Thanks SeekAndFind.
The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution
by Michael J. Behe
hardcover
Molecular Machines webpage (thanks Val)
Posted on 06/02/2012 8:14:33 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
What the heck... it's been a while since we last opened up the flood gates on this topic and according to Gallup surveys, we're no closer to a consensus now than we ever were. The subject at hand is our old friend, evolution vs. creation.
Forty-six percent of Americans believe in the creationist view that God created humans in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years. The prevalence of this creationist view of the origin of humans is essentially unchanged from 30 years ago, when Gallup first asked the question. About a third of Americans believe that humans evolved, but with God's guidance; 15% say humans evolved, but that God had no part in the process.
It will come as no shock to anyone that the answers given tracked tightly with the religious views of the respondent, and that a majority of registered Republicans fall in line with creationist views.
Two-thirds of Americans who attend religious services weekly choose the creationist alternative, compared with 25% of those who say they seldom or never attend church. The views of Americans who attend almost every week or monthly fall in between those of the other two groups. Still, those who seldom or never attend church are more likely to believe that God guided the evolutionary process than to believe that humans evolved with no input from God.
What’s interesting about the Gallup survey as compared to some others I’ve seen in the past is the phrasing of the questions. You tend to get more clearly splintered results if you pose seriously confrontational questions such as, “Did God create man from dust or did man evolve from ape-like creatures?” Gallup’s choices are a bit more subtle, asking which phrase best describes your feelings.
You’ll notice that none of the choices go so far as to say, for example, “There is no God so the question is pointless” or, at the other end, “The Bible is literal and God created man from the dust and woman from one of his ribs.” I think such polls provide more value if they add in a couple more choices along those lines and forget about trying to be nuanced or avoid offending anyone.
My own views have “evolved” over the past five decades, (if you’ll pardon the phrase) and I’ve seen a number of theories. As a young man, I once lost my faith entirely (and still struggle with it at times) and rashly published a letter declaring that “God is the answer to a collection of questions which man is either too stupid or too frightened to answer. On the day that science answers the final question, God will be dead.”
I confess, I regret having penned that one now, but the young are frequently rash and foolish. But there are other theories which have come down the pike and stuck around. A very popular one which echoes a couple of the Gallup choices is along the lines of The Blind Watchmaker theory. It essentially states that the universe may well have begun with the Big Bang and men may have evolved from lower primates, but this was all precisely how God designed it, like the greatest software programmer ever, freeing Him up to move on to other projects once our reality was set in motion.
But I still have plenty of friends who come from the “six days and a rib” school of thought, and you have to respect them as well. At the opposite end of the scale you find people like my friend Doug Mataconis, who simply seems to be waiting for the day when all this creationist nonsense “evolves” out of our society.
This is why, as I noted the other day, I am skeptical of the argument advanced by Richard Leakey that increased discoveries in the field of anthropology would lead to an end to the evolution debate in the near future. The creationist position has little to do with evidence, and everything to do with faith and culture. It’s not going away any time soon, at least not in this country.
But returning to my original question, does the phrasing of the survey really impact the results for a strictly non-political topic such as this? Since the Hot Air faithful have never been shy about sharing and debating their feelings in a vigorous fashion, let’s toss up our own poll and compare it to the historical results as well as Gallup’s. But we’ll give you a bit more ammunition to work with in the answers. Have at it.
That's the part of it which makes the least sense. God does not use broken tools.
Other than that, the data seems to indicate that only something like 15% of Americans are real evolosers and that compares so favorably with Europe mainly because Americans are the world's best consumers and the world's best at weeding out inferior products including inferior ideological doctrines like evolution.
The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution
by Michael J. Behe
hardcover
Molecular Machines webpage (thanks Val)
We are free to seek Him, or not.
Choose Wisely. Choose Life.
“The creationist position has little to do with evidence, and everything to do with faith and culture.”
I disagree. I would not have come to the faith if I had not been first persuaded that the Bible could in fact be true.
Don’t we have about 3 billions bits of info in our genome? If our supposed closest relative differs by 4% (at least) that’s 120 million bits of info separating us and they’re looking for a (as in 1) missing link. If the theory of evolution is true, shouldn’t they’re be more than 1 link along the great divide?
I’m not suggesting there’s 120 million disinct creatures that are somehow missing but suggesting there’s just an elusive single link seems ridiculous. Also, if evolution is true, why have the only links “found” been exposed as hoaxes?
