Is Darwinism a belief like a religion?

[Katiebee]

Well there have been a few.

Most were just let go with a disdainful look.

One, well he doesn't walk the same anymore.

Where were you when I was a teenage boy?....Sigh!

You didn't want to be that one.

[MissBarbara]

It has little to do with reality, either.

Why are the phrases "ultra-conservative" and "has little to do with reality" so commonly found together in the same sentence?

[Katiebee]

Because they seem to have a natural affinity to one another?

Maybe it's because they want to turn the clock back to a century and a half ago so it fits their world view.

[phtlc]

She was with me.......Okay, so now you now.....Katie and I are sisters.

Oh my god!!!! Twins!!!! I am sooo in love!!!!!

EWWWWWWWW.........
OMG....coming from you that sounds so gross!!!!!
Love,
Liz
 

Sigh     

[phtlc]

You didn't want to be that one.

I would have died to be that one

[Katiebee]

The one who walks funny? No, you really don't. His right knee no longer works correctly.

[RopeFiend]

Let's head back to the original topic; sorry if I'm derailing your threadjacks.

Let's take the original question from the other direction.  I can PROVE that people that believe in the Bible also believe Darwinian evolution to be a true fact.

Old Testament.  Genesis.  Noah, and his incestuous family.  GOD has the all-time hissy fit and floods the planet to a depth of several miles deep, killing EVERYTHING that's not a fish or is not on Noah's Ark.  In Biblical accounts, that's what, 10,000 years ago if I read it correctly?  Everything before the Flood was washed away and drowned.  We'll leave the geologic record aside for the moment, as there's NO evidence whatsoever for a world-wide flood 10,000 years ago.

OK, POP QUIZ TIME:  Where the fuck did all of the different species come from AFTER THE FLOOD?  

They only took two of each whatsis onto the boat, and the boat was only so large.  There are over 30,000 different and unique species of arachnids (spiders), and they mostly can't swim.  There are over 350,000 unique species of beetles.  GOD likes beetles a whole lot.  Think about that for a moment.  Taking a mating pair of every freaking species of beetle would have been nearly the entire volume of the Ark, leaving no room for GOD'S favorite warm-blooded animals.  OK then, maybe they took a couple of hundred species of beetles, whatever was available there in the area.  ALL OF THE OTHER 350,000 SPECIES of beetle must have *evolved* since the Flood.  You can't have it any other way.  Humans sure as fuck haven't been breeding beetles furiously since the Flood, as it's not mentioned in any literature until the 18th century.  I'm thinking it'd take a hell of a lot of concentrated effort to breed that many species of beetle in only 10,000 years.

CHECKMATE!  The Bible embraces evolution in Genesis, although it doesn't spell it out directly.  Either Genesis is pure bunk, or it allows for not just evolution, but rapid evolution.  REALLY rapid evolution.

Or then again, maybe we're back to: the Bible is a load of crap, solely good for entertaining children and scaring the fuck out of the feeble-minded.

[Katiebee]

Well, interesting theory, Rope. I suppose one more extremely important evolutionary and observable divergence can be made as well. That the accepted coloration of Noah is of a Caucasian, the sudden appearance of nergroid, oriental, and australoid races must be explained by evolution in the last 10k years.

I like your explanation! I must remember to use this in the future!

[MissBarbara]

Let's head back to the original topic; sorry if I'm derailing your threadjacks.

Let's take the original question from the other direction.  I can PROVE that people that believe in the Bible also believe Darwinian evolution to be a true fact.

Old Testament.  Genesis.  Noah, and his incestuous family.  GOD has the all-time hissy fit and floods the planet to a depth of several miles deep, killing EVERYTHING that's not a fish or is not on Noah's Ark.  In Biblical accounts, that's what, 10,000 years ago if I read it correctly?  Everything before the Flood was washed away and drowned.  We'll leave the geologic record aside for the moment, as there's NO evidence whatsoever for a world-wide flood 10,000 years ago.

