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Edited by SSG ACM: 9/13/2015 1:53:36 AM
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Evolution is a fact, but...

Evolution is a fact only at a very small scale. It is fantasy when it is used to explain how plants and animals came into existence or how human beings supposedly evolved from apelike ancestors. We might summarize the fantasy by saying that, where the theory of evolution is true, it is not very interesting, and where it is most interesting, it is not true. If “evolution” merely refers to a process of cyclical (back and forth) variation in response to changing environmental conditions, then evolution is a fact that can be observed both in nature and in laboratory experiments. For example, when a population of insects is sprayed with a deadly chemical like DDT, the most susceptible insects die but the individuals most resistant to the poison survive to breed and leave offspring, which inherit the genes that provide resistance. After many generations of insects have been sprayed, the entire surviving population may be comprised of the DDT-resistant variety, and some new form of insect control will have to be applied. Such changes are not permanent, however, because the resistant mosquitoes are more fit than the others only for as long as the insecticide is applied. When the environment becomes free of the toxic chemical, the insect population tends to revert to what it was before. A similar effect explains how disease-causing bacteria become resistant to antibiotic drugs like penicillin, which then are no longer as effective in controlling the disease as they formerly were. Almost all illustrations of “evolution in action” in textbooks or museum exhibits are similar to these examples. They involve no increase in complexity or appearance of new body parts or even permanent change of any kind. Small-scale, reversible population variations of this sort are usually called microevolution, although “adaptive variation” would be a better term. It is misleading to describe adaptive variation as “evolution,” because the latter term commonly refers also to macroevolution. Macroevolution is the grand story of how life supposedly evolved by purely natural processes from very simple beginnings to become complex, multicelled plants and animals, and eventually human beings, without God’s participation being needed at any step along the way. Charles Darwin assumed that macroevolution was merely microevolution extended over very long periods of time. Biology textbooks, museums, and television programs still teach people to make the same assumption, so that examples of microevolution are used as proof that complex animals and even human beings evolved from simpler organisms by a similar process. The primary flaw in the story of macroevolution is that all plants and animals are packed with information—the complicated instructions that coordinate the many processes enabling the body and brain to function. Even Richard Dawkins, the most famous living advocate of Darwin’s theory, admits that every cell in a human body contains more information than all the volumes of an encyclopedia, and every one of us has trillions of cells in his or her body, which have to work together in marvelous harmony. The greatest weakness of the theory of evolution is that science has not discovered a process that can create all the necessary information, which can be likened to the software that directs a computer. Without such a demonstrated creative process, evolution is merely a story, because [b]its supposed mechanism can neither be duplicated in a laboratory nor observed in nature.[/b] It is true that there are patterns of similarity among living creatures. For example, humans, apes, mice, worms, and even plants have many similar genes. The important question is not whether there are similarities among all living things but whether those similarities came about through a natural process akin to the observable examples of adaptive variation that we find in textbooks and museum exhibits. One mistake Christians often make in debating evolution is to take on too many issues at once, rather than starting with the most important problem and solving it first. For example, evolution requires a time scale of many millions of years, while many people understand the Bible to allow for an earth history of only a few thousand years. The evolutionary time scale is debatable, but debating it involves several complex scientific disciplines and distracts attention from the most important defect of the theory of evolution. The only mechanism the evolutionists have is a combination of random variation and natural selection, illustrated by the survival of the insects that happened to be resistant to an insecticide. [b]This Darwinistic mechanism has never been shown to be capable of creating new genetic information[/b] or new complex body parts such as wings, eyes, or brains. Without a mechanism that can be demonstrated to be capable of the necessary creation, the theory of evolution is just a fantasy with no real scientific basis. The Bible teaches, “In the beginning God created” and “In the beginning was the Word.” A simple way of explaining this basic principle is to say that a divine intelligence existed before anything else and that intelligence was responsible for the origin of life and for the existence of all living things, including human beings. [b]No matter how much time we might allow for evolution to do the necessary creating, the evidence shows that the process would never get started[/b] because all evolution can do is to further minor variations in organisms that are already living, without any change in their basic classification. When the Bible says, “In the beginning God created” (Gen 1:1), it is presenting us with a fact, which we need to know to understand everything else, including what we were created for and how God wants us to live. The Bible also says that God created men and women in His own image. That, too, is a fact. If it were not true, there would be no science, because [b]no theory of evolution can demonstrate how intelligence came into existence[/b], including the intelligence of misguided people who misuse science to try to explain creation without allowing any role to God. “In the beginning was the Word.” The Bible says it and, properly understood, the evidence of science confirms it. Anyone who says otherwise is peddling fantasy, not fact.

