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Evolution is threatening to Christians because it negates and removes the creation myth and the fall of man. WIthout the fall of man, the original sin, then there is no need for Jesus to show up and redeem everyone, or, in other words, be sacrificed for that sin. That is basically what the foundation of modern Christianity is. SO by disproving the Garden of Eden, by relegating it to myth, Evolution shows no need for a Messiah to come and save everyone later on, since no one was in sin to begin with; I think that is why Christians are so threatened by it. IT shatters the very foundation of their fatih by pointing out that the myth on which it is based "never happened" ......
Not that there is anything wrong with that.....
It's just crooked... convincing people they are bound by origional sin and need to jump through a series of flaming hoops to release them from those perceived bonds.
It's just crooked... convincing people they are bound by origional sin and need to jump through a series of flaming hoops to release them from those perceived bonds.
It's just crooked... convincing people they are bound by origional sin and need to jump through a series of flaming hoops to release them from those perceived bonds.
Evolution is liberating.
Indeed..
"Consider the fact that for 3.8 billion years, a period of time older that the Earth's mountains and rivers and oceans, every one of your forebears on both sides has been attractive enough to find a mate, healthy enough to reproduce, and sufficiently blessed by fate and circumstances to live long enough to do so. Not one of your pertinent ancestors was squashed, devoured, starved, stranded, stuck fast, untimely wounded, or otherwise deflected from its life's quest of delivering a tiny charge of genetic material to the right partner at the right moment in order to perpetuate the only possible sequence of hereditary combinations that could result -- eventually, astoundingly, and all too briefly -- in you."
If evolution is correct (and all evidence tells us that it is), the number of individual beings which could be standing here in your place vastly outnumber all of the grains of sand, on all of the beaches, in all of the world. You are the inheritor of a genetic legacy which stretches back 3.8 billion years through the eons, and which has circled the center of our galaxy about 20 times. You're the endpoint of billions of generations of births, competitions, wars, and deaths; the only possible sequence of hereditary combinations that can possibly result in you. Your forbears have survived arguably the single greatest ecological catastrophe ever to hit the planet; when the earliest plants started poisoning the atmosphere with oxygen. Yet, your ancestors learned to use this poisonous gas to produce energy in a way that had never been attempted before; an evolutionary triumph which paved the way for the first multicellular life. Your genetic line has survived floods, freezes, and meteor impacts from the skies themselves, preserving this single genetic line through the eons to lead ultimately to you. This is a legacy you share with every living thing on earth, from the largest creature ever to have lived; the blue whale; to the lowliest prion. You share this legacy with the blades of grass between your toes and the trees that give you shade. You are a thread in a huge, amazing, incredibly diverse tapestry of living things; some of whom have clawed their way out of the seas to survive on land, some of whom remained in the ocean, and a few of whom stood on land for a few million years, ultimately said "well, screw-it" and marched back into the sea. Once we add cosmology into the mix, not only does this legacy stretch to everything living, but to the non-living as well. You share your origins with the stars and planets. The asteroids which hang in space, all the way down to the loneliest hydrogen atom in deep space. All the parts that make you stretch back through the eons and have borne witness to the very birth of the universe. They have seen the birth and death of stars, supernovae, black holes and pulsars. They've seen planets torn to pieces and solar systems form. They've seen galaxies coalesce and skies darken.
The universe is much more grand, more amazing, more beautiful, more elegant and more subtle than has ever been written in any holy book, and you are here, against nigh-incalculable odds, to see it all.
This is NOT a debate on the validity of evolutionary theory or the lack thereof. God knows we have plenty of those threads.
But what I wonder is why it is so threatening and polarizing a subject for so many people religious or not.
Is it really that terrible to think we came from an ape-like ancestor? It's not like we still crawl around on all fours, wave our arms wildly, scream and shriek at every little thing and throw our poo around (well, most of us anyway. )... so what if that's what our ancestors were...It's not what we are now.
And about god... Why wouldn't god create sentient life by evolving it over billions of years? It's not like an all-knowing eternal being doesn't have the time to do it. Evolution does NOT prove there isn't a god, nor devalue spirituality. It may discredit religious institutions, granted... but religion and spirituality are two different things.
So what gives?
Evolution threatens the authority of Jehovah that the bible attempts (weakly) to build up, thus threatening the entire religious premise of the Abrahamics.
I don't know who is frightened by evolution, but I definitely couldn't care less what or who I came from. There is no way we can prove or disprove the existence of God. I also believe (in a very abstract manner) that we also cannot prove or disprove evolution (if you are able to acknowledge that reality is entirely based on perspective).
I definitely wouldn't be surprised if we evolved, but at the same time I don't think there is any way we could possibly ever know what happened at the very beginning of time...I'm talking WAY before humans....
As far as hairy apes go, I am starting to think that my husband DEFINITELY evolved from Neanderthals...
But that has nothing to do with whether or not God exists, in my opinion.
Evolution as a theory could be sticky for this reason:
The races of humans formed because populations of humans were geographically and tribally separated from one another over a long period of time. Long enough for genetic marking to occur. Anyone who thinks there isn't any genetic difference between human subspecies is an idiot, if there were not we'd never know who belonged to various races with any accuracy at all! We wouldn't be able to predict that mixed children would look different than any two people of the same race having children. It happens in other animals when they are geographically separated or where a very low amount of gene flow is occurring between populations, too. There are many different subspecies (races) of the common kingsnake, for example.
If genetic marking occurred, and obviously it did by our appearances, then what other differences might there be? Could one group be have needed more brainpower while another needed more brawn? How could those differences in biological adaptation still be helping or handicapping most members of these various groups today? I don't know whether it's a factor or not, but just saying once you accept a theory of adaptation, you open yourself up to asking what all these adaptations may have been and how that plays out still today.
