SCIENCE. Also, maybe aliens. And other universes.

[brightlotusmoon]

This is just so I can remember my favorite evolution videos without having to search all over YouTube.

As I told a yowling Christian Creationist* a while back:
Listen carefully: Evolution does not claim to be connected with gods, God, aliens, or something that might cause creation. Evolution means this: Changes in trait or gene frequency in a population of organisms from one generation to the next - and it has nothing to do with how the world/universe was created/made. Which means that, hey, we're not saying it was aliens... but it was [probably] aliens.
Also, this may be mind-blowing, but "theory" is an established idea that has been tested.
Happy now? Okay. Now watch the whole thing and stop fighting over facts.

And yes, even the most fundamentalist Christian can agree that creationism and evolution are two different things. There's a term for it, which I completely forget - amniogenesis, maybe? Something like that? I mean, Intelligent Design is even based on it, I think. In fact, Deism is the idea that a god created everything and then backed off and let evolution happen all on its own, through reason and science.
For all we know, something like that happened. We don't know. If a theory is an idea that has been tested, then a belief is a personal knowledge that has not become fact and faith is an emotion tied to belief. And that is where the battle of religions happens. The problems with belief and faith is that they are so strong, so intense, so powerful, that they overcome logic and reason and become a way of thought, a way of life, and the person is literally unable to truly see or understand any other method.



*She was really sweet and really smart, but I could tell she had been literally brainwashed by parents, family, friends, churches, and teachers. Once we had these talks, I watched her brain go ker-klunk as she realized how massive and amazing the world actually was beyond what she thought she knew. I told her she could still believe that her God created everything... but evolution was nowhere near the same thing. She actually burst into tears and hugged me. Really, I don't care if you believe in Intelligent Design; I just want you to know exactly what real evolution actually means. That the theory of evolution simply means that the idea has been established and tested. Which has nothing to do with whatever creating entity you believe in. Evolution is its own thing, or miracle, if you wish. Fun, though, isn't it?

Comments

[natalief.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for posting these! May I link / repost / share?

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

Of course!

[natalief.livejournal.com]

Done, and thank you! I have added my 2p to the end.

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

And this is why I never understood the conflict. Evolution has nothing at all to say about how life was created, only what happened after it arrived. I can see where a conflict might arise if you take the English translation of Genesis literally, but I'm not sure how many people have delved that deeply into the Bible's opening book in context.

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

I do hope nobody has taken the specific English translation quite literally, because... wow. No.

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

I live on the northern fringes of the Bible Belt, so quite a lot of people take it absolutely literally. No matter how much back-bending this requires.

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

I am making an indrawn breath between my teeth. That is just... that is beyond Flanders-ish awful.