If evolution is only a theory, why is it taught with such ferocity? Why do evolutionists get all up on anyone who doesn't agree?

Question

I feel like y'all push an empty and baseless idea on me. Where are the missing link fossils? If we evolved from apes, why are apes still in existence? Have yo forgotten that Charles Darwin later stated that he felt that evolution was incorrect? How much do you enjoy attacking people who dear to believe differently?

Answer 1

It may be wiser in the future to know your facts before you pose a question like this that demonstrates your ignorance, bases the question on false premises and shows you have not checked any facts prior to posting this diatribe.



“If evolution is only a theory …”

The word ‘theory’ is employed as an English vernacular term and in the scientific lexicon. They have entirely different meanings. Evolutionary biologists use its scientific meaning not the vernacular one. You should find out the difference in order not to make this serious error again.



“… why is it taught with such ferocity?”

This claim is without foundation unless you can support it, which you have not. I certainly do not teach it with ferocity. I do hope I teach it with passion and enthuse my students. I think what you are thinking of is the rabid manner in which creation propaganda is delivered.



“Why do evolutionists get all up on anyone who doesn't agree?”

I will not pretend to claim to understand this illiterate question. At a guess I believe you want to know why evolutionists get angry with people who do not accept evolution. Most of us do not. If you choose not to accept evolution it does not mean it does not happen. I believe everybody has the right to be wilfully ignorant. Evolutionists do not need to get angry. They can do something that creationists are unable to do. They can offer a huge corpus of evidence for evolution. With such overwhelming evidence on their side; they may be vehement but they are not angry. Indignation is left to creationists because they have nothing else.



“I feel like y'all push an empty and baseless idea on me.”

Your feelings are totally irrelevant. There is probably no other scientific fact with more evidence. It is not just an idea and it is certainly not baseless.



“Where are the missing link fossils?”

Perhaps you could pose an original question rather than plagiarise creationist propaganda. If you thought about this rather than repeated it you would know the question is meaningless. Many fossils have been found. So, which ones do you think are missing? You obviously do not know that fossils are not the only evidence for evolution and they certainly are not the best or most important form of evidence.



“If we evolved from apes, why are apes still in existence?”

I simply do not have time to waste correcting the numerous errors in this question knowing that you really are not interested in the correct answer or the truth. Humans did not evolve from apes. We are a species of ape and we co-evolved with the other species of ape. Evolution is not a linear succession like one king dying and his heir becoming king. If species A evolves from species B there is nothing in evolutionary biology that says species A must become extinct. It simply does not work that way.



“Have yo (sic) forgotten that Charles Darwin later stated that he felt that evolution was incorrect?”

I do not know if you are lying or if you think this is true. Creationists are Christians and you are not supposed to lie. There is no truth to this and his daughter has said it was not true. However, evolution’s truth or not does not rest on what one man says. Even if this claim were true it would have no effect on the veracity of evolution.



“How much do you enjoy attacking people who dear (sic) to believe differently?”

You are entitled to believe what you want. It does not change what is true. Evolutionary biologists do not attack people. We leave that behaviour to the religious. The only thing evolutionary biologists, all scientists and rationalist secular people want is for people to accept facts based on evidence.



You should note that Christian creationism is only believed by a small minority of Christians. ALL the mainstream Christian denominations do not believe the story in Genesis that god created the entire universe in six consecutive 24-hour days. They accept evolution.

Answer 2

Jesus was in my year at school but was rubbish at PE. Only lesson he cares about was music, because he such a natural rythm and was an extremely gifted mayonnaise player

Answer 3

"Why do evolutionists get all up on anyone who doesn't agree?" Partly because your "not agreeing" is based, not on evidence, but on emotion, and the clinging to childish fairy tales that were instilled into you by your parents. But that in itself is not the biggest problem, because if you kept that to yourself, there'd be no reason for anyone to criticize your ideas--your private beliefs are your business.



