Testament and the Mormon Jesus are not historically the same person they traveled in different hemispheres and had different life stories. And there was also the little matter of women not being able to have eternal life unless they were "called" by a Mormon husband.. I may have been confused because the spirit babies being born before in some other realm waiting for a human body was also a difficult concept. It seems modern Mormonism is divided in its theology and like most religions unless you are a theologian the common congregant is unaware of the actual doctrine of the faith. I also find the work on ancestry somewhat disturbing as it seems the reason for the effort is to baptize people who were not baptized in their life on earth. Not sure some families would agree with the Mormon church adopting their ancestors and baptizing them into another religion.

As for evolution, the reason I believe so many people still struggle with the concept is that it changes so frequently from big-bang theory, to punctuated equilibrium theory, to warm pond theory and so on. Add in the missing bodies and fossils from the evolutionary time lines theory of when Humans first appeared there seems to be a discrepancy as to the earths population. If man appeared when evolutionists say he did using the most conservative of population methods and taking into account natural disasters and wars, we would be stacked on the earth like sardines in a can. Then there were those weird pictures in science books showing pigmies and small horses as "proof" of evolution. Not sure what that proved still have pigmies and dwarf horses what did they "evolve" to?

So for me being simple minded as I am, its confusing. In any case it takes just as much faith to "believe" worm + 65 million years = man as it

does to believe the creation "theory".

No I am not drunk ..but I am on the way ...and oh, your welcome

Edited January 20, 2012 by Used to be broken

[spookyturtle 9,465]

Why does one VJ member have so much trouble keeping his beliefs private and instead spends his time trying to convince others that their beliefs are wrong?

[mox 298]

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.

So you don't believe evolution works the way "they" say it does, because you don't understand it. I mean, I'm not trying to be rude here, but you're basically saying "ok scientists, I believe that you've managed to work a lot of this stuff out on your own, but I'm just gonna take over now because something you have said doesn't jive with how I want the world to be."

There's a lot science can't explain fully--yet. Do you believe in the theory of gravity? If so, you might be interested in knowing that about the only thing scientists know about gravity is that it's a force that matter seems to exert on other matter. That's almost the entirety of our knowledge of gravity. If you think about it, this is absolutely nuts. One of the biggest things we depend on in our understanding of the universe, and we only know a little. But I doubt you only believe in gravity "to some extent"?

Scientists are just now discovering some pretty radical things about evolution, and one of those things is that evolution really can work in very rapid and drastic ways. You might be interested in this article. In a nutshell, in only 30 generations, an entire group of lizards went through evolutionary processes that we once thought would have to take millions of years. And this isn't something silly like skin color. Their entire digestive tracts changed and developed to accommodate their surroundings. In just a few years. Not even a blip in the evolutionary time scale. You doubt evolution because you think we didn't have enough time to develop a bunch of neurons over millions or even hundreds of thousands of years? Criminy, what you should REALLY be wondering is why it took so damn long!

Start reading the right things, and you'll be amazed at how much the truth is stranger than the fiction of bronze age story-tellers. Everything you have in the world right now, you have because of science. Religion has given you nothing, except for perhaps a warm fuzzy feeling. If religion is holding you back from truly understanding the world, then drop it like a bad habit, and then start reading. For starters, I recommend anything by Dawkins, but The God Delusion is one of his best.

[mox 298]

If someone tells you that a Dinosaur bone is only two million years old you should be laughing in their face... Now if he tells you it is 65 million years old and is kind enough to take an hour or so out of his busy day to explain to you how this is known... Well hopefully you will be nice enough to say "thank you"..

I was over at Costco recently and there was a large pile of this book called "the Secret". I made the mistake of standing there for about five seconds and an older lady approached me and began extolling all the wonders of this book... Total fantasy land stuff... You know the type... I'm standing there listening to her paint reality with a coat of stupid... .Deciding what I should say... But really there is nothing I could have said that would tear her away from what she wants so badly to be true. Some people need fantasy land. While I am not perfect at it yet I am learning to stop wasting my time on the hopelessly clueless and instead just tell them thanks for sharing and that I appreciate their input.

anyway.. thanks for sharing.

LOL! I've been in that situation too. Actually, I have an aunt who is into aura reading. I'm not near as much of a jerk in real life as I am here, so I can't bring myself to telling her what a silly bunch of woo it all is, but I really want to!

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

And sharks! What about the sharks!

[spookyturtle 9,465]

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.

I try to stay away from **'s with erections.

[웃 910]

I have a serious question that I want to ask. I think it deserves its own topic but 1 particular member will get too upset so I'll ask here.

Seen this question recently and I think it is valid.

If God created the earth, and life on earth, and food, and us, and he loves us and wants the best for us. Then why did he make the most nutritious healthiest foods taste the worst? You would think if he had an ounce of kindness inside of him he would make vegetables and fruits taste delicious. While burgers, dogs, pizza, fried chicken, steaks, etc., taste horrible.

