Evolution is a fact! It is not the enemy of Christians!

Thanks, I appreciate you pointing that out.

Having gotten out my old copy of "The Origin of the Species", I have actually started re-reading it. It is an amazing book that could have been written just last week. It is that far ahead of its time. It was written before the US Civil War, yet the language and science seem modern. But, I am digressing from my intent with this comment. I have been trying to figure out how someone could say that evolution is not mentioned in Charles Darwin's famous book. This mystery is now solved. The answer is that Charles Darwin refered to his own theory as the Theory of Natural Selection, not the theory of evolution. He also used the term survival of the fittest quite a bit. When Charles Darwin uses the word evolution in his book, it is in passing as a description of the process of his Theory of Natural Selection. An example of this would be that the word evolution does not appear in any of the chapter titles or synopsis of chapters, yet the words,"Theory of Natural Selection" do appear. No where that I have been able to find does Charles Darwin call his theory the "Theory of evolution." It is perfectly understandable that someone might think Darwin did not refer to his theory as the theory of evolution because he did not. He used the word evolution only to describe the process of his "Theory of Natural Selection". In "The Origin of the Species" the word evolution is only a descriptive term, not a part of any chapter title or used in the name of any theory put forth. Hope this helps.

Thank you for clearing that up and saying what I meant to say. I get a bit scattered sometimes and something don't get said right.

Please consider; http://evolution.berkeley.edu/ Evolution is not entirely proven and probably never will be but that is the nature of science. The topic that I started was that evolution is not the enemy of Christianity and it is not. The only people who have trouble with it are those who are under the mistaken impression that the Bible is a science textbook. The Bible is a book full of wonder and beauty but it is not a science textbook.

Evolution by natural selection is a fact in the same sense that gravity is a fact. Before Newton it was believed that objects such as stones fell to earth because they where 'of' the earth and 'sought' to return to it, a theory proposed by Aristotle. Strictly speaking the only facts are observation. i.e. This is. Any reference to cause is theory. What makes a theory good or bad is its falsifiability and being the minimum explanation (Occum's razor) I don't invoke an invisible dwarf wearing boots to explain the creaking of floor boards. For this reason Natural selection qualifies as a scientific theory were ID does not. Since countless examples of the theory of Evolution by Natural Selection are available and a huge amount of evidence it has become the accepted theory and is therefore referred to as a fact. It is quite appalling the number of people that criticise this without providing themselves with even a rudimentary understanding of it. This is intellectually deceitful. all the best urban

Natural selection works fine with microevoliton but not macroevolution. These are small-scale horizontal changes that both Biblical creationists and IDers accept. Why? because it's observable. What's not observable is natural selection and macroevolution. Why? natural selection is not a creative force. "Select" is not synonymous with "create". The word "selection" is there for a reason. It "selects" from what is present. That's why many evolutionists have argued that it's not natural selection alone that is responsible but natural selection together with mutation. I find it appalling that you would think natural selection could do the job itself.

I recognize that it is not a fact but used the word in my title of this post to be provocative. Sadly the whole point of the post seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle. The initial point was that being a Christian does not mean that you must reject evolution. One of the greatest dangers to Christianity is people that take the position that a belief in creationism is conditional to being a Christian.

After giving this some thought I find I do have to take issue with you. I made no mention of the Theory of Evolution, only of evolution itself. I do not know where the Theory of Evolution came from. In Darwen's "The origin of the species" he makes no mention of it so I don't know when it originated. Perhaps you can tell me? Darwen discussed evolution as a process and I think that process is factual, so, at least in my humble opinion, my title is correct.

I agree that creationism and the theory of evolution do not have to be in conflict. I suppose I will have to respectfully disagree and assert again that Darwin's position is a theory. It does not matter if he called it a theory, that is what it is, a scientific theory. Einstein wrote a paper titled "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" which we know today as the Special Theory of Relativity. I do not believe in absolute fact of any kind, only theories that are so well supported over time by mountains of evidence that in at least one particular frame of reference, human beings refer to them as facts. The great thing about science is that it is capable of proving parts of itself wrong and coming up with better theories that have better explanatory power. Draven the Respectful Atheist http://dravenwriter.blogspot.com

The Theory of Natural Selection is not the enemy of Christians. It is the enemy and strangely the uniting factor for Radical Muslims and Radical Christians who insist on a fundamentalists view of the Qur'an and the Bible. Intelligent Design is the Trojan Horse they are trying to use to sneak Creationism back into the schools. It has no scientific basis.

You just don't get it do you. Evolution is a well proven process. "Creation" is a sad, left over remnant of a time when man was mired in ignorance.

No, natural selection is not the enemy of Christianity. Darwinian evolution on the other hand is.

You are totally correct, the answers are in all of us. They lie in our genes.