Religious Nuts

[Tormod]

i'm not sure if anyone here has called me a Rnut, but i have found that most of the time when someone gets mad at me, it's because they know that i'm right.

 

happens all the time with my wife :)

 

Finally we agree on something! :)

[BEAKER]

It may "fit" but not "neatly" by a long shot. First you have to whittle off all the evidential edges, scrape the logic off the sides, round the corners off with a 20" chain saw, and then pound evolution into your definition of religion with a 16-pound sledge hammer.

 

Why would you want to do that, anyway? :) :) :)

It's not a matter of wanting to do it; Like it or not - recognize it or not - evolution is a religion, and man is the object of worship. - The god of himself. (Generically speaking).

 

And personally, I see your excellent metaphore doing a far better job describing what it takes to force evolution into the model of the (statistically speaking), extremely monststerous unlikelihood that life actually began in the conventional evolutionary scenario.

[jkellmd]

It's not a matter of wanting to do it; Like it or not - recognize it or not - evolution is a religion, and man is the object of worship. - The god of himself. (Generically speaking).

 

And personally, I see your excellent metaphore doing a far better job describing what it takes to force evolution into the model of the (statistically speaking), extremely monststerous unlikelihood that life actually began in the conventional evolutionary scenario.

 

It is evolutionary theory that allows the masses to finally see beyond humanity, and that we are not the inheritors of the cosmos, destined overlords of the "lesser life forms." Removing man from his pedestal was one of the largest effects of evolutioary theory, an effect which shook 19th century intellectual society to its roots. Darwin's ideas forced a huge reshaping of philosophy and science - only religion has held out.

 

Any scientist would probably discard evloutionary theory, in the unlikely event that any reasonable evidence is found to do so - a fact not shared by any religion. People do not trust in evolution with their hearts, or worship the originators of the idea (at least any more so than they worship Newton or Einstein) - they simply accept the idea based on its elegance and the proponderance of the facts. If you with to convince people focused of the mass of evidence, many of whom see perfect beauty in the idea to boot, you'll need accumulate more evidence to support you.

[CraigD]

… Like it or not - recognize it or not - evolution is a religion, …

From a dictionary.com result:

re•li•gion

1a.Belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe.

1b.A personal or institutionalized system grounded in such belief and worship.

…

Mainstream theories of evolution intentionally avoid reference to a supernatural power. Even ID, in its scientifically credible form (yes, I believe “intelligent design” is a credible, possibly true, possibly false, but as yet poorly developed, scientific hypothesis, despite being buried and obscured by acrimony and controversy from all sides), does not demand a “supernatural designer”.

 

By the most common definition of the term, neither Evolution, nor any naturalistic theory or even non-scientific explanation, is a religion.

WEBSTERS DICTIONARY (Paraphrase)

 

Religion: "A specific system of belief"; "A code of ethics"; "A philosophy of life".

 

Religious: "conscientiously exact"; "scrupulous"; "devout".

 

According to these definitions, religion is not limited to a belief in God, regardless of the common usage of the term.…

I removing all references to the term “supernatural” or “spiritual”, I think BEAKER has paraphrased too much – a term abstracted too far from it’s common usage looses utility. While the term “religion” need not refer to “God”, or a particular god, it must, to remain useful in informal conversation, refer to belief in something supernatural.

[cwes99_03]

Lots to read here, but hopefully you've been reading it all along. If not, this should catch you up. Note not all the following is in the exact order it appeared on the thread, but I've done my best to place it in relevant and contextual order.

 

Apparently you missed the point. Evolution as a religion is a great idea for discussion take it to another thread. Here I'll even start one for you.

[BEAKER]

http://hypography.com/forums/theology-forum/4713-evolution-religion.html

 

Here's the link.:hihi:

 

But by the way, I don't know what you did, but that first post is a little strange.

 

Could you clean it up a bit?

[cwes99_03]

Done. Sorry for the mess.