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Is Darwin's Theory of Evolution supported by scientific evidence and why or why not?

Is Darwin's Theory of Evolution supported by scientific evidence and why or why not?

  • Only God will ever know the answer.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Neither the Evolutionist nor Creationist theories are correct.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    25

RaptorWizard

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What is the Theory of Evolution?
What is Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution?

Let us not get controversial, but simply stick to the facts about Charles Darwin and his theory of Evolution. An English Naturalist, Mr. Darwin definitely gave us all a lot to think about. Darwin's theory of evolution actually contains two major ideas. The first idea posed by Mr. Darwin theorized the idea that evolution occurs. In other words, organisms change over time, and life on Earth has changed as descendants diverged from common ancestors in the past.

The second idea from Mr. Darwin is that evolution occurs by natural selection. Natural selection is the process in which living things with beneficial traits produce more offspring than others. This results in changes in the traits of living things over time. In Charles Darwin's day, the early 1800's, most people believed that all species were created at the same time and remained unchanged thereafter. They also believed that Earth was merely 6,000 years old. Darwin's ideas revolutionized biology as we know it!

How did Mr. Darwin come up with these important ideas?

It all started when he went on a voyage. In 1831, when Darwin was just 22 years old, he set sail on a scientific expedition on a ship called the HMS Beagle. He was the naturalist on the voyage. As a naturalist, it was his job to observe and collect specimens of plants, animals, rocks, and fossils wherever the expedition went ashore.

Darwin was fascinated by this nature, and his job on the Beagle was the most important time of his life. He spent over 3 years of the 5-year trip exploring nature on distant continents and islands. While he was away, a former teacher published Darwin's accounts of his observations. By the time Darwin finally returned to England, he had become famous as a naturalist.
During the long voyage, Charles Darwin made many observations that helped him form his theory of evolution. Some of what he found included:
-- Tropical rain forests and other new habitats where he saw many plants and animals he had never seen before
-- An earthquake that lifted the ocean floor 9 feet (2.7 meters) above sea level.
-- He also found rocks containing fossil sea shells in mountains far above sea level. These observations suggested that continents and oceans had changed dramatically over time and continue to change dramatically.
-- Rock ledges that had clearly once been beaches that had gradually built up over time. This suggested that slow, steady processes also change the surface of the Earth.
-- Fossils of gigantic extinct mammals, such as the ground sloth This was hard evidence that organisms looked very different in the past, as it suggested that living things, including the Earth's surface, change over time.

Cosmic Intelligent Design
Unaware individuals believe us humans are nothing more than meat suits but I choose to believe those scientists who consider recent discoveries of a "specified complexity" in D.N.A are in fact a death blow for Darwinian Evolutionary theory. Visit my website if you want to know why at www.maris-greenriver.com

The Heavens Declare the Glory of God
Psalm19:1 ¶ A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
Genesis 1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

God is so Great the making of all those stars are but a footnote in the verse. Think about that.

Creationism and Evolution Working Together
 

RaptorWizard

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Time better spent than discussing it with TypoC members.

Evidence of Common Descent - Wikipedia

The Tree of Life is a purely naturalistic means of explaining the diversity of life. I think it was, as the fossil record indicates, very much a vehicle in making the great show of nature happen, but it can't explain strange anomolies like why it would have taken "fully evolved humans" 2.5 million years to form a civilization, or how cosmic rays make the right alterations in DNA, and even some (non-empirical) reports of "ancient/lost civilizations" from ages long past. Ultimately, we don't have enough information to work with in order to interpret the accurate story as to why we're here.
 

Magic Poriferan

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Yes, we do have enough information. Read that entire article in detail. Follow the citations too if you have time to kill.
 

citizen cane

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According to Wikipedia (yeah yeah, I know) Homo sapiens reached anatomical modernity about 200k years ago, and behavioral modernity roughly 50k years ago. [MENTION=15371]Poimandres[/MENTION] Where did you get the figure referencing 2.5 million years?
 

citizen cane

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Also, as far as I know, Darwin didn't state that an organism with beneficial traits produced more offspring than others. He simply stated that those organisms with said useful feature tended to endure and have the continued opportunity to reproduce in the future; essentially, they did a better job at surviving than specimens without the useful feature.
 

RaptorWizard

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Southern Kross

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Your poll lacks an option:

"Evolution is supported by science and is not necessarily incongruous with creationist theory"

I'm an agnostic atheist but I don't believe science need exist in direct opposition with religious views. The insistence of others (both religious and non-religious) that this is the case, causes far too much unnecessarily conflict. You don't need to choose between them; there is enough room for both science and religion in this world.
 

RaptorWizard

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Your poll lacks an option:

"Evolution is supported by science and is not necessarily incongruous with creationist theory"

I'm an agnostic atheist but I don't believe science need exist in direct opposition with religious views. The insistence of others (both religious and non-religious) that this is the case, causes far too much unnecessarily conflict. You don't need to choose between them; there is enough room for both science and religion in this world.

