I’ve been posting on several discussion forums for a couple of years now, some of them have to do with atheism and non-belief, some are just regular hobby related forums (basketball, PC gaming, etc.). Every once in a while some believer will come barging in to the threads and start preaching their religion. As many of you would already know, any mention of atheism leads believers to talk about the Theory of Evolution.
One of my pet peeves is how Creationists claim that Evolution is not scientific; that it is somehow “evil” and that it goes against Christian teachings. In fact, they go about spreading lies and misinformation about it to such a degree that most people don’t understand what evolution really is anymore. It’s a sad fact that less than half of Americans accept the fact of Evolution. Interestingly, according to this survey, a little over 60% of Pinoys accept evolution as fact. Perhaps it’s because Catholicism does not deny it. However, this may change soon as many American missionaries are more aggressively bringing their Fundamentalist brand of Christianity to our shores.
Here are some of the most common misconceptions being spread about Evolution:
Myth #1: Evolution teaches us that our ancestors were chimps! If you believe in Evolution, you believe your great great grandparents were chimps!
Answer: Wrong. We evolved from the same distant ancestor as chimps, not chimps directly. And in the broadest sense, we are related to chimps (We share more than 95% of our DNA with them). Monkeys are “cousins” of the Human species. But does that mean that WE are chimps ourselves? Of course not. We are human, our parents and grandparents are human, and so on and so forth for thousands of years back.
Myth #2: Evolution is EVIL-ution! Evolution preaches “survival of the fittest”, therefore it’s every man for himself!
Answer: Wrong. Evolution is a scientific theory. It explains how living things adapt to their environment. It does not make claims about morality, nor does it tell us what we should do with our lives. It explains how things are, not what it should be. Claiming that Evolution is wrong because it “teaches us to kill or be killed” is akin to saying that Gravity is wrong because it causes people to get hurt or killed from falling.
Myth #3: Evolution is “just a theory”.
Answer: In scientific terms, a “Theory” is not the same as the layman’s meaning of theory. What this myth is trying to say is that Evolution is just a” Hypothesis”. A Hypothesis is akin to an educated guess. For a Hypothesis to be promoted to a Scientific Theory, it must pass stringent scientific scrutiny, and must be well supported by evidence. Evolution has a mountainload of evidence supporting it, from across several scientific fields (Geology, Biology, Chemistry, Paleontology, etc). All it takes to destroy the Theory of Evolution is one single solid piece of evidence that goes against it. In the more than 150 years since Charles Darwin first published his book “Origin of Species”, none have come up.
Myth #4: Students are entitled to learn Creation as an alternative theory to Evolution. We must teach the controversy!
Answer: The first thing we must address here is that there is NO controversy (at least in the scientific world). Some scientists may disagree on some details, but there is no denying that Evolution is overwhelmingly accepted by the scientific community. 99.9% of scientists accept it as fact. Besides, if that is the stance they want to take, then we should teach other creation myths from other religions too. I’m willing to bet these Christian Fundamentalists will NOT allow that.
Secondly, Creation does NOT belong in the Science Class, simply because it is NOT science. Creationists are free to teach Creation in Religion Class where it belongs. It is an oft repeated lie that prayer is banned in public schools in the U.S. Students can pray all they want. What’s not allowed is school-sponsored prayer.
Myth #5: Evolution cannot explain how life began, therefore God must have done it!
Answer: Firstly, Evolution does not deal with how life began. That’s like blaming the washing machine for not keeping the lawn trimmed. Secondly, scientists already have a rough idea of how Abiogenesis occurred (nothing final and concrete, admittedly). Thirdly, just because we don’t know yet, doesn’t mean we will never know. And lastly, just because we don’t know how, doesn’t mean God did it. It only means we don’t know yet.
Myth #6: You cannot prove to me that God did not create us. Show me the proof!