The huge problem is when you come onto public forums such as this and insist that your ill-informed opinions have the same intrinsic value as fact/evidence-based understanding, attempting to justify that using the dodge of "free speech." But that's bogus when you're trying to equate nonsense to reality. It's not a mere issue of conflicting opinions that are on equal ground, because yours are NOT on equal ground--not all opinions are created equal. You have absolutely no training or even rudimentary understanding of what science is and how it's done, yet you come on here with the unmitigated gall to criticize that which you know nothing about. When you display such brazen arrogance, you can expect to get called on it by people who know far more than you do about the subject. So don't act all shocked and surprised and indignant about getting the b****h-slapping you so richly deserve.



Your very post itself is a prime example of why biologists treat you people with contempt--instead of asking a single, coherent question, you've gone the familiar creationist route of using a wild, disjointed, scattergun approach, saturating your post with 7 separate questions, each one of which is based on either ignorant misunderstanding, or outright falsehood.



If you want to have an intelligent discussion, then you have to come up with an intelligent, HONEST query. Ask dishonestly, and you're going to be flamed--every time.



Does that answer your "question?" Or do you want more?

Answer 4

Yes , agreed we are working on repealing the law of gravity so all you unfaithful non-believes are swept into space. After all it is only a theory. Learn the difference between a theory and hypothesis.

Answer 5

A scientific theory is an explanation of nature that has withoustood falsification attempts. Since it was proposed by Darwin, it has never been falsified. It is also as well supported by evidence as any other explanation of nature. Therefore it is in deed scientific fact, or the truth. It is as well supported as the theory that the earth revolves around the sun, the theory that the moon revolves around the earth, the theory of relativity and the theory the earth is round.



No one questions why the round earth theory is taught in school "with such ferocity." People who object to evolutionary theory have an ulterior motive. For example, they either think that if people believe in evolution, then they would reject supernatural beings or god. If one makes a living convincing people that god exists, then of course they would object to any teaching that refutes the likelihood that god exists. IOW, if they can convince their followers that evolution is false, then they have more followers and they make more money from donations from the faithful. Therefore despite the fact that evolution is the most rational explanation of the available facts, many creationists continue to fight it tooth and nail.

Answer 6

Easy. It works and leads to progress in every field related to biology. No other theory of how biology works even comes close to the success of evolution.



Some "evolutionist" scientific achievements since 1955 -



1955: Salk Polio Vaccine

1961: Sabin oral Polio Vaccine

1961 Crick, Brenner et al discover that three nucleotide bases are needed to code for amino acids, confirming a suggestion by nuclear physicist George Gamow.

1963 Effective measles vaccine.

About 1964 Har Gobind Khorana and others work out the genetic code.

1969 Arber and Meselson confirm that restriction enzymes cleave DNA.

1969 Rubella vaccine.

1971 Measles, mumps, rubella combination vaccine.

1972 Berg produces the first artificial recombinant DNA molecules.

1973 Boyer and Cohen make the first transgenic organism.

1978 Riggs and Itakura make the first genetically engineered insulin.

1978 Fred. Sanger et al publish the dideoxy chain termination analysis of DNA.

1980 Frank Fenner oversees the eradication of smallpox.

1980 Robert Gallo et al identify the first human retrovirus.

1983 Recombinant insulin placed on market.

1988 Kary Mullis et al publish the polymerase chain reaction.

1988 Richard Lenski begins long term Escherichia coli experiment.

2000 Craig Venter et al publish a rough draft of human genome.

2005 Rough draft of chimpanzee genome published.

2006 Final draft of first human genome project completed.

2007 Horse genome completed.

2007 Anti-herpes vaccine.

2012 Richard Lenski's long term experiment continues, having demonstrated evolution of citrate metabolism in E. coli.



Thousands of patents in various forms of biotechnology outlining useful or potentially useful inventions.



Creationism leads no where.





Matthew 7:16 , look it up, it applies here.



What is useful about Creationism?



"Young Earth creationist leaders are careful to do no actual science. This is indicated by the scarcity of patents with their names as inventors in any field of biotechnology or medical research. They never discover anything, they never invent anything. By contrast, genuine scientists in these fields have tens of thousands of patents spread across a wide range of topics.



