Having read a few of the religious debates that are going on at the moment I feel that I have to correct a few misconceptions. This is not to carry any side forward in the debates, what I’m going to say will be silent with regard to religion. I won’t be able to cover all the problems, just the most glaring ones.
So let’s start at the beginning, the Big Bang (BB). First and foremost no one says that at the time of the BB there was nothing. In fact the exact opposite is true. At the time of the BB everything was there. When I say everything I obviously don’t mean as things seem today. To give you an idea of what I mean the BB could have started with about 10kg of matter in an area of 10^-27cm. How 10kg got to be everything in the universe today will take too long to explain here but think in terms of E=mc^2 and inflation. If the area was smaller say 10^-33 then the mass could have been as small as 1gram (If memory is correct).
No one at the moment can say what caused the BB. The science brakes down at time zero. We also can’t say what happened before the BB. Maybe one day these questions will be answered and we can put the matter to bed. Until such a time it doesn’t mean that we can’t ask questions, wonder what happened and formulate hypotheses.
The other area where misconceptions abound is the Theory of Evolution (ToE). I think one of the biggest is that ToE is against religion. This is not true as ToE is silent with regard to religion. Evolution has, is and will continue to happen, the theory that explains this process is ToE.
People also say that evolution violates the second Law of Thermodynamics. If this was true then ToE, as it stands, would not be here with us today. One way for it not to violate the 2nd Law is if there was an outside source of energy. Well what do know I think there is, it’s called the sun.
Another is to say that a person’s grandfather was a monkey. To them I will say “You are an Ape silly, monkeys have tails”. All humans are apes. Our last common ancestor with old world monkeys was about 30 million years ago (If memory is correct). Is it so really so bad to know you are an ape and distantly related to monkeys?
I can’t understand why some say they can accept micro evolution but not macro evolution. If you just and think about for a bit you should be able to understand that there is no difference between the two. For instance given time, environmental pressures, sexual selection and natural selection micro evolution will become macro evolution. A fuller explanation would require a post all on its own.
It is also incorrect to think of evolution as a ladder with us at the top. We can’t say, for instance, that we are more evolved than a chimp, or anything else for that matter. We, all living things, have evolved the same amount; we just took different paths to get here.
Personally I think evolution gives one a deeper understanding of the fundamental interconnectedness of all life. This can only be a good thing, bringing an understanding that man is not outside nature but part of and reliant on it. Maybe if more people understand this we won’t fcuk it up.
Earth is about 4,5billions years old. Get over it.
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