Think about how you could change society for the better. Improve everyones health, well being, lower disease rates, increase life expectancy, and all that just by simply making raw carrots taste like meat-lovers pizza and make chili-cheese fries taste like raw broccoli.

Edited January 20, 2012 by ☠

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

You would think if he had an ounce of kindness inside of him he would make vegetables and fruits taste delicious.

He did. There must be something wrong with how you are preparing them.

[웃 910]

He did. There must be something wrong with how you are preparing them.

No he didn't.

But when I catch a fish and remove the fish from water and he dies. When I chop its head off and cook it it tastes good.

Or if I chop off a chickens head and rip out its meat and cook it it tastes delicious.

Or if I butcher a peaceful cow and gut out his sirloin and put it on the grill I am eating good.

Why is this? This how God operates? He makes the body parts of cooked dead animals (unhealthy) taste amazing and the natural foods (healthy) like fruits/vegetables taste like garbage.

Edited January 20, 2012 by ☠

[TiklingGuy 211]

If someone tells you that a Dinosaur bone is only two million years old you should be laughing in their face... Now if he tells you it is 65 million years old and is kind enough to take an hour or so out of his busy day to explain to you how this is known... Well hopefully you will be nice enough to say "thank you"..

I was over at Costco recently and there was a large pile of this book called "the Secret". I made the mistake of standing there for about five seconds and an older lady approached me and began extolling all the wonders of this book... Total fantasy land stuff... You know the type... I'm standing there listening to her paint reality with a coat of stupid... .Deciding what I should say... But really there is nothing I could have said that would tear her away from what she wants so badly to be true. Some people need fantasy land. While I am not perfect at it yet I am learning to stop wasting my time on the hopelessly clueless and instead just tell them thanks for sharing and that I appreciate their input.

anyway.. thanks for sharing.

Wow based off of one post i made you compare me to some lady at costco and assume i am hopelessly clueless. Man you are a terrible judge of character. I apologize for even posting in this forum. You sir are reasons why people stop using visa journey, because you get off on ripping peoples guts out by trying to make them feel stupid for attempting to bring something else to a discussion.

[Danno 1,228]

Look the truth is, we all believe in evolution ... in one way or another.

[onwa 6]

So you don't believe evolution works the way "they" say it does, because you don't understand it. I mean, I'm not trying to be rude here, but you're basically saying "ok scientists, I believe that you've managed to work a lot of this stuff out on your own, but I'm just gonna take over now because something you have said doesn't jive with how I want the world to be."

There's a lot science can't explain fully--yet. Do you believe in the theory of gravity? If so, you might be interested in knowing that about the only thing scientists know about gravity is that it's a force that matter seems to exert on other matter. That's almost the entirety of our knowledge of gravity. If you think about it, this is absolutely nuts. One of the biggest things we depend on in our understanding of the universe, and we only know a little. But I doubt you only believe in gravity "to some extent"?

Scientists are just now discovering some pretty radical things about evolution, and one of those things is that evolution really can work in very rapid and drastic ways. You might be interested in this article. In a nutshell, in only 30 generations, an entire group of lizards went through evolutionary processes that we once thought would have to take millions of years. And this isn't something silly like skin color. Their entire digestive tracts changed and developed to accommodate their surroundings. In just a few years. Not even a blip in the evolutionary time scale. You doubt evolution because you think we didn't have enough time to develop a bunch of neurons over millions or even hundreds of thousands of years? Criminy, what you should REALLY be wondering is why it took so damn long!

Start reading the right things, and you'll be amazed at how much the truth is stranger than the fiction of bronze age story-tellers. Everything you have in the world right now, you have because of science. Religion has given you nothing, except for perhaps a warm fuzzy feeling. If religion is holding you back from truly understanding the world, then drop it like a bad habit, and then start reading. For starters, I recommend anything by Dawkins, but The God Delusion is one of his best.

Actually, I have been questioning gravity lately. Why do things orbit? gravity. Why are objects spherical? gravity. What are black holes? places with lots of gravity. It seems overly simplistic although some can be proven mathematically. If they find better ways to explain it, great. Why is it bad to question a theory, any theory? Scientists are about questioning things. And its ok for people to question scientists and to point out holes in the theories. Like I said, I believe in many parts of evolution, but it doesn't mean I have to buy the whole thing.

Even with your lizard example, it was a nice example of adaptation. I will be interested in seeing the results on the genetic changes. Still, how does new information get added into the DNA? How do we add more chromosomes? Polyploidy might be a good method for plants, but fatal to all animals. From what we know, adding an extra chromosome does not do good things in humans. Crossing over may be able to exaplain some adding on of the genetic code, but much research still has to be done.

Plus, I believe in God. Nothing I read or anyone says will ever take that away. I have enough personal encounters to be unwavering. Also, beliving in evolution does not mean there is no God. May roommate in college is now an evolutionary scientist. She goes to the evolution conferences all around the world to present her research. Yet she believes in God and is a sincere Christian.

Its ok to have questions, to have discussions, to have debates, and to believe in God and science at the same time.