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  • Well stated and with a healthy dose of logic and fact. I always tell people that evolution-as-creation might be fact, but it lacks evidence. I don't need to prove my belief because there isn't evidence of another.

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    • This is really good. Props to you. :)

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    • Firstly: Evolution explains how life got complex not how it began appears to be your main arguement here. Evolution actually does not claim to have started life off at all. You do not need a God to make life you need kinetic energy and a helluva a lot of luck (well not really when you have that many rolls of the die to play with) which was created at the big bang. Evolution explains complex life and how life changes. Their is a strong arguement that natural selection was not the main driver of evolution but that could just mean there was another driver that we are not aware of. The fossil records do seem to support evolution that is not the simple microevolution you spoke of. It seems strange that you would say that evolution causing humanity is a fantasy and then follow that up with an arguement that a magician made us. Also why is the default position of religious people that because science can't explain things then God did it? Why is we don't know the answer yet not acceptable? God is a shortcut to thinking. Saying you can't explain it therefore God or evolution can't explain it therefore God is just plain laziness on a species level. We need to actually do the actual research and get the real answers.

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    • 'I want to believe my religion' All I took from this wall of text

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      • Science has yet to duplicate the process of evolution because we have only been sentient and observant for say 5000 years. These 'little evolutions' have to be played out over hundreds of thousands of years. Do some reading on the Galapagos (think thats right) islands. Im not trolling, i rather respect the way you presented such an interesting point of view, but I disagree with the notion of a god that was all miracles and plagues a few thousand years ago then goes silent.

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      • Occums razor- the choice without the least assumptions, will be the one selected. Newtons flaming laser sword- something that cannot be observed or experimented on is not deemed worthy of debate. Evolution is the choice with the least assumptions. Even though evolution might not be right, that is the most plausible choice.

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      • A liberal muslim homosexual ACLU lawyer professor and abortion doctor was teaching a class on Karl Marx, known atheist. ”Before the class begins, you must get on your knees and worship Marx and accept that he was the most highly-evolved being the world has ever known, even greater than Jesus Christ!” At this moment, a brave, patriotic, pro-life Navy SEAL champion who had served 1500 tours of duty and understood the necessity of war and fully supported all military decisions made by the United States stood up and held up a rock. ”How old is this rock, pinhead?” The arrogant professor smirked quite Jewishly and smugly replied “4.6 billion years, you stupid Christian” ”Wrong. It’s been 5,000 years since God created it. If it was 4.6 billion years old and evolution, as you say, is real… then it should be an animal now” The professor was visibly shaken, and dropped his chalk and copy of Origin of the Species. He stormed out of the room crying those liberal crocodile tears. The same tears liberals cry for the “poor” (who today live in such luxury that most own refrigerators) when they jealously try to claw justly earned wealth from the deserving job creators. There is no doubt that at this point our professor, DeShawn Washington, wished he had pulled himself up by his bootstraps and become more than a sophist liberal professor. He wished so much that he had a gun to shoot himself from embarrassment, but he himself had petitioned against them! The students applauded and all registered Republican that day and accepted Jesus as their lord and savior. An eagle named “Small Government” flew into the room and perched atop the American Flag and shed a tear on the chalk. The pledge of allegiance was read several times, and God himself showed up and enacted a flat tax rate across the country. The professor lost his tenure and was fired the next day. He died of the gay plague AIDS and was tossed into the lake of fire for all eternity. Semper Fi.

