(copied from the sh!ts thread)
nuggety goodness wrote:of course it is a theory, a theory is 'an idea of or belief about something arrived at through speculation or conjecture'
... and corroborated with observations of real world phenomena.
if it is not a theory then what is it?
At best, philosophy. At worst, imagination.
and it's not about changing the curriculum to incorporate fundamentalist teachings but to give a true education. from memory there are no text books that mention that it is a only theory.
Discussion of creationism - and indeed discussion of evolution, at least at the theoretical level - belongs in a philosophy tutorial, not in a science classroom. If a biology class was to incorporate a few lessons on the philosophical basis of the science then it would not be remiss to discuss the concept of creationism on equal terms with that of Darwinism. Nevertheless science classes typically do not focus on philosphical basis but rather on the scientific method: empirical observation of the real world, postulating theory to explain those observations, cementing those theories with further evidence. Mathematics is the only science based wholly on forward projection from philosophical assumption, and even then it is subject to empirical revision, since its usefulness extends only insofar as it helps us model and understand the real world.
even before i became a Christian i had trouble swallowing the Evolution theory...
Yet you presumably have no qualms in swallowing the host (tm); an act which by its essence makes you a cannibal, as the miracle of transubstantiation (tm) turns an innocuous looking wafer into the actual Flesh Of The Saviour. And you think evolution sounds nutty?
Evolution can be observed everywhere; the principle is not limited to the biological sciences. Evolution plays a role in many social sciences. The learning process, as modelled by psychologists, can be understood as an evolutionary process in which behaviours are subject to natural selection. The sociologists might use it to model the rise and fall of social systems. Evolution plays a role in the mathematical sciences; one might perform nonlinear optimisation of a noisy function via one of a class of evolutionary algorithms. Evolution plays a role in multidisciplinary areas like the study of dynamical systems; why does a weather system converge to a particular stable configuration? Chaos theory is rooted in principles like evolution. Take a few history classes and see literally zillions of examples of peoples, ideas, and cultures which became dominant due to a superior ability to compete in the environment, then faded to extinction when the environment changed such that the formerly dominant entities were at a natural disadvantage.
Only a theory? Yes, but one with volumes of corroborating evidence. As long is the theory continues to model reality well enough it will continue to be taught. The theory of evolution itself is subject to evolutionary change. As the human body of knowledge increases and the current theory is tested by this knowledge, it will either change (evolve) or be superceded by fitter theories.
first there was nothing, then there was 2 atoms that exploded which formed everything, then everything has now changed into different things...
Your appreciation of modern cosmology is simplistic, to say the least.
try to mate a dog and a cat, try to mate with a monkey (don't really, just showing my point) Evolution teaches that things have changed their genetic make up, which is impossible, artists impressions are made up from their imagination after seeing the bottom jaw bone from an animal that has been buried for 'millions of years'
Where do I start?
beleiving there is a God and that we have been manufactured so intricately makes so much more sense to me and is IMO much easier to swallow...
What amazes me is that the religious fundies - and to a lesser extent, some of the more dogmatic evolutionists (eg Richard Dawkins) fail to see that creationism and evolution are NOT mutually exclusive. How much more simple - not to mention elegant - would it be to propose a creator who designed the universe and its physical laws, then set the machine in motion with an almighty bang, then stepped back and watched His creation evolve into its present state, populated with self-aware beings?
