Quote:to make those who accept the theory of evolution look like they are following some cult of personality or religion.
Oddly enough, evolution forms a core part of my religion. I suppose I'm the only proper Darwinist here.
Let me show you an example,
Quote:1Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water's edge. 2He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: 3"Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. 8Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times."(4 Mark 1-9)
9Then Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
Most of you should be familiar with this parable, it describes how Jesus' message is "sown". Now look closer, and picture Dawkins in your mind, in particular when he describes religion is a meme virus...
Jesus' message is a meme package, "The farmer sows the word", and it evolves by natural selection; some falls along the path and the birds eat it up, those seeds don't get to replicate, some falls on rocky places, not enough soil to feed the seeds, they don't replicate, others in thorns etc. but some seeds fall in good soil, tro replicate thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times.
What's probably most important in this passage is the use of the word "seed". And it not only describes the evolution of "the Word" but it describes the process of evolution clearly. Substitute seed for deer and you have a pretty good description of natural selection.
A doe goes out into the woods and has 4 cubs. One of the cubs lingered to long in the plains and got eaten by a lion. Another cub was climbing on a rocky cliff and slipped, fell, and broke it's neck. Another was drinking water by the river but got pulled in by the powerful stream, eventually drowning. But one, just one of the cubs survived childhood, grew up big and strong and found a mate, and had a litter of it's own.
Wheither Jesus existed or not is neither here nor there, whoever wrote the Gospel of Mark was a genius.
The concept of natural selection was known quite early in human history, and it, ironically, was bound up in cosmology rather than biology, they talk about how the universe evolves, from a state of chaos, into a state of order, through natural selection. So, it is in Creationism, that we find...Darwinism!
Quote:I have read that too but there is no evidence that aliens even exist let alone have visited this world
I'm not saying visiting this world, I believe sapient creatures such as ourself may be a one off, and if there are other species, they'd be so rare we wouldn't be able to ever meet them. Still, I'm sure there'd be some alien worms or plantlife just around the next solar system.
