Evolution as a Religion?
How can evolution be seen as a religion? I can't understand this. Fundamentalist Evangelicals have, instead of calling The Theory of Evolution by any of its 2 correct names, taken to calling it Darwinism. For starters completely Darwinian Evolution is not even what is taught or accepted by science. Darwinian Evolution is incomplete, and flawed, just as Newtonian Physics (AKA Classical Dynamics) was incomplete and flawed. Darwin didn't understand genetics as fully as we do know, he didn't have a way to test relatedness of species, and didn't even know what DNA was. We do have the means and understanding now to more fully understand evolution. After Darwin posed the idea of evolution one of two things could have happened. The idea would have been disproven, rejected, and thrown in the garbage heap with other disproven theories, or it would have been studied further and later confirmed as our understanding grew. Guess which one happened! Thats right it was studied further and confirmed, and no evidence disproves evolution currently.
Now with a religion, we have Bob, the founder of Bobism, who writes a religious text or has others compile religious texts of other religions adding his own flare to those. After doing so his text isn't tested, it is either accepted by people or it isn't based on faith alone. Many people will say of some religions that prophecies being fullfilled show their religion to be correct, but as is the case in portions of the Bible many prophecies have been back written, or were not fully fullfilled in the manner it stated they would be. Then of course believers forget when using prophecy or this or that to show their belief is right that even according to their belief they are supposed to believe based on faith alone.
Now if Evolution was indeed faith based as religions are, why does it rely on evidence? Why is it that people who accept the theory look for evidence that disproves it? Do Muslims look for evidence that disproves Allah? Not really. Could anything disprove Evolution? Of course something could have been found that would have disproved evolution, but it never was found. Could anything disprove Jehovah, Allah, Shiva, of Zeus? Not really, because the belief in their existance is based on faith and dogma, not testable scientific evidence.
posted by Wakim @ 8:30 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
What about the history that is recorded about Jesus and his miracles outside of the Bible? Doesn't that disprove what you're stating? That religion is based on faith alone?
In terms of historical references of miracles attributed to Jesus Christ (or Christus as some Greco-Roman historians referred to him as) are, for the most part, vague. Describing him as a doer of great deeds. Well one could say that Thomas Jefferson was a doer of great deeds, or that Peter the Great was a doer of great deeds, or even Mohammed. All of which carried out amazing acts against all odds. The only 2 miracles that are specifically mentioned by historians are the walking on water and the feeding of the 5,000. The historical account of walking on the water, however, does not appear to have independently originated from a source outside Christian texts. The feeding of the 5,000 however is mentioned by historians and the historical accounts appear to have arisen from sources independent of the Bible, or other religious texts that list a miraculous feeding by a man named Jesus. The Quran does mention a feeding 1,300 (which would make sense since the Muslim Calander is lunar yielding 13 months, thereby making 13 a more "sacred" number within Islam) that seems to fit the timeline, and many historical accounts do not give exact numbers. Some have even interpreted the 5 loaves of the story to be the 5 books of the Torah and the 12 baskets to be the 12 disciples. In truth we do not know anything except that a feast was provided with limited resources, which in the end is not all that miraculous.
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