Thursday, July 24, 2008

Why Do People Believe in Evolution?

You may think we must have grossly overstated the case against evolution. Surely the theory can’t possibly be as unscientific and unreasonable as we have made it out to be. Isn’t it presumptuous for us laypeople to challenge the opinions of these influential experts? History shows us that prevailing opinion is often at odds with the truth. Prevailing opinion can be wrong regardless of how widely accepted it is. By supporting evolution and shutting out the voices of rational alternatives, scientists may save face with their peers and keep their reputations intact today. But when the theory collapses in the future, as it almost certainly will, history will lump evolutionists with those who believed in a flat earth, alchemy and bloodletting.

How did evolution become the prevailing theory of origins in our most influential institutions? It gained respectability when it caught the imagination of influential thinkers who found in it an intellectual prop for atheism. Evolution became the thing to believe for those who wanted to be known as daring and independent thinkers. Since new and daring ideas are newsworthy, the evolutionists with their new theory became the darlings of the media. When evolution became the politically correct thing to believe among the fashionable and educated, much of the general public began to fall in step without examining the basic rationality of the theory. It was enough for them that the right people already believed.

Science has accomplished so much in our time that many have come to think it can do almost anything. Therefore, when scientists promote a theory that seems to make the traditional God of Christianity unnecessary, many people do not feel a great loss. They don’t feel a need for a god as long as they have science to look after them.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

People accept the idea that all life evolved for the same reason they accept the idea that the earth circles the sun. The evidence for both these ideas is extremely powerful. Biological evolution has massive evidence from many branches of science, and this evidence has been accumulating for 150 years. Newer evidence from molecular biology and genetics have enabled biologists to determine evolutionary relationships with 100% accuracy. For example the idea that people and chimps share an ancestor has been proven many times. Virtually every biologist in the world agrees all life is related, and all creatures living today, including the human ape species, developed from other animals.

When evolution became the politically correct thing to believe among the fashionable and educated, much of the general public began to fall in step without examining the basic rationality of the theory.

Evolution is not any more politically correct than gravity. It's how the world works. It's a fact.

I didn't decide to accept the facts of evolution just because virtually all biologists accept it. I've been studying the evidence for it for several years. I have been surprised how powerful the evidence is. Biologists again and again make predictions about what must be in the DNA of creatures if evolution is true. Always their predictions are correct.

The evolution deniers don't have any idea how much evidence they have to deny. I noticed they don't seem too interested in educating themselves. It's too bad. They don't know what they're missing. The history of life as explained by evolutionary biology is extremely interesting.

This is a quote from a biologist that evolution deniers should read.

My point here is that there is an incredible amount of evidence for evolution, far more than any one person can digest, and that it is a vital field, still growing and still producing new results. All those papers don't get published unless they contain some new observation, a new experiment, a new test of the idea…and evolution has weathered them all.

Anonymous said...

Thank Josh for your stand i belive that what you are saying must be said, because there is so much compromise toady a voice like your is refreshing...R.T