Do You Believe In Evolution?

IRockUrSocks

I'm amazed to see self proclaimed Catholics not knowing the first thing about their religion. In my estimation, religion is shown far too much respect in this country. I thought the days of the church running Irish politics were over but obviously not when surveys show that the majority of people in this state believe Jesus walked with dinosaurs...

How can people still believe that the world is 10,000 years old when we have the evidence, the fossils, the timescale of when marine creatures first stepped on land, history of our ancestors roaming the African continent and their journey to populate Europe and the rest of the world? Earth is over 3 billion years old, not the figure the Bible says it is and we have natural clocks to prove it such as carbon dating and rings on trees. For goodness sake, I know people who think Adam and Eve actually existed! Why can't we admire the garden in all it's splendor without having to believe there are fairies living at the end of it?!

When Noah collected two of each animal, he must have systematically organized their future homes. Why did he send all the iguana's and giant turtles to the Galapagos, the lemurs to Madagascar and certain species of bats not found in any other place in the world except New Zealand? He didn't, they evolved to their surroundings in order to do what an animal, including ourselves are programmed to do, survive and reproduce.

When people hear the word "Atheist", they run a mile but why? It's socially acceptable to talk about which is better, a PC or a Mac, Chelsea or Manchester United, Fianna Fail or Fine Geal but religion? Oh no, nobody can debate about religion, it's taboo. But the saddest thing of all is that children in this country are made believe, each weekday, stories that are no more real than the tooth fairy or the Easter bunny and get not even a whiff of beautiful scienctifically proved Evolution.

What a joke.

Burn the pagan heathen!!

CreepingDeath

IRockUrSocks wrote: »

...when surveys show that the majority of people in this state believe Jesus walked with dinosaurs...

I can't believe that you have faith in surveys.
You believe some spotty teenager with a clipboard rather than your own common sense.

mikom

IRockUrSocks wrote: »

Do You Believe In Evolution?

Let down a bit by David Duchovny, I thought.

I believe in evolution and natural selection, I find it incredible that "creationists" have somehow managed to pursuade about 20% (maybe more) of Americans that the planet and all it's life was made by god a few thousand years ago.

marco_polo

I think there might be another thread on this somewhere?

*Shudders

thatsa spicy

Look, hardly anybody in this country believes in god nowadays and anybody who has stopped to think about evolution accepts that its true!

And even if some people still do believe in god or reject evolution, fair enough! I know I couldn't live with the idea of possibly burning for eternity!

Wertz

Is there something else that adequately explains how we ended up here?

In short, yes. Obviously.

shift

IRockUrSocks wrote: »

I'm amazed to see self proclaimed Catholics not knowing the first thing about their religion. In my estimation, religion is shown far too much respect in this country. I thought the days of the church running Irish politics were over but obviously not when surveys show that the majority of people in this state believe Jesus walked with dinosaurs...

How can people still believe that the world is 10,000 years old when we have the evidence, the fossils, the timescale of when marine creatures first stepped on land, history of our ancestors roaming the African continent and their journey to populate Europe and the rest of the world? Earth is over 3 billion years old, not the figure the Bible says it is and we have natural clocks to prove it such as carbon dating and rings on trees. For goodness sake, I know people who think Adam and Eve actually existed! Why can't we admire the garden in all it's splendor without having to believe there are fairies living at the end of it?!

When Noah collected two of each animal, he must have systematically organized their future homes. Why did he send all the iguana's and giant turtles to the Galapagos, the lemurs to Madagascar and certain species of bats not found in any other place in the world except New Zealand? He didn't, they evolved to their surroundings in order to do what an animal, including ourselves are programmed to do, survive and reproduce.

When people hear the word "Atheist", they run a mile but why? It's socially acceptable to talk about which is better, a PC or a Mac, Chelsea or Manchester United, Fianna Fail or Fine Geal but religion? Oh no, nobody can debate about religion, it's taboo. But the saddest thing of all is that children in this country are made believe, each weekday, stories that are no more real than the tooth fairy or the Easter bunny and get not even a whiff of beautiful scienctifically proved Evolution.