OK, POP QUIZ TIME:  Where the fuck did all of the different species come from AFTER THE FLOOD?  

They only took two of each whatsis onto the boat, and the boat was only so large.  There are over 30,000 different and unique species of arachnids (spiders), and they mostly can't swim.  There are over 350,000 unique species of beetles.  GOD likes beetles a whole lot.  Think about that for a moment.  Taking a mating pair of every freaking species of beetle would have been nearly the entire volume of the Ark, leaving no room for GOD'S favorite warm-blooded animals.  OK then, maybe they took a couple of hundred species of beetles, whatever was available there in the area.  ALL OF THE OTHER 350,000 SPECIES of beetle must have *evolved* since the Flood.  You can't have it any other way.  Humans sure as fuck haven't been breeding beetles furiously since the Flood, as it's not mentioned in any literature until the 18th century.  I'm thinking it'd take a hell of a lot of concentrated effort to breed that many species of beetle in only 10,000 years.

CHECKMATE!  The Bible embraces evolution in Genesis, although it doesn't spell it out directly.  Either Genesis is pure bunk, or it allows for not just evolution, but rapid evolution.  REALLY rapid evolution.

Or then again, maybe we're back to: the Bible is a load of crap, solely good for entertaining children and scaring the fuck out of the feeble-minded.

It depends what you mean by "believe in the Bible." If someone believes that every single word in the Bible is literally true, and in a scientific manner, then it's the simplest thing in the world to demonstrate that the Bible is false. From the fact that the world was created in six literal days to the fact that the earth is only 6,000 years old, the average 8th grader can see that advances in science over the past 250 years -- geology, chemistry, biology, etc. -- have demonstrated these, and other, Bible-based assertions are clearly and obviously false. And those who deny this are doing so in the face of demonstrable scientific fact. 

Of course, a literal reading of the story of Noah in the Book of Genesis is absurd, as the geological and biological records make perfectly clear (and as you have ably demonstrated).

However, just as Biblical literalists gravely err when taking the accounts in the Bible as scientific fact, so too do anti-religion zealots gravely err when they strive to demonstrate the Bible is false by examining the "facts" in the Bible to "prove" them to be false. The Bible accounts are not scientific fact, and the overwhelming number of believers do not take them as fact. 

In other words, Religion and Science describe two completely separate spheres, and it's worse than pointless to compare or confound the two.

[Elizabeth]

If Noah actually built a boat....The best he could possibily do was to collect animals from the known world. The idea that he managed to collect animals from North America or Australia is absurd at best (didn't happen/could not have happened).
And for those of you that cling to the idea of the land bridges they were gone long before Noah was even born.
Love,
Liz

[RopeFiend]

I've known or met a *lot* of people that think the Bible is literally true or 'divinely inspired'.  Some of them to go ridiculous lengths to maintain their insanity.  Here's something fun I just found on the 'net:

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v3/n1/dinosaur-killer

So, the mass extinction at the K-T boundary was actually the Biblical FLOOD?  Cool.  Dinosaurs on the ark?  Wicked cool!  But wait... mankind is only around 100,000 years old or less, and the K-T extinction was 70 million years ago.  Soooooo...  DINOSAURS BUILT THE ARK! 

Of course, it's all clear now.... 

[Elizabeth]

I've known or met a *lot* of people that think the Bible is literally true or 'divinely inspired'.  Some of them to go ridiculous lengths to maintain their insanity.  Here's something fun I just found on the 'net:

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v3/n1/dinosaur-killer

So, the mass extinction at the K-T boundary was actually the Biblical FLOOD?  Cool.  Dinosaurs on the ark?  Wicked cool!  But wait... mankind is only around 100,000 years old or less, and the K-T extinction was 70 million years ago.  Soooooo...  DINOSAURS BUILT THE ARK! 

Of course, it's all clear now.... 

WRONG RF..!!!
Everybody knows that the dinosaurs built there own ark, and are now living peacefully at the center of the earth. You are obviously reading the wrong books.!!!
Love,
Liz