Trying to understand evolution

[Minimalist]

God, Evolution, Big Bang, etc....it gives me a migraine.

"God" will remain ridiculous...like Santa Claus. But you can study the others and learn.

[ignoramus]

Please understand that accepting or choosing to deny evolution or how life originated has absolutely nothing to do with whether god exists or not...
Not knowing how it all works and needing to know is exactly where religion steps in.
They don't want you to question things too much.
You, young man, need to ask yourself whether you want to feel warm and fuzzy or whether you want to getting a better grasp on reality.

Go to YouTube, type in evolution, watch 2 or 3 full length docos and then watch a couple on genetics/DNA.
You WILL be blown away at how accurate and unmysterious it all is.
There are very intelligent people here who know the bible backwards and profess that it is all bullshit ... That feeling deep down side will fade as reality sets in.
It's a natural side effect to your indoctrination.

Welcome and enjoy your new journey...

[Sejanus]

[JDepps]

Ya I'll stick around and browse the forums. Beats the hell out of trying to debate with my family who I just recently opened up to them with how I felt. I did it in a different way than most. I wrote, I guess you could call it a poem? I just wrote how I felt in sort of a rhyme scheme. I felt like I could express myself better doing that. Matter of fact I'll make a thread with what I wrote.

[Ravenshire]

[The Grand Nudger]

I guess one my biggest questions with any religion or theory is how did it begin? No matter what or who, something was here first.

We don't know. We don't even know if our concept of causality makes sense "before" there was a "time" to be "before". Time is a property of this universe, this existence.

[SteelCurtain]

[Jenny A]

I was raised in a Christian home. I believed in God untl I was around 15-16 years old. And even than, after I strayed away, deep down I believed God existed. I'm 25 now. I'm just now finally accepting and admitted there is no God. Or I should say don't believe there is a God. It's ignorant to say there is or isnt a God. Noone truly knows. But I've been through alot the past 10 years. And I tried. I gave it my all. I read the Bible inside and out. I prayed everyday and put my heart in it. The past 2 years I became extremely full of hate and anger because even though I said I didn't believe deep down I did. And even now after no longer believing I still have resentment towards Christianity.

Well, you are an atheist now. Lacking a belief in god is the definition of atheism. The thing is, it isn't a philosophy. It's just a lack of belief in god.

There's no real need to go on and believe something else. I don't know a lot of things. I don't know if there are other universes. I don't know where the material came from that exploded in the big bang, though it seems clear there was a big bang. I don't know how life got started, though obviously it did because here it all is. It obviously evolved and I'm pretty sure that natural selection had a big part in it. But if evolution was disproved tomorrow, there'd still be no evidence of god.

And you what? I still have a good meaningful life not knowing. "I don't know" is often the best and the wisest answer.

[I see a couple people beat me to The Greatest Show on Earth.]

I never gave an honest effort into believing anything other than God but I'm that point now where I'm 100% open and willing to the other possibilities, mainly Evolution.

Don't go looking for belief if by belief you mean faith. Read a little. If evolution makes sense, believe it. Richard Dawkins The Greatest Show on Earth is a good place to start. If you don't mind long winded Victorian prose, Darwin's The Origin of the Species, is actually very clear. There's a reason he convinced so many scientists of his day. If you finish reading and you're still not convinced I'll disagree with you. But, it won't be proof of god. It will just mean you still don't know. And I don't know will still be a pretty good answer.