Is Evolution a Radical Idea?

Schraf says the explanations of science 'don't seem to bother the Buddhists.'That's right. They don't.And Taoism traditionally holds scholarship in high regard.
Respect for science falls right in.

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ArcherAll species are transitional.

What one makes no effort to understand can often seem vague.

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ArcherAll species are transitional.

Where did you get the idea the theory of evolution explains 'the way nature works as a whole'? The theory addresses changes in living things--on this planet--over time. Many other theories exist in science that you neglected to mention: plate tectonics, Hubble's theory of the expanding universe, and Einstein's theory of relativity, just to name a few. None purport to explain 'the way nature works as a whole.'Anyway, you're talking about a scientific theory, not a manifesto. Where do you get a silly term like evolutionism? Scientists don't talk about 'evolutionism' any more than they talk about 'tectonicism' or 'expansionism' or 'relativism.' They talk about the theory of evolution.'Evolutionism' isn't a term you got from a science book. It looks like a word someone would pick up in Sunday School._Edited by Archer Opterix, : HTML.Edited by Archer Opterix, : HTML.

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ArcherAll species are transitional.

You mean fields like these?Tectonics = Origins of earthquakes, volcanism, tsunamis, continents, oceans.Astronomy = Origins of solar systems, stars, planets.Relativity = Origins of nuclear energy, stars.Medicine = Origins of diseases, treatments, cures.Genetics = Origin of inherited biological traits.Biogenesis = Origin of life.Expanding Universe = Origin of just about everything.
(Run it backwards for 'Big Bang' theory.)_Edited by Archer Opterix, : HTML.

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ArcherAll species are transitional.

robinrohan: Sounds like you mean science.Science with a capital S, perhaps (Also sprach Zarathustra), but science.
The paradigm, the process, the body of knowledge.

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ArcherAll species are transitional.

Faith saith: Only that and the man-made theory of plate tectonics, and the man-made theory of the expanding universe, and the man-made theory of the speed of light, and the man-made theory of genetics, and the man-made theory of geology, and the man-made theory of archaeology, and the man-made theory of solar system formation, and the man-made theory of neurology, and the man-made theory of star formation, and the man-made theory of germs as a cause of illness...

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ArcherAll species are transitional.

In the last generation YEC has eroded faster than a sand castle. No creationists in the 1980s spoke of 'speciation events' or conceded evolution of microorganisms and insects. They denied anyone could observe evolution in any form.YEC has done some fast backpedaling in the years since.You admit a good bit of evolution in your own scenarios. Sometimes you even require more of it to happen far faster than scientists have ever imagined--as when you need animals to hyperevolve into multiple forms after the Flood even as they lose their genetic potential to do so.It's obvious the idea of evolution does not really strike you as 'fantastic' at all. You invoke it for your own purposes anytime you need it. You only say it is 'fantastic' because your religious teachers have taught you this theory represents some special kind of bugaboo you have a moral duty to oppose. It does contradict a naive interpretation of it, yes. Much of the practice of medicine is based on evolution. You bet. For YEC 'great ages' represent a far bigger problem than the theory of evolution. It is the evident age of the earth and the universe, not the theory of evolution, that keeps YEC believers busiest inventing far-fetched scenarios. Medicine and the theory of evolution are intricately linked. Only ignorance allows so many YEC believers to cast evolutionary science as evil and take their prescribed antibiotics at the same time. Archaeology knows of entire civilizations that came and went before YEC admits a planet existed for them to live on.If you can think this is 'not a problem' for YEC the difference can only be one of scale. YEC has big problems indeed. The primitive brain and fight-or-flight mechanism corresponds to the physiology of many creatures outside our species. It is studied that way. Contradicts the biblical teaching that disease is caused by demons. Effects cures by attacking germs while making no effort at all to deal with demons. Genetics dispelled for good the creationist premise that species existed in unique genetic boxes that did not change or overlap. It showed how all organisms are related to each other, more closely or more distantly as predicted by the theory.Nowhere is this more plain than in the relationship of humans to animals. YEC believers said humans were utterly distinct. The theory of evolution said that Homo sapiens was related to all organisms and most closely related to apes.Which idea won the genetic sweepstakes?Evolution. You are 96% chimpanzee. So where do YEC believers put Pangea, the Tethys Sea, and Gondwanaland on their personal maps? Aside from that one little problem, Mrs Lincoln, how did you like the play? _Edited by Archer Opterix, : HTML.Edited by Archer Opterix, : HTML.Edited by Archer Opterix, : Typo repair.

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ArcherAll species are transitional.