There are no human subspecies. Human beings are all Homo sapien sapien. Race is a man-made concept which seeks to marginalize the "other" while traditionally bestowing a "god-given" preference upon those with lighter skin. There are no true biological differences between humans. There are evolutionary adaptations to environment which is evidenced in skin color, eye color, and skeletal markers.
Homo sapien sapien evolved out of Africa--every single one of us. Every living human on the planet shares 99.99% of his or her DNA with their fellow H. sapien sapiens. It is that magical 1% which makes us each unique individuals but does not parcel out those differences into subspecies.
Genetic marking is used to determine the ability of a particular cell to replicate and to migrate--it is not a byproduct of evolutionary adaptation.
I don't know who is frightened by evolution, but I definitely couldn't care less what or who I came from. There is no way we can prove or disprove the existence of God. I also believe (in a very abstract manner) that we also cannot prove or disprove evolution (if you are able to acknowledge that reality is entirely based on perspective).
I definitely wouldn't be surprised if we evolved, but at the same time I don't think there is any way we could possibly ever know what happened at the very beginning of time...I'm talking WAY before humans....
As far as hairy apes go, I am starting to think that my husband DEFINITELY evolved from Neanderthals...
But that has nothing to do with whether or not God exists, in my opinion.
This is why the Scientific Method culminates with the Peer-Review Process. It removes that "perspective".
One man's findings are merely an opinion, but when said hypothesis, testing methodolgy, and findings stand up to the peer-review process by his collegues, some of whom may be openly antagonistic towards that individual, we have a Scientific Fact.
Evolution has stood up to rigorous peer-review over the centuries. Evolution is not, as you state, a "perception". It is a Scientific Fact.
You also appear to be confusing abiogenesis with Evolution. They are different disciplines. Abiogensis deals with how, specifically, life began on the planet. Evolution deals with how that life evolved into present day forms.
While we are uncertain as to the specific causes of abiogenesis, one should keep a few things in mind. Hydrogen and Oxygen are the two most common gasses in the Universe, respectfully. Amino Acids, the very foundation of life, is one of the most common substance.
The basic building blocks of life were indeed already present on the planet.
I believe that organized religion realizes these facts on some level, and sees Evolution as a threat to their authority as it dismantles the idea of Creationism/ID. Biblical Creationism, after all, attempts to create an Ultimate Authority in the central deity figure of today's Abrahamic religions. Without that Ultimate Authority, the clergy of said Deity have no authority either.
It isn't threatening. Its just false. Man's foolish pride trying to control the Almighty's nature. Hard for evolutionists to accept.
One problem that literalist Christians have is that is the belief that if any of the bible is proven to be not literally true then its an attack on the bible and thus God.
Believing in the theory of evolution does not necessarily take God out of the equation. I know lots of Christians who believe in God and don't take the biblical creation story as the truth. They believe God started it all and from then on everything evolved. The earth and universe has to evolve to allow for the continuation.
Its not mans foolish pride as you say but a different understanding then the ancient writers had. With science comes a different understanding, and knowledge.
One problem that literalist Christians have is that is the belief that if any of the bible is proven to be not literally true then its an attack on the bible and thus God.
Believing in the theory of evolution does not necessarily take God out of the equation. I know lots of Christians who believe in God and don't take the biblical creation story as the truth. They believe God started it all and from then on everything evolved. The earth and universe has to evolve to allow for the continuation.
Its not mans foolish pride as you say but a different understanding then the ancient writers had. With science comes a different understanding, and knowledge.
I agree with this . . . but I am puzzled, Jazzymom. You adhere to the Jewish beliefs about Yahweh (if I remember your posts correctly). How can a modern, evolved intellect and spiritually mature soul abide such primitive and savage beliefs about our God (there is only ONE)?
I agree with this . . . but I am puzzled, Jazzymom. You adhere to the Jewish beliefs about Yahweh (if I remember your posts correctly). How can a modern, evolved intellect and spiritually mature soul abide such primitive and savage beliefs about our God (there is only ONE)?
you are correct.. I have from as long as I can remember felt a pull towards the spiritual and I didn't grow up in a religious home. I have parents who believed in God but not in organized religion so I was never taught anything about religion. I thought about it a lot as a kid though. My parents gave my brother and I a sense of ethics and morals and now I think what they believed was more of an ethical monotheism. they were drawn to the catholic church and have been really active in works but they don't believe in proselytizing. They believe in faith and works and everyone needs to find their own path. My father actually told me when I started studying Judaism he could invision himself being Jewish because so much of what is central to Judaism he believes.
So I guess I don't believe in a dogmatic approach to religion. I believe in a creator and I believe I should do acts to make this world a better place. To live an ethical life. I believe in knowledge and I am not frightened by it because I know much of religion is faith and not provable. I also don't take the bible as a literal writing because it was written by ancient men who were inspired to write. They also lived in a very different time then I do. They saw the world very differently then I do. When we read these ancient writings we need to remember it is written down by men who lived in a very different world with different realities. All of the ancient world seems pretty violent to me when I read about histories of that time. Many of the pagan religions had very violent practices.
Within Judaism there are different branches from the liberal to the not at all liberal. I tend towards the reform/reconstructionist Judaism. I also didn't just wake up one day and decide to become Jewish. I studied with a Rabbi for a couple of years before I converted. Not all Jews have the same view of God. Judaism has evolved over the millennium and that has helped it to survive so the Judaism of the ancients is different then the Judaism today.
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