Just because a person is agnostic doesn't mean that they have to believe in evolution and the same goes for atheists and theists. Do you believe in evolution?
You mean the theory that was proven three different ways not only through observations by Darwin of modern creatures, but through paleontology, and through genetic analysis? The theory that also has been proven through documented animal and plant farming of us breeding dogs vows chickens goats fish, beering hardy wild plants into edible easy to grow foods, fruit flies experiments, the mendelian pea experiments, and so on....
Yeah...I believe the second most well proven hypothesis, evolution through natural and artificial selection, is true, and it has rightly earned the classication of Theory and should be called in fill, the Theory of Evolution.
(The most well proven theory is Quantum Field Theory which can predict certain physical phenomenon to 12 decimal places of accuracy!)
Don't forget, morphology changes over continental climate zones, comparative anatomy, (important before genetics ) embryology, ring species, and observed modern adaptions, including things like antibiotic resistence in disease organisms. Not being pedantic, just throwing more fuel on your fire.
@Fernapple And your point is?
@Mcflewster No point just back up Makeitgood, for fun, (slight irony. )
@Fernapple Oh I see!
As an agnostic I don't believe IN anything
Agnostic addresses the assertion of knowledge not belief. You can be an agnostic atheist (lack a belief in a god) or an agnostic theist (believes IN a god).
Your quote corrected should be:
"As an agnostic I don't" (assert that I know) "anything." As an agnostic you are free to believe whatever you want. (with the exception of recognizing believing as knowledge.)
No you're wrong.
Agnostics don't have a belief system.
Idelogues think there's a solution. There is none.
This is the same member who says "nothing can ever be proven".
Perhaps he is uninformed about proofs in mathematics?
@anglophone And many other things, I expect.
Your contention is fatuous, I asked, "Do you think that this is an acceptable world view?"
@waitingforgodo False. You were given an ass whooping then, too. "Can agnosticism be expanded to include all knowledge because nothing can ever be proven?"
Evolution, has the most comprehensive, collaborating, sets of tangible evidence, From many, many different fields. than any other working theories in Science.
Evolution is a fact.
The 'Theory" part is not whether it is true or not. It is rather, the best working understanding on the process itself. 'belief', as you say, has nothing to do with it
There was a sit-com where the son brings his vegetarian girlfriend home for the 1st time. The mom cannot get her head around the fact that she does not eat meat.
"Ahhh, well can't she have a little ham then?"
"No"
"Maybe a bit of chicken??"
"No mom she`s a vegetarian"
"Oh, poor thing. What caused that then?"
You asking here whether or not we "believe" in evolution, sounds just as stupid. I could ask if you "believe" in OHMs law? The only reason that sounds silly is that no religious books already set out the relationship between voltage and current. If you dismiss any biblical precedents? Then no "belief" is required.
Evolution is not something believe in or not. It simply IS.
"Beliefs About Human Evolution
Controversy over evolution has been a mainstay of American public life throughout much of the 20th century. The Pew Research survey asked about evolution using a set of two questions. Respondents were first asked whether “humans and other living things have evolved over time” or “have existed in their present form since the beginning of time.” Those who say that humans and other living things have evolved are asked a follow-up question about the processes they believe account for evolution.
In the most recent survey, 65% of adults say that humans and other living things have evolved, while 31% say humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time. Roughly half of those who say that humans have evolved over time believe that evolution has occurred from natural processes, such as natural selection (35% of all adults), while a somewhat smaller share (24% of all adults) believe a supreme being guided the evolution of humans and other living things. Another 5% of all adults are unsure how evolution occurred."
Thereby showing that 31% of Americans are ignorant idiots, a regrettably high figure.
What of that other 24% who "believe a supreme being guided the evolution of humans and other living things", surely you have an opinion about them?
SUCH WONDERFUL Science comments . But do they yet help waitingforgodot. ?
Evolution is well established by a large body of evidence in paleontology, biochemistry, genetics and cytology, physiology and anatomy, ontogeny, ecology, and other branches of natural science. Objective persons versed in this evidence widely accept the theory of evolution as confidently as they accept the idea that the Earth is round. (There is, however, still give-and-take on certain specific details of the complex mechanisms in this grand theory of evolution.)
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"Many of us have no grasp of quantum theory, or Einstein's theories of special and general relativity, but this does not in itself lead us to oppose these theories! Darwinism, unlike 'Einsteinism', seems to be regarded as fair game for critics with any degree of ignorance. I suppose one trouble with Darwinism is that … everybody thinks he understands it."
Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, W.W. Norton & Co., 1986
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"Evolution is both a beautiful concept and an important one, more crucial nowadays to human welfare, to medical science, and to our understanding of the world than ever before. It's also deeply persuasive--a theory you can take to the bank. The essential points are slightly more complicated than most people assume, but not so complicated that they can't be comprehended by any attentive person. Furthermore, the supporting evidence is abundant, various, ever increasing, solidly interconnected, and easily available in museums, popular books, textbooks, and a mountainous accumulation of peer-reviewed scientific studies. No one needs to, and no one should, accept evolution merely as a matter of faith."
David Quammen, "Was Darwin Wrong?" National Geographic Magazine, Nov. 2004
Evolution isn't something that one 'believes in'. It is a system of thought that fits within a reasoned hypothesis. It makes a lot of sense as a conceptual tool and there is observable evidence to support it in 'adaptation'.
Where evolutionary phenomena are consistent they earn degrees of 'belief' and where not, much remains to be discovered. As close as our nearest non-human cousins are, our species leapt across a wide, evolutionary (if you will) chasm that cannot be reasoned by many to be entirely consistent with evolutionary processes alone.
Something happened and the effects have been sudden and compounding. To discover what happened will probably require transcending the evolutionary frame of reference.
Yes, I believe the experts in their field on this one. It’s a leap of faith in someways as the timeframe for changes is so long it’s rarely observable to the layman, but changing migratory patterns of birds is one example.