Answer: It is almost impossible to prove a negative. As an exercise, please prove to me that fairies/Santa Claus/invisible magic dragons do not exist. You can’t, can you? Also, the burden of proof rests upon the claimant. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Creationists are the ones making the extraordinary claim, therefore, they must be the ones to provide solid proof. So far they have shown ZERO evidence.
And finally,
Myth #7: Evolution is the Atheist’s Religion!
Firstly, atheists HAVE NO RELIGION, that’s why we’re called atheists.
Secondly, just because you accept the fact of evolution doesn’t mean you’re an atheist. Plenty of believers have no trouble reconciling their beliefs with the fact of Evolution. Take Kenneth Miller and Francis Collins as examples of devoutly religious people who accept evolution. Evolution does NOT invalidate belief in a god in general. It only refutes the literal interpretation of Genesis in the Bible (or of any creation story of any religion).
[…] Evolution: The Atheist’s Religion?!? […]
This article is pointlessly IGNORANT.
It is most MISLEADING.
It is meaningless BAHALANA.
Evolutionary "evidence" has more holes in it than coral.
Hello, I haven't been intentionally ignoring you. I've just been busy with life. I want to post thoughts, pictures, and happenings. I just can't seem to find the time. Three children + summer + travel + friends + photography = no extra time. manythanks
I have a feeling this article has something to do with a particular thread on a particular computer-related forum. It even almost copies the thread name.
Of course I could be wrong…
spam?
No, not really. Sorry if it came across like that. Naintriga lang kasi ako dun sa title ng post.
Overall, maganda yung article. Parang may kulang though: the tendency of the theists to conflate "Evolution" with a lot of other scientific fields of study like cosmology (universe origins theories), geology, and abiogenesis.
Oops, forgive me, Magicalcrap. Your previous post sounded too general it can be applied as a comment to every other article. Sorry. 🙂
TPC'er ka ba? Yes, it's one of the forums that is referred to at the beginning of my article. But it's hardly the only one, and the title is hardly original. Lots of creationists have been harping that line for a long time.
damn, this is endless!
so good to be an atheist, please stop mocking our heads with bible lines.
atheism is a freedom of thought, we respect your religion either be pro-God or anti-God
let the tree grow by itself.
so shame that there are also some atheist who loves to argue endlessly with other God believer.
pride causes trouble guys!!
Pride causes one to think hard, especially after a humiliating beating. Pride is not rare among freethinkers. Pride makes interesting discussions, and as long as the "discussions, even when heated, never get sour, and motives are not questioned", I think pride is a good thing. 🙂
dude, seriously, you gotta pile up more on your philosophical readings, to view religion as unaccepting and/or dichotomously opposed to science's notion of evolution is big sign of ignorance.i'll try to enlighten you then
check these people up on wikipedia ayt? =)
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ
Sri Aurobindo
Alfred North Whitehead
Charles Harsthorne
Bernard Lonergan, SJ
Ken Wilber
all these, evolutionists and integralists, in different aspects one is atheist, two are Jesuit process theologians,one is a paleontologist-cum-priest, another is a mathematician-philosopher,one is Hindu and the other is Gestalt psychologist-cum-Buddhist.
much respect though, well written article here, but missing on some info. =)
Thanks for the comments. However, I never said religion in general was unaccepting of science. I was specifically talking of Creationism. Please read my article one more time. If you noticed, I mentioned that Catholicism was not opposed to Evolution, and I gave two examples of two people who were devout religionists yet accepted evolution as fact. I even mentioned that acceptance of the ToE does not invalidate belief in a god.
May I ask, what info you claim is missing?
im sorry, mea culpa, i did not mean to imply that religion in general IS unaccepting of science, i only meant to say that there have been and there are movements in contemporary theology(not specifically Christian/Catholic) that are fusing Evolution with spirituality.The info i'm saying is about your Myth # 7. I find it quite uncritical enough to suppose that religion relies on evidence in the same way that science does.Religion's method is spirituality and intuition not empirical observation, as opposed to science which is why there tends to be a misconception of religion as dichotomously opposed to science. 🙂
ayt? ^_^
1. I never said anything about religion relying on evidence like science does. I think it's quite obvious that they don't.
