Evolution & Creation: Intro
Concerning the evolution-creation debate, most people either don’t care or their decision has already been made and in stone. Whatever the reason for that, it is not the case with me. For me it started as a small child interested in dinosaurs. Even then I was confused about how religion and science could fit and which one was right. Evolution made sense to me and, even with my faith, creation seemed like a fairy tale. My confusion compounded even further when I became a geology major and had to begin defending either my major or my faith. Meanwhile I watch the controversy it caused, especially in school where those who don’t understand evolution want it either out of school or at least have equal time with intelligent design and those who do understand want it to be the only thing taught. But this normally wouldn’t be a problem if not for the damage this could cause in general by each side alienating the other. The excessive bashing alienates science from anyone who doesn’t understand science and creates just that much more of a drift and hatred among those non-Christians towards creation. But as I’ve learned over the years, creation isn’t the fairy tale I always thought it was and all the controversy is not only unnecessary but quite foolish, which I will attempt to show.
Personally when I first looked into the debate, the hardest part for me was trying to get past the bashing and the opinions and down to the truth. For example, one is by Futuyma in Science on Trial when he says that the message of evolution seems to be that humans have no purpose or in a CBS Sunday Morning on Nov. 29, 1998 by Rita Braver where it was said that religion is nothing more than a warm and fuzzy way story that comforts us. Both of these are just opinions, but they have give people the impression that they must choose sides on a black-and-white issue. On the other hand, one of the most misleading statements concerning evolution is that it is just a theory. The common perception of a theory is nothing more than a guess, or some unproved statement. If this were true then evolution would have as much credibility as every other guess anyone in any field has come up with. The scientific view of a theory is much different. A good theory must be able to explain some fact, event, or observation with very few assumptions, make testable predictions, and have the possibility of being proven wrong. Plate tectonics is one example. In a nutshell, it predicts that there are floating plates that move around, their interactions causing earthquakes and creating features such as mountains, volcanoes, and rift valleys. The theory explains the creation and location of these features and can be disproved if, for example, it is found that the crust is immobile (like that on Venus) or that mountains and valleys aren’t found where the theory predicts.
Clarification on what a scientific theory is extremely important in my understanding not because I found that evolution fits the criteria, but that evolution does so better than any other theory found so far. That is why evolution is given an enormous amount of respect among the scientific community. It may not a proven fact, but it is much more then other theories. In my next entries I will talk further on why I believe everything that I have argued is true and how I believe creation fits into all this.
Comments
Posted by: Heidi Cool
Posted on: August 22, 2006 02:43 PM
Jason,
I look forword to seeing what else you have to say on this topic. If you've not already done so you may also wish to read Mano Singham's many related articles at http://blog.case.edu/mt/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=220&search=evolution.