The Truth About Evolution and Religion

It's too ill-defined to mention. Psychology is in fact a science. This is technically true --- the theory of evolution explains that. Anyone who says that "natural selection" explains that is using "natural selection" as a sort of shorthand for "the theory of evolution". (Or possibly they're actually mistaken.) Or from believing in biology. That's the trouble with fundies, they want to make it into a choice between the two.Edited by Dr Adequate, : No reason given.

How about if someone wanted to answer "yes"? Or "no"? Or: "that depends on the animal"?

A curious idea which you have not tried to justify.

If you understand that biology only studies non-metaphysical things, then you understand that you do not need to understand metaphysical things in order to understand biology.

Yes there is. That's how we know that we dream when we sleep.

This raises a few questions.You propose this thing called the soul to solve what we might call the Problem Of Continuity.But it only does so if the soul always stays the same. Otherwise, the question: why would we call it the same soul? is just as relevant as question as why, despite the many changes I have undergone since my birth, we maintain that I am still the same person, and my body is still the same body. This concept of the "soul" only starts to solve the Problem Of Continuity if my soul always has exactly the same qualities. For it to solve the Problem Of Continuity my soul must have exactly the same qualities as it did when I was a babe unborn.But this view of the soul as a permanent peg on which I hang my temporary spiritual qualities seems to be in sharp distinction from the view that religion takes of my soul.So it seems at least that your use of the word "soul" must be highly idiosyncratic (or inconsistent).Would you care to comment on this?Thanks.

I should say that that is a distinction without a difference.

Well, no wonder they ignored you. We can try to put you straight about any delusions you may have about biology, but who else has to pretend to take you seriously?

No, they don't. They mentioned "the inestimable back-and-forth of random genetic mutation with small effects".C'mon, try a little harder.I am certain that in a world of six billion people there must be at least one person who believes in evolution without believing in the theory of evolution.You, for reasons that only you know, think that you would score some sort of a point if you could produce such a person.You have so far failed to do so.But if you ever prove me right, let me know. Then I'll explain to you why proving me right doesn't prove me wrong.Sheesh.

No. I know for a fact that there are lots of people who don't understand the theory of evolution. I've met lots of people who don't understand the theory of evolution.So it is quite possible that there is at least one person in the world who misunderstands the theory of evolution in the specific way you're talking about. Let's call him "John Doe", since we haven't identified any specific person who misunderstands the theory of evolution in the precise manner that you're talking about.So, let me stipulate that the existence of John Doe, though unproven, is at least probable.Where do we go from here? What's your point?

And this is what the scientific community says en masse. If you think differently, this would be a good time to produce some evidence for your point of view. Could you please quote the next paragraph of this essay?Edited by Dr Adequate, : No reason given.

Since I always try to think the best of everyone, I have so far interpreted your posts as charitably as possible; and the confusion and obscurity of your language has given me ample leeway to do so.Nonetheless, I think that the nature of your delusion is becoming clear. You are trying to pretend --- are you not? --- that scientists don't believe in the theory of evolution.If that is the ridiculous falsehood that you are trying to communicate, please man up and come right out and say it.Then we'll prove that you are wrong and laugh at you. Try to look on this as a learning experience.

Oh, splendid. And as they are evolutionists, and you accept them as the final arbiters, doubtless you are now a staunch evolutionist. No, he didn't.Please try to get into your head that the law of natural selection and the theory of evolution are two different things. The latter incorporates the former but is not identical with it. And? I could quote a zillion paragraphs from creationist halfwits that don't mention complexity. This does not prove that they think that their beliefs don't explain complexity, it just means that they don't mention complexity in every paragraph they ever write.Here's another quote from Dawkins: And here's another: Are you really going to try to pretend, on the basis of one single paragraph in which Dawkins doesn't mention complexity, that Richard Dawkins doesn't believe in common ancestry? Only if you are I'm going to have to think up some physiological response which goes beyond rolling about on the floor laughing.Edited by Dr Adequate, : No reason given.

Oh, good grief, you're another creationist talking nonsense about thermodynamics. That is so nineties.You've never studied thermodynamics, have you? You don't know the first thing about it, do you?And yet you are willing to stand up in public and talk nonsense about it.Does the phrase THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS mean anything to you?

Of course we know that evolution does not contradict the second law of thermodynamics. You'd have to be a disgusting insane idiot or a creationist to pretend that it does. The reason that you know nothing whatsoever about thermodynamics is that you have never studied it.And the strange thing, the thing I can never figure out about you people, is this. You must know that you have never studied thermodynamics. You must know, as a fact, that you have never studied thermodynamics and you know fuck-all about it.And yet you put yourself up on a pedestal and lecture us about the subject when you have never been bothered to learn the first darn thing about it.