In the original “Matrix” movie Morpheus offers Neo a choice before revealing the reality of the Matrix to him. If he takes the blue pill he wakes up in his bed and believes whatever he wants to believe. If he takes the red pill he learns the truth about the Matrix. The color red is used throughout the movie to signify ultimate truth. Creation myths, personal deities, and all the adaptive conventions of human culture are aspects of the “blue pill”, the world of apparent truth. The vast majority of people don’t accept ultimate truth because like the character Cypher, they prefer the satisfaction of their illusions over the nihilism of deterministic materialism. This is not an indictment of their choice. They simply prefer “meaning” over “truth”.
The actual process of creation is expressed today in the language of quantum mechanics and general relativity. Something is just more probable than nothing. Life is an emergent process for information storage and replication to exploit entropy differences in an open system. Human consciousness emerges from the synchronization and synaptic interconnection of neurons. It evolved as it did because it allowed a living organism to better exploit entropy. The experience of being an “I” in a time “now” and in a world with other like “minds” is a simulation generated by complex neural processes in the evolved human living organism. Consciousness allows human organisms to evolve faster through social collaboration based on language. This does not involve any non-material or supernatural processing. It is simply the laws of quantum mechanics creating and annihilating bits of information. In about 5 billion years the Sun will burn out and consume the Earth. Long before this all evidence of life will disappear. In about 100 billion years the universe will be an empty vacuum at absolute zero. This is the red pill. How many people in this world do you think could get through their day if they really comprehended and accepted the truth of scientific materialism and evolution?
In the original “Matrix” movie Morpheus offers Neo a choice before revealing the reality of the Matrix to him. If he takes the blue pill he wakes up in his bed and believes whatever he wants to believe. If he takes the red pill he learns the truth about the Matrix. The color red is used throughout the movie to signify ultimate truth. Creation myths, personal deities, and all the adaptive conventions of human culture are aspects of the “blue pill”, the world of apparent truth. The vast majority of people don’t accept ultimate truth because like the character Cypher, they prefer the satisfaction of their illusions over the nihilism of deterministic materialism. This is not an indictment of their choice. They simply prefer “meaning” over “truth”.
The actual process of creation is expressed today in the language of quantum mechanics and general relativity. Something is just more probable than nothing. Life is an emergent process for information storage and replication to exploit entropy differences in an open system. Human consciousness emerges from the synchronization and synaptic interconnection of neurons. It evolved as it did because it allowed a living organism to better exploit entropy. The experience of being an “I” in a time “now” and in a world with other like “minds” is a simulation generated by complex neural processes in the evolved human living organism. Consciousness allows human organisms to evolve faster through social collaboration based on language. This does not involve any non-material or supernatural processing. It is simply the laws of quantum mechanics creating and annihilating bits of information. In about 5 billion years the Sun will burn out and consume the Earth. Long before this all evidence of life will disappear. In about 100 billion years the universe will be an empty vacuum at absolute zero. This is the red pill. How many people in this world do you think could get through their day if they really comprehended and accepted the truth of scientific materialism and evolution?
I am currently reading the Red Queen book you recommended. Fascinating, but I can only handle small chunks at at time. All that running is making me dizzy.
Clearly 46% of the population needs re-educated, start building the camps. </sarcasm>
But thou, O LORD, shalt laugh at them; thou shalt have all the heathen in derision.
“God created humans in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years.”
And if you throw out the 10,000 year nonsense, the number believing in creation doubles!
Most people can't get past who's gonna be in next years stupor bowel.
Out of the dust we were created, and into the dust shall we return. Moldy ancient Heebs actually knew what they was talking about. Makes one wonder what else they knew?
If you would like to learn, google a missionary named Chuck Missler. He doesn't beg for money! I have never heard him ask for one thin dime. Seriously.
He created us to live pretty much forever. After the Fall, He declared a much shorter lifespan, yet a couple lived pretty darn long. It would seem He did a REALLY good job and then allowed us to DEVOLVE.
Mathematically evolution thru natural selection and chance seems ridiculous. Mankind will never know exactly what happen millions of years ago, but it is fun trying. The evolutionists are really ridiculous but don't try to tell them that. As far I as I can tell h.sapien is about 200,000 years old. If you met a person from 200,000 years ago he would look like a modern human. No gradual changes that an evolutionary theory requires.
The real question is how much does a person believe (truly believe) that God creates and controls their destiny?
In the end this is what this argument boils down to. The scale is more of a “faith” meter.
Which is the red pill and which is the blue?
Exactly. There are so many different creation theories. Not going to get into a debate this am with folks, but there are several that don’t fit into those three.
I’ve always been partial to creation, but longer than 10000 years. Hugh Ross wrote a few books about it, and I like the reasoning. “Young Earthers” tend to go to war with him. His particular theory has been called “progressive creation” -that is, creation happened in supernatural events, just longer than the 7 day scenario. There’s no Gallup choice for that.
I said it, not coming back for the flame wars!
We're all "broken".
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
