The Root of all Evil : The God Delusion
POSTED BY: Calhoun
UPDATED: Thursday, December 17, 2015 06:12
VIEWED: 49488
PAGE 8 of 32
Quote:
Originally posted by Causal:
What if I think random chance is totally implausible?
If it were based on random chance then evolution would be implausible, thankfully, it's not based on random chance so thats not an issue.
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Quote:
Originally posted by kaneman:
"It was quoted that surveys show around 45% of all americans believe the universe to be only 10,000 yrs old.."
I have a hard time believing that number, surely this can't be true. I know so many people and none of them would agree with that. That question must have been posed in a crazy religious area of the country........Well, I hope so.........
Like I said, I'm pretty sure it's high, but it's not THAT high, there's a lot of people who've received more "education" about the world from their preachers then their teachers.
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Quote:
Originally posted by fredgiblet:Quote:
Originally posted by Causal:
What if I think random chance is totally implausible?
If it were based on random chance then evolution would be implausible, thankfully, it's not based on random chance so thats not an issue.
Huh. I didn't know that. Can you explain it? I must confess my ignorance on the issue. I'm a philosopher, not a scientist, so I really don't understand it as well as maybe I ought. I'd always just thought chance was the mechanism. If that's not the case, can you help me understand what is?
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Quote:
Originally posted by Causal:
Huh. I didn't know that. Can you explain it? I must confess my ignorance on the issue. I'm a philosopher, not a scientist, so I really don't understand it as well as maybe I ought. I'd always just thought chance was the mechanism. If that's not the case, can you help me understand what is?
Well it goes like this, a random mutation (or 10 or 20) will be introduced during the creation of a new creature (be it by asexual division or sexual reproduction), most of these mutations are neutral, a few are harmful and a few are beneficial. The harmful mutations reduce an organisms ability to survive and thus reduce the likelihood of successful reproduction, these will be removed from the gene pool fairly swiftly (depending on how harmful they are). The beneficial ones will improve the likelihood of reproduction and the number of offspring.
In any given environment there will be selective pressure towards certain things, for instance in the early days when predation was just beginning in earnest there would have been enormous selective pressure towards evolving tougher skin to prevent being eaten, and once tougher skin started to show up the predators would be under selective pressure to evolve better eating mechanisms (be it sharp teeth or powerful jaws or both). Another more modern example is bacteria that are under selective pressure to become resistant to antibiotics, the bacteria that through a genetic fluke are slightly more resistant to the antibiotic being used will reproduce more.
There is an element of randomness in the initial mutations but after the mutations are introduced selection (which is not random) comes into play.
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Quote:
Originally posted by fredgiblet:
Like I said, I'm pretty sure it's high, but it's not THAT high, there's a lot of people who've received more "education" about the world from their preachers then their teachers.
Thankfully, not all of us religious people are that way. Personally, I think there can be harmony between science and religion. I just wish that religion would stop trying to answer scientific questions (like, "How old is the universe") and that science would stop trying to answer religous/philosophical questions (like, "What--if any--are the moral implications of abortion").
I think that Thomas Aquinas said it well: "The truth of our faith becomes a matter of ridicule among the infidels if any Catholic, not gifted with the necessary scientific learning, presents as dogma what scientific scrutiny shows to be false."
And Mortimer Adler, in Truth in Religion summarizes Augustine as follows:
"Augustine acknowledged the existence of the many different interpretations that were extant in his day...While upholding the possibility of multiple interpretations, he was also persuaded that these diverse interpretations might not be equally correct. He, therefore, recommended two rules that should be followed in interpreting Scared Scriptures.
"His first precept was: Hold to the truth of Scripture without wavering. Since it is the revealed truth, we must never abandon our belief in its truth.
"His second precept followed: Since Sacred Scripture can be interpreted in a multiplicity of senses, one should adhere to a particular version only in such measure as to be ready to abandon it if it should prove to be false, lest Holy Scripture be exposed to the ridicule of nonbelievers and obstacles be placed in the way of their believing."
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I don't have anything to add to my previous comment.
However, regarding the 45% of folk think the world is less than 10,000 years old "issue", you might find this of use:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/061110.html
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Nice! Good article, Lead.
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The Nazis had the German translation of "God with us." inscribed on their belts, if I remember correctly.
As far as the book goes, it's complete shit.
And I have to agree with DeepGirl187, it's people that are to blame, not religion.
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LeadB, interesting article.
Quote:
How does the U.S. compare with other countries in terms of belief in evolution? Not so hot. A study of attitudes in 34 countries published in Science in 2006 shows that the United States ranks last in popular acceptance of evolution except for Turkey. Almost 40 percent of Americans in this study flatly rejected evolution, whereas the comparable numbers in European countries and Japan ranged from 7 to 15 percent. That may partly reflect U.S. high school kids' dismal math and science scores relative to other developed countries, which to my mind underscores a home truth: the more you know, the less you take on faith.
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