2. Fusing of Evolutionary Theory with spirituality, while I do find it ridiculous, was never part of my topic.
3. Myth #7 deals with claims made by some religious people saying that Evolution was our religion. Can you tell me specifically what info is missing?
*ouch* info-overload
perhaps it would be a great service to the non-philo people out there (like me) if you could narrow down the list of people we have to wiki up. tell us which one strikes you as having the most promising and rational viewpoint in terms of integrating the two opposing sides so we can read up on his work
sorry =)
okay start up with Pierre Teilhard de Chardin then.just read the generalization of his principles, it's a philosophical fusion of creationism and evolution 🙂
basta ako hindi naniniwala sa evolution…
sabi nga ni Eli Soriano,,,
EVOLUTION IS A SCIENTIFIC LIE!!
"Paano ka maniniwala na galing sa unggoy ang tao eh may mga taong mukhang kabayo??"
how can you, intelligent godless, not believe in such profound and divinely inspired logic??
Kakasabi lang na di tayo galing sa unggoy. Hirit kaagad ang ignoramus na di nagbabasa. Kung ba ok lang sayo na galing ka sa putik anong magagawa ng ibang tao.
[wes says: “Let me try being a gravity-atheist, or is it called a gravity-denier? a gravity-skeptic?”]
There are lot’s of Christian gravity-theory freaks on this planet especially (of course) in the US of A.
The Christian gravity-theory goes like this : gravity is caused by human sin, many sinful humans are inhabitant planet earth, therefore strong gravity here, on the moon only few sinful human astronauts were jumping around – ergo much smaller gravity. Other planets like Jupiter – no or very small gravity.
Learned this on RD.Net, someone posted links to this Christian forums, where this is discussed beside beating and locking their children in the cabinet to recite the memorized Bible verses, and parenting tips of how to beat up their children if they do not learn the Bible fast enough e.g. use a belt versus a stick. Really nauseating this Christian fundies – and needless to say of course they always claim the high moral ground and are bashing the immoral godless atheist.
Interesting. There must be a crapload of humans in black holes then…
There must be a huge population in the Sun too. And Venus. Oh and this must mean that humans have visited Mars!
[There must be a crapload of humans in black holes then…
There must be a huge population in the Sun too. And Venus. Oh and this must mean that humans have visited Mars!]
Stop it.
You're reminding me that Warhammer 40k isn't real! T_T
As for humans in black holes… http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Chaos_Space_Marin…
Those heretical Chaos Space Marines!
I will purge them in the name of the God-Emperor!
Oh please, you guys can't even find Abaddon the Despoiler 😛
brilliant! angels are able to fly in heaven because of the absence of sin, and thus gravity! then hell is down below because gravity pulls all the evil souls downwards! this is what you get from fundie-homeschooling.
that's what happens when you try to mix science with religion… you get weird shit like Deepak Chopra and his quantum enlightenment too 😀
This article is just a waste of my time. Just a boring rehash of what's available to the religious atheists. Nothing new here, moving on. If evolution is true, where's your proof? Hanggang ngayon nasaan yung missing link? Nasa FF forum?
Errr. Why blame the article for wasting your time? You are the one who read it.
Proof for evolution? Why ask us? Ask and argue with a biologist.
Wow! Nag ta-tagalog ka pala!
Madami na pong nadiskubreng missing link. Ang sagot lang po dyan e mag research po kayu at magbasa ng mga tunay na scientific journals/books.
Etow poh pumunta pow kayow ditow. At magbasa. http://talkorigins.org/
haha very funny! at least you can give me a "link" but that doesn't cut it. where's the REAL missing link?
He's not worth it dude.
i agree. he's not worth it, dude.
*facepalm*
@innerminds
My bad – I shoulda designated who I was talking to.
@Michael
He's not worth it, dude. Dr. Dino's truly either a fan Kent Hovind, or just some bored, immature pinoy looking for a fight.
