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>but I think if most of the evolution-deniers truly understood the modern theory of evolution, and understood that it is separate from abiogenesis, I think they

by oz 14y ago

>but I think if most of the evolution-deniers truly understood the modern theory of evolution, and understood that it is separate from abiogenesis, I think they wouldn't have a problem with it. I am the son of a fundamentalist minister. For a time, I was also a Christian. I'm now an atheist. Take it from me: you're wrong. I've been there. There is literally nothing you can say to them. Their belief system is invested in it not being true. It's like the quote attributed to Upton Sinclair: 'It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.' I once stood in my doorway and pitied Einstein et. al, smugly thinking that for all their "human wisdom", they weren't able to grasp these "universal truths of God as made manifest through creation." Me, who dropped high school physics. So you see, there's another element to the denial. It allows less intelligent people to think they have something over "these intellectuals."

rthomas6 14y ago
I believe you. Maybe I am wrong for the majority, then. But I arrived at my viewpoint because I used to be someone who disbelieved in evolution. Or rather, I believed in "microevolution" in individual species, which I later discovered in college to simply be evolution over a few hundred thousand years instead of a few hundred million. I believed this because it's what my parents taught me, and it's what I read in books (that they gave me). I haven't given up on my parents yet... I don't like to talk with them about evolution, but I do like to talk about science, and I still think if they truly understood a scientifically accurate model of the universe as we currently understand it, they would accept evolution, and the ~13 billion year age of the universe. I am still a Christian, but I now understand and accept the scientific method as the best way to understand the physical world. I simply choose to also believe that there are unprovable and unfalsifiable things that exist beyond the physical realm.

by oz 14y ago

rthomas6 14y ago

I believe you. Maybe I am wrong for the majority, then. But I arrived at my viewpoint because I used to be someone who disbelieved in evolution. Or rather, I believed in "microevolution" in individual species, which I later discovered in college to simply be evolution over a few hundred thousand years instead of a few hundred million. I believed this because it's what my parents taught me, and it's what I read in books (that they gave me). I haven't given up on my parents yet... I don't like to talk with them about evolution, but I do like to talk about science, and I still think if they truly understood a scientifically accurate model of the universe as we currently understand it, they would accept evolution, and the ~13 billion year age of the universe. I am still a Christian, but I now understand and accept the scientific method as the best way to understand the physical world. I simply choose to also believe that there are unprovable and unfalsifiable things that exist beyond the physical realm.