Do you beileve in evolution? Why or why not?

[Perfection]

We make theories without empricial evidence all the time, though ... and then we collect evidence that confirms or denies the theory, right?

Not really, we create thoeries to explain observed phenomena. This explination already provides a sort of low-grade empircal evidence.

 

[punkbass2000]

Oh, wait...here's an interesting one...

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*this tale is told with and without Einstein in it by the way, so don't pay much attention to that.

Both characters (the professor and "Einstein") make flawed arguments.

 

[punkbass2000]

Except that there's evidence that the Universe had a beginning,

Actually, from what Hawking says, anyway, the universe had a point where physics (as we know it) breaks down. We can't really account for what a universe with no known forces would be like. Infinte heat, infinite energy, infintessimal space, or some such. He, however, being a positivist, says that for those very reasons, what the universe was like before the Big Bang is irrelevant.

 

[punkbass2000]

I get the feeling that neither of us are contributing original thought to this debate, eh?

All thoughts are original

 

[Secular]

You can't prove a negitive. There it is. It is not possible to prove there is not god any more than it can be proven that there is. Conversly, lack of evidence to the contrary does not then make a statement true. Ex: Prove i'm not a lawn chair. You can justify all the reasons i can't be a lawn chair but if you never physically meet me then there is no way to scientifically state that i am not a piece of patio furniture.
Truthfully though this is all meaningless to the question. I'd like to ask what exactly is contradictory in creationism (or newly packaged ID) and evolution?
Why can't god have set the ball rolling? He's omnicient so he knows the result before the cause is even enacted (which brings up a different fun paradox, but not for this thread). Am i off base with this?

 

[shadow2k]

I'd like to ask what exactly is contradictory in creationism (or newly packaged AI) and evolution?

Depends. It contradicts using Genesis as a literal historical account. But it doesn't contradict Creationism in itself, that God created the world and the life in it.

Many people opposed to evolution don't realize it has nothing to do with what created the world and the life in it, let alone the existence of God.

 

[brennan]

It is a human conceit that things need to be created. The universe just is. Life started by chance, then it evolved...

 

[Abaddon]

Because it supplies the best possible answer for all stuff around me.

 

[croxis]

Not the oldest thread I've seen bumped, but considering this is the OT forum!