Origin of Man: Where Do You Think We Come From?

What if I believe in both creationism and evolution? Or is that still not allowed?ayanami_rei

We (with the help of changing conditions and other life) assembled ourselves over time on this speck of stardust we call 'Earth.' :)

What if I believe in both creationism and evolution? Or is that still not allowed?ayanami_rei

Hah I follow this mindset.

I believe we came from Adam and Eve, which were created by God. And I think Evolution is a myth, just like Global Warming, oh wait its now called Climate Change; I forgot. :Pbbkkristian

Yes, things that can be empircaly proven are evil!!!

I believe we came from Adam and Eve, which were created by God. And I think Evolution is a myth, just like Global Warming, oh wait its now called Climate Change; I forgot. :Pbbkkristian

I believe we came from Adam and Eve, which were created by God. And I think Evolution is a myth, just like Global Warming, oh wait its now called Climate Change; I forgot. :Pbbkkristian

We did come from Adam and Eve. :)

Evolution for me (I accept it as fact), I could never believe in creationism.

I don't really care much past that however.

[QUOTE="ayanami_rei"]What if I believe in both creationism and evolution? Or is that still not allowed?blackngold29

Do you mean intelligent design.. Or that god created the beginning of the universe and we are a byproduct that was not intended or unintended? Either way its perfeclty fine to believe that.. It only starts irking people when Intelligent Design is pretended to have actual scientific evidence.. When its just psuedeo science at best.

What if I believe in both creationism and evolution? Or is that still not allowed?ayanami_rei

That doesn't really answer the TC's question anyway.

God created the heavens and the universe and we evolved. Adam and Eve is a metaphor for values just like many other stories in the bible

RobboElRobbo

Amen :)

We are monkeys.

The "Out of Africa" model seems the more likely of the two, but that kind of goes a little beyond how specific my knowledge of the field is. I just assume that the people who spend their lives studying it mostly know what they are talking about better than anyone else. Well, I know a bit about it, but...whatever, it's not like anyone really cares. :P

As far as evolution existing, there is not much room for realistic debate of that in my mind. Pretty much the only debate ever comes from people who see it as contradicting their religion. It nearly never comes from someone who doesn't have a religious agenda against it. That's not the reason I believe in it. I'm just saying that is more or less the only reason anyone is adamant that it is wrong.

I'm pretty sure that skeletal evidence of our ancestors has shown a very rapid rate of cranial expansion over the last 1.5 million years or so, so...I'd say that there clearly is a way, and it's just a matter of finding out why.

Coincidentally or not, there's a theory that the rapid expansion of our brain started ocurring around a time of cataclysmic climate changes (although I don't remember the years off-hand), so perhaps the expansion of our brain, even if it was purely by chance, gave us enough of an edge (through symbolism, tool-making, etc) to survive and thrive in any environments.

Throw in a few near-extinctions (which scientists have observed) and culture, and I think it's possible that we developed as rapidly as we did.

[QUOTE="magiciandude"]

[QUOTE="BluRayHiDef"]

[QUOTE="magiciandude"]

I believe in a creator and I accept evolution as a fact. So I go for Theistic Rationalism.

BMD004

Theism is intrinsically irrational due to the fact that you can't use logic and reasoning to prove (or disprove) the existence of any deity. Theism relies purely on faith (which is belief without proof). Hence, Theistic Rationalism is paradoxical and subsequently impossible.

I think I know what BluRayHiDef was getting at. The argument goes something like:

If you see a tree, can touch a tree, can perform all sorts of scientific analyses on the tree, then you can be reasonably certain that it exists (as far as you can be certain that anything exists). You wouldn't have faith in that tree, since it's there. You wouldn't need to believe in it, since by all logic, reasoning and observable facts, it exists.

As for deities though, there's no evidence for them nor any factual basis to their existence. They don't fall under the realm of logic, you can't do scientific analyses on them. If there was, if you could prove that God exists, then there'd be no need for faith - God would exist, and that would be that. He'd be a natural phenomenon, like a tree or anything else that exists in our universe.

So...at least according to that view, faith only applies to things that can't otherwise be proven (because if they can, there'd be no need for faith).
I agree with him there - worshipping the Christian-Judeo God is just as logical as worshipping an imaginary giant pink elephant who has the same attributes; it's an act of faith either way and a personal emotive choice, not something you can logically assess. It's necessarily logic-less, or in other words, irrational (not saying that it's silly, just that it cannot be reasoned).

But that is wayyy off topic. Moving on.