ANY EVOLUTIONISTS OUT THERE???

[katieanne]

I go to Bible College, and one of my assignments is to interview someone who believes in Evolution so I can get non-biased answers. It's only about 7 questions I think! If anyone could help me out that would be great

Katie

[QED]

1. Do you believe in God? If so, briefly explain your view?
Assuming that you might be interested in having an explanation for any view on God, it can be justifiably said that there is currently insufficient forensic and independent experiential/experimental evidence to support such a belief.

2. How do you think the universe began?
As a physical process.

3. How do you think life originated?
Unsophisticated Molecular replication

4. Explain how you believe life forms evolved?
Sophisticated Molecular replication

5. How old do you think the earth is and why?
Approximately 4.5 thousand-million years, because of the perfect corroboration between multiple independent findings in Nuclear physics, Spectroscopy and Astronomy.

6. Do you believe in life on other planets, aliens, UFOs?
Currently a lack of forensic evidence would preclude such beliefs.

7. Is evolution still happening, and if so, what do you think will be the end result.
Evolution cannot fail to happen while the necessary conditions are prevalent. When the necessary conditions no longer exist, the character of the last living forms can be expected to be different to how they were in the past.

8. Do you believe in life after death? Explain.
No. There is no life for an individual before their cells first begin to divide, so cellular biology can be seen to supply the necessary conditions for the life of an individual. By studying various instances of brain trauma, the individual's mind can be seen to be dependent on the brain. Taking death as the severest kind of trauma, mind can also be expected to cease with death.

9. How do your beliefs in origins and evolution affect your sense of purpose for your own life?
I am better able to understand the tensions between evolutionary imperatives leading to human compulsions (emotions) and the wider spectrum of logical possibilities for living. The latter can lead to the safe and sustainable discharge the former into numerous rewarding pursuits, the achievement of which gives plenty of purpose to life from the perspective of the rewarded.

Note: All the above is written with without any particular regard to rigid definitions of belief, beginnings, ends, life, death, purpose and God. The latter is assumed to mean a non-natural agent with human-like intentionality towards our existence.

[Evales]

4.5 thousand-million years,

What's wrong with the word billion? You just HAVE to be different!

[Goat]

4.5 thousand-million years,

What's wrong with the word billion? You just HAVE to be different!

That's very British. You can't expect an intellectual British person to bow down to our American idiosyncrasies.

[QED]

4.5 thousand-million years,

What's wrong with the word billion? You just HAVE to be different!

That's very British. You can't expect an intellectual British person to bow down to our American idiosyncrasies.

Now I wish I'd called 4.5 milliards. Or maybe 4.5E9? Perhaps the reluctance to accept the great age of the world is due in part to difficulties with nomenclature

[McCulloch]

1. Do you believe in God? If so, briefly explain your view?
No.

2. How do you think the universe began?
I don't know. The evidence suggests that the standard cosmological model is correct, but it is undecided on the first iota of time.

3. How do you think life originated?
Natural selection of self replicating life-like molecules.

4. Explain how you believe life forms evolved?
Read any standard biology text. I concur with the experts on this one.

5. How old do you think the earth is and why?
4,500,000,013 years 4 months and 3 days. Thirteen years, 4 months and 3 days ago the evidence analyzed by cosmologists suggested that it was 4.5 billion years old.

6. Do you believe in life on other planets, aliens, UFOs?
There is probably life on other planets, but there is probably not life accessible to us, given the limiting factors of physics. Intelligent life is even rarer. Any flying object that has not been identified is a UFO, by definition.

7. Is evolution still happening, and if so, what do you think will be the end result.
Only someone who does not understand evolution would ask this.

8. Do you believe in life after death? Explain.
No. There is no evidence, no theoretical reason for supposing that there is life after death. It is even semantically wrong. Death is defined as the end of life, right?

9. How do your beliefs in origins and evolution affect your sense of purpose for your own life?
Yes, I stopped looking to the great invisible sky-daddy for purpose and found it in what I know, my own life and my own community.

[katieanne]

I am looking for an Atheist's view who supports Evolution.

1. Do you believe in God?

'Bible college', isn't that an oxymoron?

The whole class has to do this interview with the same questions. I understand that there are different evolution theories/views. I, however, would like to get an Atheists view.

[micatala]

I am just curious why you are only interested in responses from atheists.

I'll answer from my own Christian perspective. I am a former Catholic and define myself as a born again, non-denominational Christian.

Thanks for helping me out, goat. I just tried sending you a PM but after typing it all out and pressing send it wouldn't let me because I don't have 5 posts yet! Okay.. so here I go again. These are the questions I'm supposed to ask. I thought there was only 7, but turns out there is 9.

