Science and Religion: What do you think of Evolution?

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Maybe it's worth to notice that you don't necessarily have to be EITHER creationist or evolutist. I'm creationist but find it ridiculous if someone would deny microevolution or state that the world is 6.000 years old *cough*

This is a view of some of the subcategories in the jungle of creationsim and evolutionism from www.talkorigins/faqs/wic.html
(I've removed some of the references to make it a bit shorter)

If I should categorize myself I would say I'm a "Day-Age-Creationist"...at least an "Old-Earth-Creationist".

Where would you put yourself...if possible?

Flat Earthers (did this really exist?! :eeklaugh:)

Flat Earthers believe that the earth is flat and is covered by a solid dome or firmament. Waters above the firmament were the source of Noah's flood. This belief is based on a literal reading of the Bible, such as references to the "four corners of the earth" and the "circle of the earth." Few people hold this extreme view, but some do.

Geocentrism (this also? :huh:)

Geocentrists accept a spherical earth but deny that the sun is the center of the solar system or that the earth moves. As with flat-earth views, the water of Noah's flood came from above a solid firmament. The basis for their belief is a literal reading of the Bible. "It is not an interpretation at all, it is what the words say." (Willis 2000) Both flat-earthers and geocentrists reflect the cosmological views of ancient Hebrews. Geocentrism is not common today, but one geocentrist (Tom Willis) was intrumental in revising the Kansas elementary school curriculum to remove references to evolution, earth history, and science methodology.

Young-Earth Creationism

Young Earth Creationists (YEC) claim a literal interpretation of the Bible as a basis for their beliefs. They believe that the earth is 6000 to 10,000 years old, that all life was created in six literal days, that death and decay came as a result of Adam & Eve's Fall, and that geology must be interpreted in terms of Noah's Flood. However, they accept a spherical earth and heliocentric solar system. Young-Earth Creationists popularized the modern movement of scientific creationism by taking the ideas of George McCready Price, a Seventh Day Adventist, and publishing them in The Genesis Flood (Whitcomb & Morris 1961). YEC is probably the most influential brand of creationism today.

Omphalos

The Omphalos argument, first expounded in a book of that name by Philip Henry Gosse (1857), argues that the universe was created young but with the appearance of age, indeed that an appearance of age is necessary. This position appears in some contemporary young earth creationist writing. For example, Whitcomb & Morris (1961, p. 232) argue that earth's original soils were created appearing old. The position is sometimes satirized by suggesting that the universe was created last week with only an appearance of older history.


Old Earth Creationism

Old-Earth Creationists accept the evidence for an ancient earth but still believe that life was specially created by God, and they still base their beliefs on the Bible. There are a few different ways of accomodating their religion with science.

Gap Creationism (also known as Restitution Creationism)

This view says that there was a long temporal gap between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2, with God recreating the world in 6 days after the gap. This allows both an ancient earth and a Biblical special creation.

Day-Age Creationism

Day-age creationists interpret each day of creation as a long period of time, even thousands or millions of years. They see a parallel between the order of events presented in Genesis 1 and the order accepted by mainstream science. Day-Age Creationism was more popular than Gap Creationism in the 19th and and early 20th centuries.

Progressive Creationism

Progressive Creationism is the most common Old-Earth Creationism view today. It accepts most of modern physical science, even viewing the Big Bang as evidence of the creative power of God, but rejects much of modern biology. Progressive Creationists generally believe that God created "kinds" of organisms sequentially, in the order seen in the fossil record, but say that the newer kinds are specially created, not genetically related to older kinds.

Intelligent Design Creationism

Intelligent Design Creationism descended from Paley's argument that God's design could be seen in life (Paley 1803). Modern IDC still makes appeals to the complexity of life and so varies little from the substance of Paley's argument, but the arguments have become far more technical, delving into microbiology and mathematical logic.

In large part, Intelligent Design Creationism is used today as an umbrella anti-evolution position under which creationists of all flavors may unite in an attack on scientific methodology in general (CRSC, 1999). A common tenet of IDC is that all beliefs about evolution equate to philosophical materialism.

Evolutionary Creationism

Evolutionary Creationism differs from Theistic Evolution only in its theology, not in its science. It says that God operates not in the gaps, but that nature has no existence independent of His will. It allows interpretations consistent with both a literal Genesis and objective science, allowing, for example, that the events of creation occurred, but not in time as we know it, and that Adam was not the first biological human but the first spiritually aware one.

Theistic Evolution

Theistic Evolution says that God creates through evolution. Theistic Evolutionists vary in beliefs about how much God intervenes in the process. It accepts most or all of modern science, but it invokes God for some things outside the realm of science, such as the creation of the human soul. This position is promoted by the Pope and taught at mainline Protestant seminaries.

