Do you believe in evolution?

[brokeplex]

http://www.expelledthemovie.com/

this seemed like a good spot to link the latest Ben Stein movie about dogma and censorship in academia. I saw it and thought it was very funny with a serious point about censorship.

I personally see natural selection as the logical driving force in life. The "selfish gene" is determined to survive. But, I am saddened at how academia has become as dogmatic, and rigid in its beliefs as the 19th Victorians whom they condemn. Opposing points of view outside the orthodoxy just aren't readily expressed anymore in academia.

[David In Indy]

I've always wondered if we evolved from monkeys, then why are there still monkeys?

I'm not sure if I believe in evolution, but I don't buy into this "Adam and Eve" deal either. But I DO believe however it happened, it was God's will and he caused it to happen.

[delalluvia]

http://www.expelledthemovie.com/

this seemed like a good spot to link the latest Ben Stein movie about dogma and censorship in academia. I saw it and thought it was very funny with a serious point about censorship.

I personally see natural selection as the logical driving force in life. The "selfish gene" is determined to survive. But, I am saddened at how academia has become as dogmatic, and rigid in its beliefs as the 19th Victorians whom they condemn. Opposing points of view outside the orthodoxy just aren't readily expressed anymore in academia.

The minute I saw a commercial for "Expelled" I knew it would be garbage.  Ben Stein's supposed "zinger" line that 'stumps' the teacher while in a class of evolution is to ask "Where did life come from?" 

I wanted to reply, "You're in the wrong class, Stein!"

Here's a good read about why the movie is bunk:

http://www.expelledexposed.com/
http://www.pandasthumb.org/
http://richarddawkins.net/article,2394,Lying-for-Jesus,Richard-Dawkins

[delalluvia]

I've always wondered if we evolved from monkeys, then why are there still monkeys?

If humans evolved from apes, why are there still apes?

     Humans did not evolve from modern apes, but humans and modern apes shared a common ancestor, a species that no longer exists. Because we share a recent common ancestor with chimpanzees and gorillas, we have many anatomical, genetic, biochemical, and even behavioral similarities with these African great apes. We are less similar to the Asian apes--orangutans and gibbons--and even less similar to monkeys, because we share common ancestors with these groups in the more distant past.

     Evolution is a branching or splitting process in which populations split off from one another and gradually become different. As the two groups become isolated from each other, they stop sharing genes, and eventually genetic differences increase until members of the groups can no longer interbreed. At this point, they have become separate species. Through time, these two species might give rise to new species, and so on through millennia.

From: http://books.nap.edu/html/creationism/appendix.html

[Brokeback_Dev]

You know whats really cool about evolution?  Is that we, humans, are still evolving.  All creatures flora and fauna a like are elvolving.   Right?  It would be really cool to use some of that other percentage of our brain we dont use and see what we can do with it. 

But then again what about all the hormones our kids are getting in milk, meat and the processed food we serve them?  Our 12 year olds are looking more like 18 year olds.  Do you agree that the younger population of people actually have different attributes both feminine and masculine as once was.  Is that evolution? 

[brokeplex]

The minute I saw a commercial for "Expelled" I knew it would be garbage.  Ben Stein's supposed "zinger" line that 'stumps' the teacher while in a class of evolution is to ask "Where did life come from?" 

I wanted to reply, "You're in the wrong class, Stein!"

Here's a good read about why the movie is bunk:

http://www.expelledexposed.com/
http://www.pandasthumb.org/
http://richarddawkins.net/article,2394,Lying-for-Jesus,Richard-Dawkins

I disagree, it is funny and makes very good points about censorship by the academic left on college campuses (campi?)

watch the film before you critique, it will be on dvd soon.

[brokeplex]

You know whats really cool about evolution?  Is that we, humans, are still evolving.  All creatures flora and fauna a like are elvolving.   Right?  It would be really cool to use some of that other percentage of our brain we dont use and see what we can do with it. 

But then again what about all the hormones our kids are getting in milk, meat and the processed food we serve them?  Our 12 year olds are looking more like 18 year olds.  Do you agree that the younger population of people actually have different attributes both feminine and masculine as once was.  Is that evolution? 

no, those height and weight changes are occurring due to changes in nutrition, causing the human form to manifest itself differently from the same genome.

evolution is simply a result of the process known as "the survival of the fittest". generational changes in the genome result in changes over long periods of time. if you have a child who because of a genetic change can read minds, he or she may be better able to procreate and therefore pass on their changed genes. if you have a child that thru a genetic change has no skull and the brain is exposed, that child will not live long enough to reproduce and therefore that genetic change will not be passed on.

evolution then occurs when genetic changes are made which better enable the individual to survive and pass on the change to subsequent generations. 

[delalluvia]

I disagree, it is funny and makes very good points about censorship by the academic left on college campuses (campi?)

watch the film before you critique, it will be on dvd soon.

Perhaps you should read about the people and opinions Stein & company misrepresented and misled in his movie before you further support it.

[brokeplex]

Perhaps you should read about the people and opinions Stein & company misrepresented and misled in his movie before you further support it.

Del I wouldn't call my opinion that the movie is funny and asks interesting questions support.

I don't have a dog in Stein's hunt. No money invested, and I am not a follower of the "intelligent design" movement, much less the "creationist" movement.

natural selection is logical to me. I am however very sensitive to censorship, and the censorship that is occurring on college campuses, perpetrated by the academic left is largely unknown to the public. That, and the film's entertainment value are the sum total of why I would recommend to anyone that they rent the dvd.

nothing more. 

[delalluvia]

Del I wouldn't call my opinion that the movie is funny and asks interesting questions support.

I don't have a dog in Stein's hunt. No money invested, and I am not a follower of the "intelligent design" movement, much less the "creationist" movement.

natural selection is logical to me. I am however very sensitive to censorship, and the censorship that is occurring on college campuses, perpetrated by the academic left is largely unknown to the public. That, and the film's entertainment value are the sum total of why I would recommend to anyone that they rent the dvd.

nothing more. 

Well, the problem is that what they are supporting is religious and crying censorship on trying to get their unmistakably religious/crackpot views seen as 'scientific' with no supported data and anyone who disagrees with them as 'censoring' them.  They peg themselves as 'victims' when they claim they have an alternate view that's every bit as good as evolution and it's been 'suppressed'.

That's not the case at all and is extremely misleading.