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"There is no need for faith."

See post #288.

I examined post #288, and your summary is:

In short you don't need faith to study what you can observe, but you need faith in the scientific community for things that cannot be observed (like original primitive organisms).
The funny thing is...you don't need to believe evolutionary theory of origins to DO science. In other words, this is more of an ideology then practical science.

I think you misunderstand the issues. You are confusing origins (as in beginning of life) with origins (as in origin of the species).

The latter came after life began, and can operate no matter how life originated. For example, if the first self-replicating cell began through supernatural, natural, or extraterrestial origins, how would the subsequent evolution necessarily differ?

Science works from data and theory. As Heinlein wrote:

Piling up facts is not science--science is facts-and-theories. Facts alone have limited use and lack meaning: a valid theory organizes them into far greater usefulness.
A powerful theory not only embraces old facts and new but also discloses unsuspected facts [Heinlein 1980:480-481].

So, I contend that the various sciences which make up the study of evolution rely on data and theory, not faith.

And it is definitely not an ideology. Come up with new data, and everything can change in an instant. DNA studies could have blown Darwin's theory out of the water, but they didn't. They confirmed his theories instead.

So, 150 years and still counting. And still being tested. And still being verified. Because the theory of evolution is science, not faith or belief or ideology.

"I think you misunderstand the issues. You are confusing origins (as in beginning of life) with origins (as in origin of the species)."

Huh?

I was simply using an evolutionists own words and examples from his own book to point out that faith plays a part in the belief of origins. I'm sure that I'm too uneducated to understand your nuanced definition of origins. However, I think you missed most of the examples of how faith plays a role.

The part that I believe I would agree with you is in the area of definitions. Alot of these debates between Creationists/IDers and Evolutionists would be simplified if the definition of terms were agreed upon before the debate. Both sides like to define words differently. So, sometimes people are talking past each other, or intentionally doing a word dance, that does nothing to add to this interesting topic.

Sincerely