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        • OP - Due to the actual process not being identified, all the outcomes of which this process could very well make mean nothing and must be ignored. That is was god, cause that's the only other explanation, and on top of that being only the Christian representation of a deity.

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          • See you started off great. 10/10. Juat lost all your credability at the end there. Yes there is no solid proof yet. However it is the most obvious choice.. you filled in the gaps with a wizard did it and want to discredit something which has small proofs. ? Deflated balloon. Now I don't want to fight on this, just point out that scientific assumptions are changed as we learn more. Religious assumptions are the denial of science. I refuse to go with the magic wizzard theory. Unless there is a shred of evidence for the magic wizzard theory.

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            • You keep bringing up Bible verses. God is the answer because a sentence on an old Book says so? What's the proof for God? Don't use the bible. That does not count. Can you give any reason?

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            • Creationists are so keen in finding the tiniest cracks or weaknesses of science, but don't recognise their own. They know that if they begin to question the logic of their God, that the issues with science exactly mirror the problems of science, just in different ways. They are afraid, terrified, to question their priest, they fear to question their teachings. They wish to live like scuttling rats, shying away from any light and instead choosing to remain in the known: darkness and filth, of which they proclaim is pure and good, for this is all that rats know. Go away, little rat. Go and spread your theological plague to children and the insane. They're the most susceptible

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            • Watch this debate please, Gman, is a street preacher who also beloved in micro evolution, is debating a French Canadian biologist who explains it in a very good way. https://youtu.be/I1sk6l-MZ2w

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              • "Evolution has no real evidence" yet you base everything you believe in from a book that was written by crazy people 2000 years ago, people that would literally kill you if you believed anything other than their bibley religion. I believe that humans got their intelligence from an outside source. Basically aliens came down a very long time ago, mixed their dna with all sorts of different types of animals, and then tryed apes and liked what we turned out to be. Much of whats in the bible and every other religion can be explained by this, basically all you have to do is replace god, or any kind of deity with extra terrestrial and it makes almost perfect sense. Religion only begs more questions. I threw out Christianity when I was 18 because it was a joke, either you believe or you'll "burn for eternity"! Of course it made it this long. People are starting to wake up and realize its a bullshit, and are just getting sick of how the church controls, judges and condemns people. And before you go saying oh look an atheist, I'm not at all an atheist. As a matter of fact I probably have more beliefs than a crazy hell bent Christian. I believe in a god, in a much, much different form. And my beliefs create answers, and makes me question very little, though I do question everything i see with every thought that I think.

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                • I see you have quite the collection of shoe horns.

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                  • Did you take like a year writing a pointless thread? Jesus all the way!

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                    • We evolved from penguins. See their feet?

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                      • I saw God in there, pic is relevant.

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                      • Well actually, when an animal evolves, in most cases they don't lose DNA. Certain genes are just shut off and turned on.

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                        • Forgot #satire A Tl;Dr would also be a godsend [spoiler] pun intended [/spoiler]

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                          • I can't tell if this is a joke or not lol

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                            • No.

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                              • Edited by XI cheVelle IX: 7/16/2015 4:29:23 AM
                                The only ponds I've ever seen are man made therefore all ponds must be man made. Same fallacy as this post. Not to mention the OP doesn't explain that if it takes an intelligent designer to create something of intelligent design then who created the designer? If we only exist because God created us (intelligent design) then something had to create God. Christians can only come up with solutions that either A) come from their book or B) create a circular argument.

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                              • But what if evolution is not kill?

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                                • Didnt read but gods not real. Get over it and deal with your problems like an adult

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                                  • Edited by Doc: 7/13/2015 7:49:05 PM
                                    1
                                    You look fine today 

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                                    • Allow me to compare evolution to geology. We can see mountains rise a little tiny bit as time passes for us. Logically, we have no reason to believe there was a dramatic change in the mechanics at work in the growth of a mountain: plate tectonics. So we can assume that the mountain has always grown like that, rather than suddenly being there and growing slowly after that. The same goes for evolution. Though it takes long periods of time to see these huge changes, longer than many human lifespans, we can still see the small changes and accept that that has consistently been how it works as the most logical explanation.

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