Shades of Belief (or Not) in Evolution

[ghostofjk]

Not all choices will cover all nuances of belief. Do with it as you will.

Edit: Oops, left an obvious choice off the second one: have always believed in evolution. Ah, well. You can use "other" if you have the energy, then say so here.

[daniel]

Yep. Have always believed in evolution, ever since I was old enough to read science books and magazines and learned what the word meant. Since I came to the conclusion at the age of five that there is no such thing as a god, there has never been an alternative for me other than evolution.

[geologyrox]

I've 'always' believed in evolution - at least, from the time I can remember caring about life as a process, I supported evolution.

I don't, however, know that life evolved on Earth from non-living constituents. I lean towards it, I admit, because when you're given quite a lot of time, quite a lot of things become possible. I just wouldn't be surprised in the least to find that life here was seeded. I don't think there's enough definitive data to make the call, but the theories sure fascinate me!

[tomdeimos]

Always believed in Evolution as far back as I can remember and back to way before I ever heard of Darwin.

My beliefs regarding a God have changed drastically and I used to have some belief but what I see today proves beyond any doubt that either there is no God or God had nothing to do with creating people.

[Mystery Squid]

Personally, I really don't give a damn... Don't really care too much about a process that I won't see, hear, taste, or smell, but I suppose I "buy" the theory, but at the same time, I always leave 5% open to other theories no matter how ludicrous they might seem to us now, in the past, or in the future. In other words, if there's one thing I won't do, is make any firm exclusions of this or that...

[Schmika]

God created all that is stated in the Bible (KJV) , flooded the world saving certain items, got everything going again, and has not interfered since. other than that tower of babel thing and blessings and such

[galaxee]

evolutionary theory doesn't really address the origins of the first life or the creation of the universe. so i don't take that into account and can't vote on any of the options listed. plain and simple, the facts demonstrate evolution occurs.

i've pretty much 'believed' in evolution since i was able to understand the concept.

[fshagan]

I object to the phrasing of the question. Is anyone else uncomfortable with the question being phrased as a question of belief? I do not invest "belief" in evolution, as I save that energy for belief in God. I accept evolution as fact, as far as we know at this point, but subject to change as new evidence is discovered.

[daniel]

The Teaching Company has a lecture series called "The Origins of Life," which offers the latest ideas about how life may have arisen from non-living matter. "Primordial ooze" is out of favor these days. The latest and most cutting-edge ideas revolve around thin films on rocky or ceramic substrates under ground or under water (away from the harsh conditions at the Earth's surface.) No definitive answers yet, but progress is being made studying the processes that would have had to have taken place. The earliest life might have been a self-replicating two-dimensional film just a few microns thick. Of course, when the process is finally solved, it may very well be hard to define the exact point in the process where the term "life" should be applied. But the first self-replicating structure may pre-date the first encapsulated cell.

[ghostofjk]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(fshagan @ May 17 2006, 09:35 PM) [snapback]257333[/snapback]</div>

I object to the phrasing of the question. Is anyone else uncomfortable with the question being phrased as a question of belief? I do not invest "belief" in evolution, as I save that energy for belief in God. I accept evolution as fact, as far as we know at this point, but subject to change as new evidence is discovered.
[/b]

On a purely intellectual level, I understand the question you're raising. That's one reason why, in the choices, I used the word "accept". Yet in the popular discourse, "belief" seems to be the most common term with which the subject is couched, that is, as a point on the spectrum somewhere between "deny" and "know".

BTW, I visited fshagan's website, and I'm impressed. I even followed a couple of links from it, and got introduced to some rational political discussion, which I appreciated.

Thoughtful...