99.9% Of a People Who Believe In Evolution Don't Understand It.

by Space Madness 89 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Apognophos

  I'd just like to make a separate point that gets back to the thread title, which is that the number of people who understand something does not tell us anything about that thing's correctness. Likewise, any difficulties in explaining something do not impact the factualness of that thing.

  That's the aspect of this thread which I object to; it feels like Space Madness is saying that it matters what other people say about evolution. Of course it does matter if we are talking about the dangers of scientific illiteracy, but not if we are trying to discuss the scientific subject itself.
• 

  cantleave
• 

  snare&racket

  ....and if you truly felt that Apog, you would pick up on the bucket of irony that is the scientific iliteracy that led to this thread being made.

  Great Teacher.....then how come that textbook caused no misconception for me and everyone else that have taken the effort to read up on these topics? It is equivelant to being ignorant of rocket science, opening a textbook of rocket science to chapter 9 and complaining that the third paragraph doesn't make sense! Start with page 1 and you won't have misconceptions! This is basic schooling, a great teacher would know this.

  Let me give another example....

  Darwin Said "To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree."

  If you were looking to undermine and not understand, that sentence alone would suffice your effort and interest. However in context of his whole statement he then went on to say....

  "Reason tells me, that if numerous gradations from a simple and imperfect eye to one complex and perfect can be shown to exist, each grade being useful to its possessor, as is certainly the case; if further, the eye ever varies and the variations be inherited, as is likewise certainly the case; and if such variations should be useful to any animal under changing conditions of life, then the difficulty of believing that a perfect and complex eye could be formed by natural selection, though insuperable by our imagination, should not be considered as subversive of the theory."

  Now your comment Grreag Teacher is equievelant of blaming Darwin not the reader, for having read the first quote out of context. If you think a textbook caused a misconception, but to everyone else it made sense, maybe there is a clue to the issue right under your nose....or right behind it.
• 

  Space Madness

  @snare&racket

  You are so confused so allow me to clear things up. When I said I never believed in evolution, I'm saying I never believed in the evolution as defined by the laymen. The ones that believe bacteria respond to antibiotics, that DNA mutations are a response to the enviornment instead of being random, and the whole "survival of the fittest" misconception. After taking this biology course, I found that the theory of evolution is very different from what the laymen say it is and that biologist have a different idea of evolution than the laymen. I find the theory of evolution as defined by biologist to be much more plausible and agree with the majority of it. When I say laymen I'm not necessarily referring to anyone on this site but the general public. On college campuses the vast majority of college students believe in evolution. Outside a few biology, biochemistry, and chemistry students, hardly any of them understand it. That at least has been my experience in the United States. You can go on YouTube right now and watch a bunch of videos of people trying to explain evolution and it will not reassemble anything biologist believe. Even well known celeberties who act as spokesmen for evolution don't understand it. Evolution as defined by biologist is nothing like the evolution defined by the general public. You seem to think I'm disagreeing with biologist when in fact I am agreeing with biologist and disagreeing with the general public. Do you understand now?

  The point of this thread is that evolution is misrepresented by the general public which caused me to question it's validity. After learning from actually biologist, I come to accept the vast majority of the theory of evolution.

  P.S You are clearly not reading my post. If you read my second post you can clearly see I was never arguing that bacteria can think or that biologist believe they can think.
• 

  GrreatTeacher

  Not sure where you're coming from, Snare. I understood the textbook.

  Just pointing out the irony of a textbook that stated it was clearing up erroneous thinking which then caused such a misunderstanding in SpaceMadness.
• 

  Space Madness

  What did I misunderstand in the text?
• 

  GrreatTeacher

  Space, the misconception that there is no such thing as antibiotic resistance in bacteria.
• 

  snare&racket

  I apologise for cross wires, it appears your OP is very different to your thoughts now, but I stand by my point, science iliteracy is a huge disadvantage and scientific literacy is a huge protection.

  But I go back to my question SM.....who said that? You say that people say 'thinking' and you imply that some believe the dna responds hence your wuote, but I have only heard anti-evolutionists explain it like that. I think the book is referring to misconceptions of anti-evolutionists. Evolution is a very simple process and anyone reading it would not be mistaken so. I have certainly heard NO advocates of evolution misunderstsnd its mechsnisms like that, but most anti-evolutionists have.

  I think most people discussing and advocating/defending evolution do understand it.

  I have never heard an advocate of evolution use 'thinking' or 'response' or 'dna creates' in their explinations. I only ever hear religious people describing evolution with such straw men explinations.

  Though I have heard many people make mistakes in the explinationof the fi er points of evolution, it is to be expected when to study evolution slone is to give three years of your life full time, just to have a basic qualification in the tooic, so those self teaching at home either miscommunjcate what they have learned or on the finer points misunderstand the mechanisms or motoves. Then there is a small number that I have yet to encounter who may not understsnd the theory at all well yet make youtube videos etc, I won't call you a liar but having watched years of videos and documentaries etc I have never seen someone defend evolution with a false understsnding of the basic concept or random mutation followed by natural selection.

  The main point again though, is had you and me as a JW sought the real explination for evolution from a scientist or a science book at the first opportunity, we would not have got lost in anti evolutionists claims about evolution which are untrue and lies. Evolution is s very simple theory and anyone hearing it for the first time after years of being told no sense aboy it, ususlly says 'oh of course that happens in nature, but that isn't evolution...'

  Though the finer details have changed over time, since Darein the principles of evolution have not altered.
• 

  Space Madness

  @GrreatTeacher

  That was never my point. My point was antibiotic resistance bacteria are not the result of a response to antibiotics. I clearly state that in my second post when I responded to Apognophos.
• 

  snare&racket

  SM, then if that is the case why the absurd title....99.9% of evolution believers don't understand it, with that quote added as proof?

  This thread makes no sense if you now claim a different opinion. Hence my claim in my second post that this switcharoo is a little deceitful?

  also your second answer was wrong: " Antibiotic resistance bacteria already exist prior to the creation of an antibiotic drug."

  Nope.... AFTER the drug is introduced. Again YOU DID misunderstand the textbook.