Shades of Belief (or Not) in Evolution

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.

 

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!

 

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.

 

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... h34r:

 

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

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

i put "believe" in quotes for that exact reason.

it's not a leap-of-faith thing.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee @ May 19 2006, 06:00 PM) [snapback]258279[/snapback]</div>

Agree- "belief" is more a question of semantics here, I think. I have accepted evolutionary theory as factual ever since I learned it in school, and have never had any reason to question it. On some of the particulars, I think we are still answering questions, but that is the beauty of science; there is always more to learn.
Evolution of course does not explain the "why"; but none of the "whys" that I have ever heard, certainly those that have been expounded in other threads in this forum, have ever been credible to me. "Why" is an unsolved question; maybe there is no "why."

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee @ May 19 2006, 03:00 PM) [snapback]258279[/snapback]</div>

I'm probably ... as one of my high school teachers once told me ... "over thinking" the issue. I always thought it funny that a teacher would tell a student to stop thinking, but there you have it.

So its not intended as a criticism, really, just an observation that I'm uncomfortable with it.