Last year, I read 'The Language of God' by Francis S Collins. It is a book about t heistic evolution. Some of his viewpoint would seem to negate freewill, but it was an interesting read.
Do you have an interest in Evolution?
by snare&racket 71 Replies latest jw friends
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snare&racket
Thanks Ziddina,
In darwins time, evolution was discussed readily amongst biologists, his father was an early advocate. Of course Wallace also arrived at the theory the other side of the world at the same time, via evidence in butterflies etc.
Darwin first saw legitimacy in evolution by estimating the age of a local hill. He used simple calculation to guesstimate its age by the time taken for it to rise in height. This made the hill millions of years old, time enough for evolution. Geology is the plate that evolution sits on. The simple logic should be enough to intrigue a skeptic. The further down we dig the farther back in time we go, the simpler life gets. We don't find humans in the depths of the land, we don't find animals, just evidence of simple cellular life. This is totaly contrary to the bibles account of man being earths first life. This could not have been proven more wrong. This evidence progresses throughout the geological chronology, we don't find humans at the dinosaur levels.... Etc etc. if you want answers dig deep and dig down!
The bible clearly dates man as being 6000 years old based on the ages of key figures in the genealogy accounts. We know this is not true from human remains and until these geological studies, faith in this mythology led people to believe the earth was a mere 6000years old, even now some still believe this. Geology has offered huge swings in the knowlege of mankind.
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N.drew
@It concerns me that a minority of people who admit not reading the theory or it's evidence, muddy the waters of this forum with their gut feelings and ignorant self experiments... snare&racket
asking for things we don't know yet is immature and ignorant. snare&racket
Advertising that evolution has nothing to do with life's beginning is muddy. Just so you know. People talking about what they have not read about bothers you. Anal bothers me.
and telling things too that "we don't know yet" is immature and ignorant.
I can't believe that people get puffed up about the superiority of evolution that disproves creation, but they can't even explain how life first started. I think the atheists on board call it kettle black. How can you separate the two and come out looking like you can teach it?
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snare&racket
Londo
I no longer accept free will. Think on this simple mind experiment. If you UNKNOWINGLY traveled ack in time one hour, would you make the exact same decisions? Think about it...
Of course, you would, for the same reason you made them in he first place. So if you are always going to make the same desicion, do you have free will? Philosophers argue that we have only influences to our decision making, nothing more.
As the sadly late Mr Hitchens said when asked if there was free will... "yes I have free will, I have no choice but to have it"
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breakfast of champions
It is highly likely I'll be taking Biology courses at school, and I am looking forward to seeing how evoltionary theory has "evolved" from 25 years ago.
My HS biology teacher was EXCELLENT, and even being a witness kid, I think he did a really good job with evolution. He explained former evolutionary theories --- especially with regards to abiogenesis --- which had been disproved, but also a lot of stuff that was pretty well established. I think with the advances in genetic science over the past two decades, the case for evolution is pretty damn strong -- but I'm no expert.
Although I might be soon!
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snare&racket
N.drew, I have suggested a book and I look forward to you reading it and giving us your opinion, I sincerely do. Will you oblige now we have taken the time to find you something to read on the topic you asked for?
Just to clarify for other thread readers, the origin of life is not a black hole in scientific knowlege, there are theories, experiments and studies being performed. We don't yet have answer to that and many other questions about life. Science has the humility to say "we don't know" when it doesn't know. But evolution of simple cells to modern life is a topic that although connected is a separate branch of scientific interest. We have immense data, understanding and evidence that you can look at and decide for yourselves, we are just here to help point you in the direction of the information.
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snare&racket
Awesome news breakfast :) I hope you enjoy it and look forward to your conclusions.
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NomadSoul
Good Read:
"In many cultures it is customary to answer that God created the universe out of nothing. But this is mere temporizing. If we wish courageously to pursue the question, we must, of course ask next where God comes from. And if we decide this to be unanswerable, why not save a step and decide that the origin of the universe is an unanswerable question? Or, if we say that God has always existed, why not save a step and conclude that the universe has always existed?"
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SweetBabyCheezits
N.Drew: Anal bothers me.
Have you discussed this with your partner?
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cofty
Geology is the plate that evolution sits on.
Scottish geologist, James Hutton deserves to be remembered for his contribution to science just as much as Darwin.
In 1785 he published his "Theory of the earth" and presented it to a skeptical audience of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Shockingly he claimed that rock formations had been laid down gradually under the sea over millions of years and then raised up above sea level by geological forces.
Undaunted by his unenthusiastic reception Hutton went on a tour to find physical evidence to prove his theory. In 1788 he and his friend John Playfair took a boat trip down the Berwickshire coast in south east Scotland where he came across a location called Siccar Point that has become a mecca for geologists. He found a rock formation called an unconformity consisting of a vertical section of older rock known as Greywacke below horizontal layers of younger red sandstone. It was the holy grail he had been searching for. Clearly the lower layers had been layed down first and then turned up on end at some distant time in the past before being eroded and sinking again below the ocean. The sandstone had then been laid on top and the whole thing had once again been lifted up to become visible as they are today. It was the proof he needed, his opponents conceded and Hutton has gone down as the father of modern geology.
Siccar Point is about 30 minutes drive from my house and the land is now owned by a the Drysdale family whose son played football for one of my teams few years ago.I visited it a while ago, it was like visiting geologies "Galapagos Islands" You can see the formation in the picture below.