The smattering of Tagalog and terrible grammar he used earlier hints that it's most probably the latter.
Either way, like I said, he's not worth it.
Aren't you supposed to be in jail?
http://www.religionnewsblog.com/17231/dr-dino-sen…
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/03/kent_h…
simple ad hominem. nothing here, moving on.
So says the scam artists 😛
I call Poe's Law on this one…
duh! look at swine-flu or bird-flu… it *EVOLVED* from being able to infect only animals to being able to feed on humans as well.
bacteria and viruses are a good way to see evolution in action because they breed so fast. If you want to see people evolve right before your eyes, then people would only have a lifespan of a day or two, like mayflies.
so are you saying that by jumping from swine to humans, meron nang evolution? do you know what you are talking about?
Not "jumping" per se but acquiring/developing the capacity to 'infect' other species as well and turn them into hosts. It seems you are the one who does not know what you are talking about. 😉
@Dr Dino: Am I right to presume that you are a creationist?
His nick "Dr Dino" is a reference to Mr. Kent Hovind, who is definitely a Creationist. He's in jail BTW for tax fraud.
I'd like to try defying gravity 🙂 Let me try being a gravity-atheist, or is it called a gravity-denier? a gravity-skeptic?
Gravity I don't believe in youuuuuuuuuu….. *blag*
But my son, gravity believes in you even though you don't believe in him…
I would agree with you on the likely error in the survey. But at least most respondents didn't say "they didn't believe in evolution". This would point to the fact that Catholicism doesn't really say much against it. I would think they thought of evolution as guided by god or something.
Great post, Harmless! 🙂
//Interestingly, according to this survey, a little over 60% of Pinoys accept evolution as fact.//
I think this survey is inaccurate and does not reflect the answers of the masses which comprise the majority of the Filipinos. Moreover, I think most of the Filipino respondents, when asked if they accept evolution as fact, said yes but what they actually had in mind was Intelligent Design.
Interestingly too, 99% of Pinoys believe in pasma.
@Harmless, I think you need to fix the picture cause it doesn't show on that slide thing on top of the home page. I think you need to upload the image from your hard drive instead of just pasting the link (Note: the last picture you add will be the one posted on that slide thing).
Hmm… I was wondering why no picture was coming out. I tried your solution but it doesn't work either.
Which picture would you like to appear on the slide thing?
The first one. 🙂
My bad… My apologies to the godless religions… 🙂
You know what on second thought, no apologies to the godless religions. Because if you had a religion, you wouldn't really call yourself an atheist would you? A Buddhist would call him/herself a Buddhist, not an atheist. So my point still stands. 😀
the resident atheist-buddhist begs to differ 🙂
I use the term interchangeably, depending on the people I'm with.
It's like being both Filipino and Chinese, you can be both if you don't go all ultra-leftist or rightist.
I don't think you're the typical Buddhist… 🙂
Anyway, there will be exceptions, but I was speaking generally.
"atheists HAVE NO GOD, that’s why we’re called atheists."
Fixed that for ya. You can have a religion while not subscribing to the idea of god.
So what's the religion for? If you're not "subscribing" in your religion's ALL MIGHTY DEITY?? It's like saying that your eating food in your thoughts.
“atheists HAVE NO GOD, that’s why we’re called atheists.”
This doesn't make sense..
^^^
LOL. Why not? It's just as valid and makes as much sense as the Genesis account. 😀
what do the other 40% believe in? Si Malakas at si Maganda? 😀
Mas gusto ko ang kwento ni Malakas at Maganda, kasi po kung babasahin nyo lang yan, mapapansin nyo po na hindi ginawa ng isang diyos o mga diyos si Malakas at si Maganda.
naku mahirap na yan… pano pag naging sagrado ang kawayan kasi yan ang pinagmulan ng tao? e di bawal na ito putulin…
magugutom ang mga panda, wala nang panggawa ng bahay-kubo, di na makakaluto ng puto-bumbong…