What a joke.

wow..................wow.......................wow.................wow............. wow Louis this is not my batman glass

Sulmac

IRockUrSocks wrote: »

I thought the days of the church running Irish politics were over but obviously not when surveys show that the majority of people in this state believe Jesus walked with dinosaurs...

I find that extremely hard to believe. Evidence, please?

Herbal Deity

Probably on par with the ignorance of Creationism is the idea that all Christians are Creationists.

The Catholic Church's official stance is one of belief in Evolution. Coming in here and claiming that all Irish Catholics are Creationists is the height of idiocy.

Mike 1972

Do I believe in that higher life forms evolve from lower life forms ? In general yes however lets just say that the process tends to take place more slowly in some places

IRockUrSocks wrote: »

I'm amazed to see self proclaimed Catholics not knowing the first thing about their religion..

In my experience Atheists on average tend to know far more about Catholic doctrines than "Catholics" which probably largely explains why theyre Atheists.

IRockUrSocks

CreepingDeath wrote: »

I can't believe that you have faith in surveys.
You believe some spotty teenager with a clipboard rather than your own common sense.

Common sense is what educated people aren't using if you are to believe the figures.

shift wrote: »

wow..................wow.......................wow.................wow............. wow Louis this is not my batman glass

Ridiculous I know, but would you believe that there are people out there that would actually disagree with me?

orourkeda

IRockUrSocks wrote: »

I'm amazed to see self proclaimed Catholics not knowing the first thing about their religion. In my estimation, religion is shown far too much respect in this country. I thought the days of the church running Irish politics were over but obviously not when surveys show that the majority of people in this state believe Jesus walked with dinosaurs...

How can people still believe that the world is 10,000 years old when we have the evidence, the fossils, the timescale of when marine creatures first stepped on land, history of our ancestors roaming the African continent and their journey to populate Europe and the rest of the world? Earth is over 3 billion years old, not the figure the Bible says it is and we have natural clocks to prove it such as carbon dating and rings on trees. For goodness sake, I know people who think Adam and Eve actually existed! Why can't we admire the garden in all it's splendor without having to believe there are fairies living at the end of it?!

When Noah collected two of each animal, he must have systematically organized their future homes. Why did he send all the iguana's and giant turtles to the Galapagos, the lemurs to Madagascar and certain species of bats not found in any other place in the world except New Zealand? He didn't, they evolved to their surroundings in order to do what an animal, including ourselves are programmed to do, survive and reproduce.

When people hear the word "Atheist", they run a mile but why? It's socially acceptable to talk about which is better, a PC or a Mac, Chelsea or Manchester United, Fianna Fail or Fine Geal but religion? Oh no, nobody can debate about religion, it's taboo. But the saddest thing of all is that children in this country are made believe, each weekday, stories that are no more real than the tooth fairy or the Easter bunny and get not even a whiff of beautiful scienctifically proved Evolution.

What a joke.

How can you dismiss a belief that cant be proven (i.e the existence of a god or higher power).

Let's be blunt. You know no more about whether god exists or not than anyone else.

Agricola

orourkeda wrote: »

How can you dismiss a belief that cant be proven (i.e the existence of a god or higher power).

Let's be blunt. You know no more about whether god exists or not than anyone else.

Well he did say "the stories" in the bible were no more real than the tooth fairy. And when your talkin about Noahs Ark, I think thats a fair statement really.

Mike 1972

How can you dismiss a belief that cant be proven

Would you dismiss the ramblings of a lunatic who claimed to be Napoleon ?

orourkeda

Agricola wrote: »

Well he did say "the stories" in the bible were no more real than the tooth fairy. And when your talkin about Noahs Ark, I think thats a fair statement really.

I understand that but some of these stories are relevant to peoples belief in god and their religion.

IRockUrSocks

Sulmac wrote: »

I find that extremely hard to believe. Evidence, please?

Results show that out of 1,008 Irish adults asked by Eurobarometer, 27% said "Yes" to that question that quizzed whether or not humans lived with dinosaurs and not so less pathetically, 17% couldn't answer the question. Ireland was the 19th informed nation on the list, how embarrassing.