1. Do you believe in God? If so, briefly explain your view?

Yes. As noted above, I was raised Catholic. I moved away from that faith during college, and called myself an atheist for a time. I eventually came back to belief, having a born again experience. I believe in the Bible as divinely inspired, but I do not believe in Biblical inerrancy, nor do I hold to very literal views.

2. How do you think the universe began?

I think the Big Bang is the most reasonable model we have at this point. What happened before that I might say that "only God knows"

3. How do you think life originated?

I am not sure, and I think it is fair to say scientists do not really know either though there are some hypotheses. I think it probably happened in a natural fashion.

4. Explain how you believe life forms evolved?

The first life was very simple, perhaps not even cellular. Life gained complexity over time through evolutionary processes.

5. How old do you think the earth is and why?

About 4.5 billion years old.

6. Do you believe in life on other planets, aliens, UFOs?

I think it is likely that life exists elsewhere in the universe, but I also think we may be the only intelligent life. When we first "find" life on other planets, if we do, it is likely to be simple and rudimentary, like the first life on earth. After all, life on this planet was very simple for billions of years.

7. Is evolution still happening, and if so, what do you think will be the end result.

Yes, evolution is still occurring. I don't think it makes sense to talk about an "end result" as I think life will continue to evolve until such time as the earth is unable to sustain life.

8. Do you believe in life after death? Explain.

Yes. I am not sure I can defend this rationally, but I believe in life after death as a matter of faith. What that life will be like is hard to imagine.

9. How do your beliefs in origins and evolution affect your sense of purpose for your own life?

My acceptance of biological evolution does not really influence my sense of meaning and purpose.

My relationship with God is a spiritual relationship. The Bible is predominantly, in my view, a record of the spriritual quest of a civilization and their 'spiritual and cultural descendants.' In John Chapter 6, Jesus says "my words are spirit and they are life; the flesh counts for nothing." Thus, I don't believe God really cares what we think about evolution or biology. I do think he hopes we will be honest in our discussions of evolution, and that using our powers of reason to study evolution and biology and other sciences is an appropriate use of our faculties.

Thanks, again! If you have any additional comments you'd like to add, feel feel.

Katie

My only request of Christians who do not believe in evolution is that they not paint those of us who accept evolution as somehow 'less Christian' or even 'not Christian'. Unfortunately, this is a prevalent view in some quarters and I have been insulted, castigated, etc., simply for asserting that one can be a christian and accept evolution. I find this disappointing, unbiblical and counterproductive.

It is unbiblical in that it sets of one set of Christians to judge the relationship that others have with God. THis is counter to, for example, Romans chapter 14 and other passages.

It is counterproductive because I believe it pushes some people away from belief over an issue that is not central to Christian doctrine.

Anyway, good luck with your project. I certainly understand if my responses don't fit into the parameters of your assignment (although I do note that question 1 seems to suggest responses from those who believe in God might be OK.).

[Nilloc James]

1. Do you believe in God? If so, briefly explain your view?

NO however I do not deny the possibility of a deistic god.

2. How do you think the universe began?

I don't claim to or know.

3. How do you think life originated?

chemical reaction of molecules creating self replicating molecular sets of cells? I really don't know for sure what I think or if i care.

4. Explain how you believe life forms evolved?

Natural selection.

Other comments

5. How old do you think the earth is and why?

billions, becuase scientific evidence points in that direction.

6. Do you believe in life on other planets, aliens, UFOs?

Due to the massive size of the universe and the number of planets it would not suprise me if there is life out there.

7. Is evolution still happening, and if so, what do you think will be the end result.

I believe evolution is still going on and can not say what will happen due to us toying with the climate/enviroment.

8. Do you believe in life after death? Explain.

No, because there is no evidence for life after death.

9. How do your beliefs in origins and evolution affect your sense of purpose for your own life?

I believe we should live life to the fullest and make this world as best we can because we are not getting another.

Other comments

I guess I could be described as a anti-fundamentalist due to the fact I frequently refer to it as "the greatest weapon of mass destruction ever made by man"

[nukewaste]

Thanks for helping me out, goat. I just tried sending you a PM but after typing it all out and pressing send it wouldn't let me because I don't have 5 posts yet! Okay.. so here I go again. These are the questions I'm supposed to ask. I thought there was only 7, but turns out there is 9.

1. Do you believe in God? If so, briefly explain your view?

Yes, but not in a traditional sense. I'm closer to a panthestic animist. For simplicity's sake, I'll be using god, even though the actual number of the gods doesn't matter to me.

2. How do you think the universe began?

God created the basic laws of the universe as we see them (fundamental laws like gravity, particle physics, aerodynamics, universal constants, all of the physical laws as well as the ecological and evolutionary laws), set the whole system in motion, and basically took a hands-off approach from then on. It's somewhat close to the idea of the watchmaker god of the late Enlightened period, like what Jefferson was supposed to believe in.

