Monday, March 8, 2010
Written in the Rocks
Even with all this proof and fossil evidence about evolution, creationists still adhere to their religious beliefs about the origin of life on Earth. What is it that keeps them so constant with their views? What holes are there in the evolutionary theory that allow them to do so?
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Alex,
ReplyDeleteyou pose an interesting question. When it comes to creationism vs. evolution, on one side of the argument lies science and the scientific method, and on the other lies faith. These people don't remain constant with their views because they still believe that evolution has holes, they remain constant because evolution represents an idea that can bring their entire system of belief crashing down. The advantage of being in a religion such as Christianity is that it gives you all the answers. Not necessarily the correct ones, for the real answers to the biggest questions will probably never be known, but it gives us answers that our puny brains can make sense of and hold onto. These make us stable in life, and give us purpose. Evolution paints a picture of humanity as just another species that mutated to have incredible amounts of brain power. Now that we have this brain power, the next question is: why? Evolution does not have the answer for this. It tells us how, and when, but not why. Creationism allows us to continue to adhere to our belief that we were created by a supreme being, and are meant to live moral lives during our time on Earth to please this creator. Although evolution and the belief in god are mixable, most prefer one or the other. And a belief in strictly evolution begs the question: if we are simply animals, why oh why do we have to behave? Animals are filled with the violence that it takes to survive and reproduce, and it is true that humans are simply another species of animals capable of this violence. So it is not exactly the holes that creationists are pointing out, it is the faith that they are trying to hold onto, while mountains of evidence of evolution pours in, much to their chagrin.
Hey guys! Brady, nice response but I view this question a little differently.
ReplyDeleteLike you, Brady, I believe that the creationists are afraid to let go of creationism and jump onto the evolution bandwagon because of faith and religion. They so strongly believe in their religions and in their God that they believe that the scientific findings must be flawed.
Perhaps the most valid of their reasons of disbelief in evolution is that there hasn’t been enough data and information collected yet, especially with the fossil record. This is not the scientist fault however, as it is very difficult to uncover fossils. Coyne said on page 22 that “we have fossil evidence of only 0.1 percent to 1 percent of all species – hardly a good sample of the history of life!” (22) The total number of species that have ever lived on planet earth “has been estimated to range between 17 million… and 4 billion” (22). It is because of this lack of fossil evidence and information about most of the species who have ever lived that scientists are unable to make 100% completely accurate links between species.
Much of the problem that creationists see in evolution lies in their mindset. For example in 2004 Coyne’s colleague discovered the Tiktaalik roseae (35). This revolutionary breakthrough is believed to be the transitional form between fish and amphibians. Such a finding would most certainly persuade creationists to believe in evolution. Wrong! Now the creationists will/did say, “Okay, you found the link between fish and amphibians. Now find the link between fish and Tiktaalik and between Tiktaalik and amphibians.” Therefore, it’ll be very difficult to convince creationists to believe in evolution as they will always ask for more conclusive evidence. Because of the estimated 4 billion species to ever live on the planet and because we have found about 0.1 to 1 percent of all species (as said earlier in this response), it’ll be nearly impossible to find ALL of the links between species necessary to change creationists minds.