The school's are to blame for our ignorance.

partyatmygaff

I guess the OP doesn't realise the majority of major christian churches believe in evolution.

Obviously thats not juicy enough to start a rant against religion so lets not let the facts get in the way of a rant.

Borneo Fnctn

Man walked with dinosaurs circa 2000bc. This is not debatable. It is a simple fact. See this video for evidence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57athY1a0nU

partyatmygaff

IRockUrSocks wrote: »

Results show that out of 1,008 Irish adults asked by Eurobarometer, 27% said "Yes" to that question that quizzed whether or not humans lived with dinosaurs and not so less pathetically, 17% couldn't answer the question. Ireland was the 19th informed nation on the list, how embarrassing.

The school's are to blame for our ignorance.

I learned about Evolution in primary school and secondary school science, It never mentioned anything about the dinasours. Only about how its suspsected humans evolved from the same ancestor as apes. If you ask someone who doesn't give a damn about science or evolution then they obviously will answer yes. A lot of people think "cavemen" used to live alongside dinasours.

Edit: 2000th post!

orourkeda

Mike 1972 wrote: »

Would you dismiss the ramblings of a lunatic who claimed to be Napoleon ?

??????????????????????

Sulmac

IRockUrSocks wrote: »

Results show that out of 1,008 Irish adults asked by Eurobarometer, 27% said "Yes" to that question that quizzed whether or not humans lived with dinosaurs and not so less pathetically, 17% couldn't answer the question. Ireland was the 19th informed nation on the list, how embarrassing.

The school's are to blame for our ignorance.

Indeed, ignorance is a clear problem...

Since when did 27% become a majority?

Agricola

orourkeda wrote: »

I understand that but some of these stories are relevant to peoples belief in god and their religion.

Yeah but the relevancy of these stories to believers has no bearing on whether or not god exists.

IRockUrSocks

partyatmygaff wrote: »

I guess the OP doesn't realise the majority of major christian churches believe in evolution.

Obviously thats not juicy enough to start a rant against religion so lets not let the facts get in the way of a rant.

Imagine no suicide bombers, no 9/11, no 7/7, no Crusades, no witch-hunts, no Gunpowder plot, no Indian partition, no Israeli/Palestinian wars, no Serb/Croat/Muslim massacres, no persecution of Jews as "Christ Killers", no Northern Ireland troubles, no "honour killings", no sacrifices or televangelists fleecing gullible people of their money...

CreepingDeath

IRockUrSocks wrote: »

Common sense is what educated people aren't using if you are to believe the figures.

Surveys are the tools of advertisers and spin-doctors, very easy to manipulate or downright lie.

Now, you didn't bother posting a link and backing up your claims so I'll do it for you.

Survey Link

Points to note
- Survey carried out by "Theology think-tank Theos "
- Survey carried out in Northern Ireland not the republic

Also, no mention if it was a random sample.
That is critical.
Asking 100 people what they think about religion on O'Connell St will get significantly different results from asking people about religion outside church after Sunday mass.

I'm more worried that people like yourself believe in surveys, cos it shows how easy it is to manipulate the masses.

philologos

OP: What an absolute blunder!

Evolution and atheism have nothing to do with eachother. One is a scientific viewpoint, and one is a viewpoint concerning religion.

This link is quite interesting, it shows ignorance of evolution is not caused by religion:

bleg

Evolution is a fact. End of story.

Agricola

IRockUrSocks wrote: »

Imagine no suicide bombers, no 9/11, no 7/7, no Crusades, no witch-hunts, no Gunpowder plot, no Indian partition, no Israeli/Palestinian wars, no Serb/Croat/Muslim massacres, no persecution of Jews as "Christ Killers", no Northern Ireland troubles, no "honour killings", no sacrifices or televangelists fleecing gullible people of their money...

Isnt that the first line of Christopher Hitchens 'God is not Great'!

IRockUrSocks

Sulmac wrote: »

Indeed, ignorance is a clear problem...

Since when did 27% become a majority?

44% of 1,008 adults ...........