3. How do you think life originated?

Life is the inevitable result of the set of physical laws put in place by god at the time of the creation of the universe. It falls under statistics, and I consider it to be a wholly random event, but on that was inevitable to happen, given enough time. Therefore, it's not the same as destiny, predestination, or that we specifically as humans are a part of some divine plan, but it was bound to happen eventually.

4. Explain how you believe life forms evolved?

I believe that life started out very simple, and slowly became more complex of siecified for individual niches for enhanced procreation and propogation through the transmission of verious genetic differances that naturalistically weeded themselves out as either helpful to survival, or harmful to survival. Over the course of many hundreds of thousands or millions of years, organisms that came up with different survival mechanisms became dissimilar enough genetically with it's predecessors that they were considered genetically sterile with their ancestors while still maintaining the ability to reproduce with like organisms, denoting speciation. I believe that this is still going on.

5. How old do you think the earth is and why?

I believe it is a couple of billion years old, mostly due to (at least for the 1st 20,000 or so years) Carbon-20 dating, and the rest from geological extrapolation of verious substrata.

6. Do you believe in life on other planets, aliens, UFOs?

Since I don't believe that the advent of life on Earth was a divinely ordained event, but rather the eventual, inevitable happening of the various natural laws that god put in place, I have no reason to believe that it couldn't have happened somewhere else in the universe concurrently, or that it is not happening right now. The universe is REALLY big after all.

7. Is evolution still happening, and if so, what do you think will be the end result.

I do believe that it is still happening. The second half of your question is nonsensical; the goal of evolution is continued diversification, not simplification and merging to a 'perfect being' or any nonsense. In order for evolution to do that, it would have to reverse itself. Evolution is about creating a system of life that supports the greatest chance of survival over as large a spectrum of environments as possible, and moving towards homogeneity limits the number of environments and possible large-scale disasters that an ecosystem could survive.
So, I suppose, I believe it will NEVER end.

8. Do you believe in life after death? Explain.

Not in the traditional sense. I believe that every living thing has a debt of life energy that it owes the universe, in compensation for living (after all, we are basically made of food, and food is made up of energy). When we die, our life energy is paid back to the universe, and is used in some other form. Of course, being a pantheist, I believe that god is everywhere, in everything, so I guess you could say that I believe that when we die, we become a PART of god, and experience the universe as a whole.

9. How do your beliefs in origins and evolution affect your sense of purpose for your own life?

That's really complicated. I believe in a sort of karmic law of conservation of positive and negative energy (basically, if I'm nice, it gets back to me with an extra oomph, and vice versa), so I try to live simply, and to do well for people as much as possible. I don't have a specific set of laws or commandments to follow on how to lead a good life, so basically if I make people happy and don't hurt anybody, I believe I'm doing it right. And, since I don't have any inflated preconceptions that Mankind is some sort of 'divine favorite' or any nonsense, I'm under no misconceptions that I am supposed to be caretaker to the rest of a natural world that can run just as fine without us (better probably). That doesn't mean I don't try to take care of the environment I'm living in, I just don't call it 'my environment' or 'my ecosystem' or my anything really: I have about as much ownership over nature as I have ownership over the changing of the tides.

Thanks, again! If you have any additional comments you'd like to add, feel feel.

Katie

Glad to help!

[AlexMapleoir]

1. Do you believe in God? If so, briefly explain your view?

No, I do not. Or at least not in the common reference of "God" or "Gods"

2. How do you think the universe began?

I use the evidence that I have seen to lead me to believe that the Universe began by the ever-growing scientific theory of the Big Bang.

3. How do you think life originated?

Life originates as habitable conditions for the first stages of evolution spring up, based on what has been observed and researched by scientists.

4. Explain how you believe life forms evolved?

From stages and stages of adaptations during cellular reproduction that lead to evolving creatures by natural selection.

5. How old do you think the earth is and why?

Around 4 billion years, as carbon dating and observation of the crust's rock layers has presented.

6. Do you believe in life on other planets, aliens, UFOs?

If life can form on Earth, then it is certainly a basis to say that it can anywhere else in the universe.

7. Is evolution still happening, and if so, what do you think will be the end result.

It is a continuous process that we are just starting to discover several of the inner workings of. I wouldnt say there would be any "end result", as evolution really doesnt end on a species unless it goes extinct. The process can slow down when natural selection doesnt necessarily require adaptations, but it never "ends".

8. Do you believe in life after death? Explain.

No, but that doesnt mean I am close-minded about afterlifes. I am just going by my current observations of scientific evidence.

9. How do your beliefs in origins and evolution affect your sense of purpose for your own life?

Well, it sort of makes me appreciate how nature can do the things it does in my viewpoints, and it leaves me with an open-minded sense of awe towards what we dont know and what will happen in the future.