I actually had an option along those lines which goes, "Both the Evolutionist and Creationist theories are correct."
 
W

WALMART

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The Only Game In Town

200px-The_Greatest_Show_on_Earth.JPG



I have a personal agenda - I seek to visualize every step in every process of creation. I can visualize a vast expansion of matter. I can conceptualize elementary particles condensing and interacting. I can see stellar mass being propagated, heavy particles combining and erupting in a nova, solar discs forming and planetary structures evolving. Genetic information being created, shaped and destroyed, perpetually for billions of years.

All of this through natural means. There are two missing pieces - the start of the beginning and the initial spark of life. I know that in time I will be able to visualize these facets of our universe as well as any, just as every previous mystery has tumbled end over end from the pursuit of knowledge. Appeal to a higher power is not part of my agenda.
 

Southern Kross

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I actually had an option along those lines which goes, "Both the Evolutionist and Creationist theories are correct."
But I don't personally believe in Creationism, so why would I choose that option? :shrug:
 

Standuble

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My favourite idea about evolution is that it can be seen in everyday life - everytime a baby is born with a slight mutation away from "the norm" you are seeing evolution. The existence precedes the essence - in this case a mutation is neither maldaptive nor advantageous at the point of origin it only becomes as such from the perspective of the environment it finds itself in. If the mutation allows you to breed surviving young then it is not maldaptive enough.

I myself am an atheist though as Southern Kross said there is nothing to say a creationist God did not choose to use evolution as its modus operandi.
 

Fluffywolf

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All life came forth from acids that under the right circumstances were allowed to mutate and adapt to their environment over long periods of time.
 

pinkgraffiti

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My favourite idea about evolution is that it can be seen in everyday life - everytime a baby is born with a slight mutation away from "the norm" you are seeing evolution. The existence precedes the essence - in this case a mutation is neither maldaptive nor advantageous at the point of origin it only becomes as such from the perspective of the environment it finds itself in. If the mutation allows you to breed surviving young then it is not maldaptive enough.

I myself am an atheist though as Southern Kross said there is nothing to say a creationist God did not choose to use evolution as its modus operandi.

evolution is just a bad word choice. it should be replaced with something like "adaptation". because evolution implies a progression towards something more perfect, and that's not the case of what happens. rather, what happens is that changes that support an adaptation to the environment are fixed in the population. this does not necessarily mean an increase in complexity or a progression towards something more perfect (as seen for example in the wrong images of the progression from ape to man)
 

Standuble

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evolution is just a bad word choice. it should be replaced with something like "adaptation". because evolution implies a progression towards something more perfect, and that's not the case of what happens. rather, what happens is that changes that support an adaptation to the environment are fixed in the population. this does not necessarily mean an increase in complexity or a progression towards something more perfect (as seen for example in the wrong images of the progression from ape to man)

Fascinating. Practically word to word you have articulated my long held thoughts on the subject. Good job!
 

Magic Poriferan

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evolution is just a bad word choice. it should be replaced with something like "adaptation". because evolution implies a progression towards something more perfect, and that's not the case of what happens. rather, what happens is that changes that support an adaptation to the environment are fixed in the population. this does not necessarily mean an increase in complexity or a progression towards something more perfect (as seen for example in the wrong images of the progression from ape to man)

I think the word is fine. I don't believe the world evolution inherently means progress toward something better, does it? And while evolution is mostly guided by adaptive pressures like natural selection, if you want to be technical it's not 100% adaptive.
 

pinkgraffiti

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I think the word is fine. I don't believe the world evolution inherently means progress toward something better, does it? And while evolution is mostly guided by adaptive pressures like natural selection, if you want to be technical it's not 100% adaptive.

ev·o·lu·tion
/ˌevəˈlo͞oSHən/
Noun
The process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the...
The gradual development of something, esp. from a simple to a more complex form.

Secondly, what do you mean it's not 100% adaptive?
 

Magic Poriferan

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ev·o·lu·tion
/ˌevəˈlo͞oSHən/
Noun
The process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the...
The gradual development of something, esp. from a simple to a more complex form.

Secondly, what do you mean it's not 100% adaptive?

There's actually still some debate over whether or not evolution ultimately trends toward complexity amongst biologists. I personally have doubts, but I can see the argument. What's important is that either way, complex is not the same as better.

And what I mean about adaption is that while adaptive pressure do the overwhelming amount of impact, evolution is also affected by things like genetic drift.
 

pinkgraffiti

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There's actually still some debate over whether or not evolution ultimately trends toward complexity amongst biologists. I personally have doubts, but I can see the argument. What's important is that either way, complex is not the same as better.

And what I mean about adaption is that while adaptive pressure do the overwhelming amount of impact, evolution is also affected by things like genetic drift.
[MENTION=1449]Magic Poriferan[/MENTION], my argument is precisely that evolution does not always mean increase in complexity, and that IMO I'd change the wording to something IMO more correct like adaptation.
Also, I'm an evolutionary biologist, so thank you but no need for links to genetic drift or notions on what the scientific community thinks about evolution lol :alttongue:
 
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