What about the rest of the country? The church go-ers, the school kids, the mislead theology teachers....I think you'll find that a further study would shame your very post.

partyatmygaff

IRockUrSocks wrote: »

Imagine no suicide bombers, no 9/11, no 7/7, no Crusades, no witch-hunts, no Gunpowder plot, no Indian partition, no Israeli/Palestinian wars, no Serb/Croat/Muslim massacres, no persecution of Jews as "Christ Killers", no Northern Ireland troubles, no "honour killings", no sacrifices or televangelists fleecing gullible people of their money...

You mean a world without people living on it?

More than half the things you listed there have nothing to do with christianity and those that do are definitley not condoned by christianity.

Anyways, what does that have to do with evolution? Just having a little poorly thought out dig at religion in general?

mink_man

bleg wrote: »

Evolution is a fact. End of story.

evowhore!!!

One to believes in the theory of evolution, and is a skank.
The type of girl that goes around saying "Like, like yeah! Soooooo populaaaaar!

IRockUrSocks

Agricola wrote: »

Isnt that the first line of Christopher Hitchens 'God is not Great'!

You lose.

Richard Dawkins - The God Delusion, actually.

partyatmygaff

IRockUrSocks wrote: »

44% of 1,008 adults ...........

What about the rest of the country? The church go-ers, the school kids, the mislead theology teachers....I think you'll find that a further study would shame your very post.

Church-goers aren't ignorant or stupid.
School kids wouldn't care
Misled theology teachers - Surely if they are misled then it doesn't really matter.

Liam Byrne

IRockUrSocks wrote: »

..... surveys show that the majority of people in this state believe Jesus walked with dinosaurs...

Have you a link to these "surveys" ? There must be at least one online, since you've used the plural. And now that you mention it, most religions say that Jesus was here 2,009 years ago (hence the 2009AD) and I've never once seen anything in the bible that suggests that Jesus was in a stable with pterodactyls and tyrannasaourus rex.....

So stop talking through your arse and making ridiculous claims that are figments of your imagination.

IRockUrSocks wrote: »

It's socially acceptable to talk about which is better, a PC or a Mac, Chelsea or Manchester United, Fianna Fail or Fine Geal but religion? Oh no, nobody can debate about religion, it's taboo.

I've debated and queried the less-desirable aspects of religion since I was about 12. So you're wrong.

IRockUrSocks wrote: »

But the saddest thing of all is that children in this country are made believe, each weekday, stories that are no more real than the tooth fairy or the Easter bunny and get not even a whiff of beautiful scienctifically proved Evolution.

I'd suggest that if you feel that strongly about it that you go down to the nearest shopping mall, find a queue of 5 year olds waiting in line to see a guy in a red suit, and start telling them all that there's no Santa.

Or is it just easier to complain about lies told to kids when it gives you an excuse to rant about religion ?

orourkeda

Agricola wrote: »

Yeah but the relevancy of these stories to believers has no bearing on whether or not god exists.

Absolutely, but surely religion is a lot more meaningful than just a few stories about Noahs ark and whether Jesus turned water in to wine or not.

I'm not particularly religious and dont really pay muh attention to it but some people find comfort in their religion and their beliefs shouldnt really bestamped on in the way that the OP did.

philologos

What is the issue with believing that God started the evolutionary process? Set up the required parameters and allowed for life to form?

The religion vs evolution debate really gets my goat.

bnt

I said "yes", but I do have some issues with the word "believe" here. It makes it sound as if you're choosing between equally-weighted "belief systems" here, but Evolution is not a "belief system", it's a Theory. You're not expected to Believe it in the way Religion expects, as "The Truth" that displaces everything else.

If you think the theory is valid: great, you can use it to interpret the evidence, of which there is plenty. The science of evolution is at such an advanced stage, these days, that you can make discoveries in practically unrelated fields such as Geology or Genetics, and they slot right in. Where there are differences, they're never theory-breakers - instead, they're opening up new fields for future investigation.

If you don't think it's valid: great, you just don't get to take part in the science, or tell anyone else that they are wrong to work with it. Science gets results: what does Religion do? :rolleyes:

partyatmygaff

bnt wrote: »

I said "yes", but I do have some issues with the word "believe" here. It makes it sound as if you're choosing between equally-weighted "belief systems" here, but Evolution is not a "belief system", it's a Theory. You're not expected to Believe it in the way Religion expects, as "The Truth" that displaces everything else.