Young Earth creationist leaders only preach to the public, they know if they tried to preach to the biotechnology, agrochemical, pharmaceutical, oil and mining industries among others they would be hurled out on their ears.



All young Earth creationists leaders are completely deluded or fraudulent and their followers have the insane idea that virtually all astronomers, cosmologists, planetary scientists, geologists, physicists, chemists, biologists etc in every country of the world are conspiring against a minority of mostly American sects." - Brigalow Bloke



Put another way: If you wanted to be a medical researcher, what college or university would you attend that had a Biology Program based on Creation Theory?



Missing Links (correct term is "Transitional species") ? We know of thousands, in many species. Consider: What do you think Homo erectus was? Human? Ape? A transitional species (a missing link!) in human evolution?

Answer 7

Evolution is a fact, the reason it terrifies you is because it proves your god doesn't exist. You are free to believe anything that you want, its your life.

Answer 8

It is not necessary for everyone to understand the process of biological evolution.



Much of society does not need a grasp of evolution to take advantage of our understanding of it, just as they don’t need to understand chemistry to use plastic.



Many children don’t learn the principles of physics, chemistry or evolution in school. Later, in their homes and in many simple jobs they may never need such knowledge.

Answer 9

At school, I was taught as much about evolution as I was religion.



& nobody once said one was more valid than the other.



If you feel you're being attacked, you're hanging around the wrong people.



Please remember that you can't go through life without meeting people who think differently to you. Try to embrace this though, as you may learn something along the way.



Knowledge is power!

Answer 10

◄ 2 Thessalonians 2:11 ►

For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie

Answer 11

Troll, get back under your bridge. You've just provided the exception that proves the rule. Everyone else in the world has evolved, but you are just a throwback to a simpler, dumber time.

Answer 12

A theory in science is something that is backed up with countless examples and generally understood to be true. See the theory of Gravity, Cell Theory, etc.

Answer 13

I am not going to insult you because I believe that your statements stem from just ignorance and lack of information rather than ill-intention. So I'll seek to genuinely inform your questions. (1) To label evolution "just a theory" is highly inappropriate. For something to be considered a theory especially one that is as highly accepted by the scientific community, it must be testable and reproducible. There are many experiments that have been done in support of it, which you may find in any intro bio book. For this reason creationism is not even considered a theory (since it is not testable and is based on "faith"). (2) Evolution does not state that we evolved from apes. That is blatantly false. Evolution states all living organisms on earth descended from a common ancestor. (C) Charles Darwin later stated that he felt evolution was incorrect because he was proposing a ground-breaking theory. A theory which received skepticism from his peers. Wouldn't you too question your work if you had nothing to compare it to? Nobody to give you recognition for it? It was not accepted immediately after it was published. This happened much later. I don't believe that people who accept evolution as truth (because it is) attempt to attack others but rather get frustrated when so much evidence gets chalked up as "just a theory" or is debated against with creationism because creationism has no real evidence thus is a pointless argument.

Answer 14

A scientific theory is just as valid as a scientific law.

Answer 15

Gravity was also a theory, so was thermodynamics before they were proven so many times that they became laws. The theory of evolution (much like the theory of relativity) is still a young theory, but can be proven every time its tested. One day, it too will become a law.

Answer 16

Because of people like you that say it is "only a theory", as though that makes it speculation rather than a well-founded explanation of what we see. I don't even want to begin to discuss atomic theory or thermodynamic theory or electromagnetic theory, wave-particle theory of light, or any number of other scientific theories and point out how the very device you use to deride "theories" is based solely on theories and exists because theories work.

Answer 17

In a meaningful sense, scientists can't 100% prove anything. *Anything*. That the Earth goes around the sun. That germs cause disease. That my desk is not actually a shape-shifting alien. Anything.



That said, there are some things that they can prove to several 9's (that is, 99.999% or whatever). This is, in essence, why scientists talk about "theories" rather than "facts". It's not quite the same thing that most people mean by the word "theory". The scientific definition of the word "theory" means more like "best available explanation as supported by evidence" than "guess".



