Posted by John on September 15, 1998 at 13:16:44:
In Reply to: Creation/Evolution posted by DNA on April 26, 1998 at 17:30:08:
: : If you think the creation/evolution debate is a scientific one, then you are giving the creationists more credit than they deserve. It is their claim that evolution has not been "proven," whatever that means, but why then do 99.99% of all practicing biologists accept it as a fact? Your scepticism is a good thing, and people have been wrong before, but maybe you should look a little more at what scientists have to say about it before you decide that evolution is a claim akin to ESP. rpcman has recommended a number of good books on his other pages--read a couple of them. Also, be sure and check ou this site:
: : http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/evolution-fact.html
: : I think it puts your questions into the proper perspective.
: I can't add much to this, except to say that the talk.origins page is an excellent one to look at. It really deals with this whole issue much better than can be done on any BB.
: But, I want to also add that I agree that there really is no debate between creationists and evolutionists. I have been studying this subject for over 40 years, and can tell you that in the world of science there simply is no debate about the *fact* of evolution. Creationism simply isn't science. It's religion. There is absolutely NO evidence to back up the claims of creationists.
: Debating creationists is like debating flat-earthers. They have no facts, simply ideology and emotion, regardless of how they frame their debate.
The argument that creationism simply isn't science does not in any way convince me that creationism is wrong. Things do not have to be scientific to be right, although I do believe that creation can be proven scientifically if that's what floats your boat. The reason 99.99% of practicing biologists believe in evolution is the same reason that 100% of creationists believe in creation. The proof of evolution is only there if you want to see it there. If you want to believe that just because our skeletons are strikingly similar to apes then we must have evolved from them then thats what you are going to believe. There are too many unanswered questions to call evolution a fact. The first is "How?" That is something that won't be answered in your lifetime or mine. On the other hand I know exactly how we got here. God himself created us. That is a much simpler explanation to believe that to throw away all reason and decide that if we can't explain it then it must not be true so let's come up with something that eliminates God altogether. The only proof of evolution that the fossil record bears is that a particular organism "evolved" from something living into something dead.