If you think the theory is valid: great, you can use it to interpret the evidence, of which there is plenty. The science of evolution is at such an advanced stage, these days, that you can make discoveries in practically unrelated fields such as Geology or Genetics, and they slot right in. Where there are differences, they're never theory-breakers - instead, they're opening up new fields for future investigation.

If you don't think it's valid: great, you just don't get to take part in the science, or tell anyone else that they are wrong to work with it. Science gets results: what does Religion do? :rolleyes:

What do you expect it to do? Better yet, what the hell does that question have to do with this thread?

philologos

If science and religion opposed eachother I might agree with you.

Religion / Philosophy: Why it happened? What purpose do we have? Who are we?
Science: How it happened.

Liam Byrne

IRockUrSocks wrote: »

44% of 1,008 adults...........

Obviously evolution hasn't given you the ability to grasp the meaning of the word "majority" :rolleyes:

dmigsy

I think this photo proves that Jesus and the dinosaurs were contemporaries.
Attachment not found.

MagicMarker

Jakkass wrote: »

What is the issue with believing that God started the evolutionary process? Set up the required parameters and allowed for life to form?

Cos it's stupid.

Sulmac

IRockUrSocks wrote: »

44% of 1,008 adults ...........

What about the rest of the country? The church go-ers, the school kids, the mislead theology teachers....I think you'll find that a further study would shame your very post.

I think you'll find most church goers for the accept evolution, school kids (after a certain age) are taught evolution and mislead theology teachers are thin on the ground. Furthermore, these groups are hardly representative of the whole of Irish society.

Also, 44% still isn't a majority.

partyatmygaff

MagicMarker wrote: »

Cos it's stupid.

?

philologos

MagicMarker wrote: »

Cos it's stupid.

It's no more stupid than the idea that the world came into order from chaos in and of itself. Indeed, it's probably less stupid.

It's good that more Christians are starting to engage with this seriously.

MagicMarker

Jakkass wrote: »

It's no more stupid than the idea that the world came into order from chaos in and of itself. Indeed, it's probably less stupid.

It's good that more Christians are starting to engage with this seriously.

I have it on good authority that Santa created the universe.

Lone Stone

ancient astronaut theory > evolution of man.

partyatmygaff

MagicMarker wrote: »

I have it on good authority that Santa created the universe.

Good for you.

Its a bit odd just stating your beliefs here in a thread about a scientific theory, don't you think?

IRockUrSocks

Jakkass wrote: »

OP: What an absolute blunder!

Evolution and atheism have nothing to do with eachother.

Both true and false. You can believe that Evolution is real but still be a religious person, however, I'd go so far as to say 100% of Evolutionist and scientists are atheists.

partyatmygaff wrote: »

You mean a world without people living on it?

More than half the things you listed there have nothing to do with christianity and those that do are definitley not condoned by christianity.

Anyways, what does that have to do with evolution? Just having a little poorly thought out dig at religion in general?

I never said they were anything to do with Christianity....I'm speaking of religion itself.

Liam Byrne wrote: »

I'd suggest that if you feel that strongly about it that you go down to the nearest shopping mall, find a queue of 5 year olds waiting in line to see a guy in a red suit, and start telling them all that there's no Santa.

Or is it just easier to complain about lies told to kids when it gives you an excuse to rant about religion ?

I'm saying children shouldn't be thought religion in schools for goodness sake, whats the point? Why not have an exam at the Leaving Cert about Batman and Robin or EastEnders? It's simply not that important to a persons education. If a family is religious, then by all means, practice at home, but time in school should be for science, not Star Trek.

Jakkass wrote: »

What is the issue with believing that God started the evolutionary process? Set up the required parameters and allowed for life to form?

The religion vs evolution debate really gets my goat.

The issue is that it's just shamelessly invented.

kowloon

I'm not convinced that religion and evolution are somehow incompatible.
Is there an agreed point from which evolution started?

Of course I'm a godless heathen, and I've spent more time worrying about the time they stopped making spice burgers than on existential dilemmas.