So, I want you to say "Evolution is only the best available explanation as supported by evidence", and realize how silly that "only" makes you sound (at least, if you mean it in the sense of "just" or "merely").



As far as the specific things in your additional details: fossilization is a relatively rare event, and unless we had a perfect unbroken chain of not only every species, but every individual in a particular lineage, which is something *wildly* unrealistic to expect, there will always be "missing links". But they're smaller and smaller ones. For many of the important lineages, we have pretty solid chains of fossils from a primitive ancestor to an anatomically modern animal.



Apes are, effectively, our cousins. When you were born, did your parents or your grandparents cease to exist? Did their siblings?



Afaik Darwin never said any such thing, and even if he did, so what? We've learned a lot since then, and all of it that has anything to say on the subject of evolution either directly supports it, or at a minimum does not contradict it.



I don't "enjoy attacking people who dear to believe differently", or even those who dare to. I merely try to correct ignorance, because ignorance annoys me. Particularly people who are trying to *spread* their ignorance.

Answer 18

Evolution is a fact AND a theroy. The theory of evolution explains the facts of evolution. There are no "missing links" the fossil record is complete, evolution doesn't get rid of species, Charles Darwin never said he thought evolution was false. Darwin had doubts because his theroy was new. We have come a long way since 1859. I don't care what you want to believe, but you are simply wrong.

Answer 19

A theory needs evidence to support it, and there are bucketloads of evidence to suggest that evolution is true.

Without evidence, all you have is guesswork.

Answer 20

Believe as you will; no skin off my @ss.

Answer 21

This is the same question as why is the earth not flat, if you don't slide down it when you get to the down curving sides? I feel as though you're joking, but no, there's a vast possibility you're one of those millions, possibly even hundreds of millions of people in the world who have been misled, brainwashed, by religion, to doubt the proven fact of evolution, for no other reason than it goes against the literal truth of the bible, which has been proven literally wrong at least a dozen other times. They used to kill scientists for proving them wrong, then it happened so many times, they accepted it, yes the pope and all the major religious leaders now accept proven facts that go against the bible because if they didn't, they'd have a war on their hands for the minds of the children, who of course must be taught the truth in schools, rather than a ridiculous fairy tale. This is what you're dealing with, they're still trying to get children taught in schools a ridiculous fairy tale that has been proven wrong for hundreds of years, God made men out of clay in six days, rather than the truth. And before you say anything stupid, there's countless fossils in the chain, dozens of them that show the slow evolution from common ancestor to the chimpanzee, to what we now call human. What you are spouting is simply absolute bull.

Answer 22

Why do you lack basic education and any sign of Christianity?



Evolution as a scientific theory shows how all the FACTS fit together and contains many SCIENTIFIC LAWS!!!!!!!



Which extremist sect or cult indoctrinated you to believe that God was not clever enough to use the big bang, evolution and science as his tools?



Pope Francis says the theories of evolution and the Big Bang are real and God is not “a magician with a magic wand” putting an end to the “pseudo theories” of creationism and intelligent design! So the Catholic Church, Church of England and mainstream churches all accept the big bang and evolution!



Lord Carey the former Archbishop of Canterbury put it rather well – “Creationism is the fruit of a fundamentalist approach to scripture, ignoring scholarship and critical learning, and confusing different understandings of truth”!



Christian Fundamentalist is a complete contradiction in terms!



CHRISTIAN – A follower or believer in Jesus.



FUNDAMENTALIST One who believes the Bible is literally true and must be followed exactly.



Therefore they are followers of the bible and not Jesus making them non Christians!



But worse is to follow it also makes them ideologists.



IDEOLOGY An idea that is false or held for the wrong reasons but is believed with such conviction as to be irrefutable.



So Christians have a loving and forgiving god and fundamentalist - well - Just are not Christians!

Answer 23

Darwin never stated that evolution was incorrect, that was a lie put around after his death by an over zealous Christian relative.

Answer 24

I have moved your question to an appropriate category, where you will be torn a new intellectual ässhole by people vastly more intelligent than you.