Does anyone really believe that evolution explains away God?

If so, what created the big bang, and what created whatever created the big bang, and so on...

Doesn't it have to start somewhere with a power that can have no beginning and no end at the same time, i.e., God?

On a similar note, I believe that evolution and the Bible can both be correct, if in fact the creation account in Genesis wasn't meant literarly. So I don't really understand why there is such a controversy between the two.

 

I believe the bible is a bunch of compiled fables put together by a commission authorized by Emperor Constantine. Because it is. However, I have never stated that there was no ultimate all powerful force which created the entire universe. But that is all it did - universe made, job done, sit back in the all powerful 4th or even 11th dimension, and watch it all with a bag of popcorn.

Or you can just believe that the universe is, has always been, and will always be - with no beginning and no end.

 

i dont think you can combine evolution and the big bang. they are two different things.

the big bang bugs me, because of exactly that. matter cannot be created nor destroyed. assuming this is correct (and who knows if it is), then the universe is fundamentally impossible.

that is separate and distinct from evolution though.

 

There is no evidence that a creature evolved from something else. There is something called "adaptation" though and that is completely different.

Col

 

Adaptation is Evolution. When a species develops a better appendage, one more effective, one more advanced and able, they have evolved. Evolution is improvements to the species that is passed down, and give a better chance of survival. Devolution is the opposite. They exist, have been shown by our own selective breeding of dogs into many tasks, and has been shown through fossil records. Unless you don't believe in bones. If you don't believe in fossils and bones, then you might as well think the earth is flat and the sun circles us.

 

I wasn't talking about the Bible or any religion, just God. From what you're saying, the universe is God. I've heard that alot with this question, and honestly it is an interesting theory. The Christian God says "I am." and numerous references to his spirit being in us.

There was a famous Theologian that I like (Jonathan Edwards--only one of his books though--"Freedom of the Will"). Anyway, I was told that he had a theory he liked to toy with that we (our reality) were actually God's imagination, just like when you imagine something, whatever you imagine is real in your mind. Kind of far out there, but I like to think about these kind of things. Doubt I'll ever know until I die though.

 

I disagree. The evolution concept says man evolved from apes. These are 2 completely different species. Also, evolution says apes evolved from other creatures, eventually leading back to chemicals.

Adaptation says a creature adapts to environmental change. Like, the axilottle and frogs.

Adaptation != Evolution

Col

 

You clearly lack an understanding of Evolution and Human Evolution.

Chimps and Humans (Homo) descended from a common ancestor, our genes are 99.5% the same However, the Chimps did not evolve before man, they evolved at the same time as man. As Homo Sapiens evolved from Habilis and Ergaster and Erectus to Neanderthal, Later Erectus, and Cro Magnon Man, they did so at the exact same time. All three species of Homo lived at the exact same time a hundred thousand years ago. The first to die out was Homo Erectus, followed by what was most likely the wholesale slaughter of the Neanderthals by our direct ancestors, Homo Sapeins (Cro Magnon Man), and once the Neanderthals were gone one last spate of (and we have fossil and burial site proof) migration solidified our position as the last of the Homo family tree as Homosapien Sapiens. There was one other similar species to us which died off quite a bit ago that was an actual subspecies of Homo Sapiens called Homo sapiens idaltu which lived in one small area a hundred thousand years ago - most likely the first evolutionary step away from the Homo Sapien design. We're an old technology that stopped evolving because we stopped physically adapting - we began mentally evolving leading to us making mechanical means of adaptations that did not require our bodies to change. The final product is Homosapien Sapiens. Humans. There have been many races of humans that lead to us - but we are the sole survivors of the family tree.