Methodological Materialistic Evolution

Materialistic Evolution differs from Theistic Evolution in saying that God does not actively interfere with evolution. It is not necessarily atheistic, though; many Materialistic Evolutionists believe that God created evolution, for example. Materialistic evolution may be divided into methodological and philosophical materialism. Methodological materialism limits itself to describing the natural world with natural causes; it says nothing at all about the supernatural, neither affirming nor denying its existence or its role in life.

Philosophical Materialistic Evolution

Philosophical materialism says that the supernatural does not exist. It says that not only is evolution a natural process, but so is everything else.
 
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Thanks for the list. I would certainly fall under "Theistic Evolutionist."

Melon
 
:huh: im not sure if I'm any of those. I don't believe the universe has a beginning OR an end. It's like a circle. It's just that we are so used to having EVERYTHING in life have a start and finish that this is hard to grasp. When people argue over creation vs evolution and the question "But where did it all come from?" or "Who/what caused it to happen?" I say "Who says there had to be a start at all?"
I hope that made sense.
 
RavenStar said:
"Who says there had to be a start at all?"
I hope that made sense.


:scratch:

We do have an origin of some sort I'm pretty confident :yes: ... I didn't realize there were so many degrees of the creation/evolution viewpoint. I guess that goes to show you that, truly, nobody can know 100%. This thread has helped me to shed light on some of the other viewpoints out there so thanks everyone for the discussion.
 
RavenStar said:
:huh: im not sure if I'm any of those. I don't believe the universe has a beginning OR an end. It's like a circle. It's just that we are so used to having EVERYTHING in life have a start and finish that this is hard to grasp. When people argue over creation vs evolution and the question "But where did it all come from?" or "Who/what caused it to happen?" I say "Who says there had to be a start at all?"
I hope that made sense.


Yes, it does.

It's just so hard to get my mind around this concept. I understand what you're saying, but the logical side of me NEEDS a start point. How can something just exist, just...be? If we all are born, die...if everything in this world has a point of origin, then I think it would correspond with history in that the earth, the universe, needs a start place.

But what was there before all that? Nothing?

....try going to a catholic high school and asking these questions. Whoa.
 
I think it's hard to understand cos we're so used to having a beginnig to everything. I find the more i think of stuff like this I always come to the same conclusion: "Why?" Why does there have to be a beginning? So thats what I ask instead of "What happened?" Why, not what.
 
RavenStar said:
I think it's hard to understand cos we're so used to having a beginnig to everything. I find the more i think of stuff like this I always come to the same conclusion: "Why?" Why does there have to be a beginning? So thats what I ask instead of "What happened?" Why, not what.

This, of course, depends on what you are referring to. There is no beginning to God. There is a beginning to His creation.
 
Because we can?t imagine that. The universe is something we can "see" (apart from being a part of it etc.), and in our dimensional limited perception - we only got four dimensions! - nothing can exist without a start and an end.

God is multidimensional, as we all know. He is present in every tree, in every second, in every other dimension :wink:
 
If anyone else knows better, feel free to correct me cuz it's been a while since I had math or physics, but lets see if I can spit this out using examples:

A line or a curve would fall into the 1st dimension.

A plane or surface would be 2-dimensional.

Space is 3-D.

Time is the 4th dimension.


Dunno if that helps or not - can anyone elaborate?
 
bonosloveslave said:
If anyone else knows better, feel free to correct me cuz it's been a while since I had math or physics, but lets see if I can spit this out using examples:

A line or a curve would fall into the 1st dimension.

A plane or surface would be 2-dimensional.

Space is 3-D.

Time is the 4th dimension.


Dunno if that helps or not - can anyone elaborate?

You got it! Height length width time
 
nbcrusader said:


We have only four dimensions that we can measure. The Fifth Dimension was a music group. If you have any insight on dimensions 6 and above, please share.

Hi Crusader,

How about 10 dimensions.

I am fascinated by
A THEORY OF EVERYTHING

Some say it could be God's blueprint.

here is a link
the author
 
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I see the 4th dimension (time) as never ending. That leads into the 5th dimension which is like a sphere. It has no lines so it cant have the first or second dimension so that would put it in the third dimension right? But in order for something to be in the third dimension it would have to have the first and second dimensions, right? But that ywould mean that a sphere would only exist in the third and fourth dimension. But if it wasnt composed of first and second dimension where did it come from? Hence the fifth dimension. A sphere. Like our universe.
 
There are a number of theories about what dimensions 5+ look like. One that was intriguing I recall was the shadow theory.

A two dimensional line can cast a one dimensional shadow (a point.)

A three dimensional cube can cast a two dimensional shadow (a square).

A four dimensional (???) can cast a three dimensional shadow.
 
Thats would mean the the fifth dimension (universe)would cast a four dimensional shadow (time)
So the universe has the shadow of time.
 
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