* †Homo habilis (Handy Man)
* †Homo rudolfensis (Rudolf Man)
* †Homo ergaster (Working Man)
* †Homo erectus (Upright Man)
* †Homo floresiensis (Flores Man — discovered 2003)
* †Homo antecessor (Predecessor Man)
* †Homo heidelbergensis (Heidelberg Man)
* †Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthal Man)
* †Homo rhodesiensis (Rhodesia Man)
* †Homo cepranensis (Ceprano Man)
* †Homo georgicus (Georgia Man)
* Homo sapiens
o †Homo sapiens idaltu (elderly wise man — discovered 1997)
o Homo sapiens sapiens (Wise Man; modern humans)

H. heidelbergensis and H. neanderthalensis are closely related to each other and have been considered to be subspecies of H. sapiens, but analysis of mitochondrial DNA from Homo neanderthalensis fossils shows that H. neanderthalensis is more closely related to chimpanzees than H. sapiens is, thereby suggesting that H. sapiens is the more derived of the two.[1] H. rhodesiensis and H. cepranensis are also more closely related to each other than to the other species.

 

I think they showed recently that chimps are "more evolved" implying that the chimps did evolve before man did.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn11611&feedId=online-news_rss20

 

So, they survived longer than any of our ancestors and remained steady while we were ravaged by disease, the weather, and the changing climates. They had more time to evolve than we (Homosapien Sapiens) did, and had a better population to do it in. Or direct ancestor (Homo Sapiens [Archaic Man]) were around just barley 600,000 years ago and lasted until 200,000 year ago - about the same time as the chimps started becoming what they are today.

 

So no one believes that evolution proves the non-existance God?

 

I'm sure there are a few. However the question of the creation of the universe is always something puzzling. It does disprove the god that is popular to me. Man made that god in his image. We were not made in a gods image. We'd be more symmetrical and perfected if we were...

 

What a crock!!!

Chimps are chimps. Monkeys are monkeys. Humans are humans. There's no facts to say any of these three evolved to any of the three.

Col

 

Science doesn't have that kind of agenda.

 

Nothing can prove the non-existance of God. At the same time, nothing seems to prove the existance of him either. Moreover, until God is proven to exist there isn't much sense in trying to disprove him. It's like trying to disprove a Celestial Teapot that orbits around the earth, completely pointless.

 

Actually, I believe there is proof through our own science and logic that a God exists. I won't get into the details, but what I believe proves it most logically is the Cosmological argument.

 

That doesn't prove a God, it proves a first cause. Why assume the first cause was designed by God? Why assume anything about it?

 

Take a science class. I already suffered through a childhood of religious indoctrination only to read on my own and disown the bull through ten solid years of research, reading, and I have read the creationists' books along with science, and intelligent design (a worse example of trying to sneak religious talking points into natural science classes).

You're being intellectually dishonest by ignoring the fossil facts, the facts that it does exist, and the facts that we have proof of evolution. If you knew the first thing about evolution you would know that evolution is the process of adaptation that leads to better and more enhanced species.

If the bible told you to jump off a bridge saying you could fly - would you do it? Then when you hit the ground and broke all your bones, would you still praise god and blame yourself for not having enough "faith"?

 

Asking all these questions of science and evolution aludes to the bible actually having the answers. It doesn't.

I'd also like to point out that what you are doing is asking science to prove something it is not ready to prove yet. You're basing assumptions on matter not being able to be created from nothing but how do you know that? We may just not have evolved scientifically enough to know the answer to that but that doesn't mean God did it.

Remember less than one generation ago we didn't know about atomic level fision and fusion. A few generations more and we didn't even know about electricity.... It was like magic to us back then. Just like the big bang theory seems fantastic to us now.

So you see religion has existed all these years to explain the unexplainable (and provide a lil crowd control ). Nothing more. However we are slowly beginning to find those answers we once depended on religion if for nothing else than to keep our sanity!

So to answer the question left by the thread starter. The "conflict" is just a product of us evolving and the battle within ourselves to hang on to religion while faced with ever growing scientifically proven evidence that what we've believed in for so long is not likely correct.

 

But now they're suppressing and corrupting science - and devolving it.