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I usually do not write about beliefs. I try to stay away from the subject. But I am recently motivated to talk about my belief on what Evolution is and what Intelligent Design is. First I want to give you some of my background. I am an atheist. I do not believe in a ‘higher’ power. I am not one of the atheists that want to change people’s views. I am not one that is offended by phases such as “In God we Trust.” Religion is a way for us to rationalize the unexplainable, to put meaning in our lives, to keep some people on the straight and narrow, and to form bonds with.
There is no doubt evolution happens. It is the changes of you physical being. I have heard the arguments that “We did not evolve from apes.” This is true, we did not evolve from apes, apes and us evolved from a common ancestor which we have the fossil remains to prove that. “There is no evidence that a new species was created from evolution”. This argument wants evidence of a fossil remain of a cross-species for instance a bird-fish. Evolution is an extremely slow process where miniscule changes occur over long periods of time. “How did life start?” That’s another good question. There is many different theories on this; electricity hitting water creating single cell organisms, asteroids that can carry microbes (this has been observed), and many others. “How come there are still species that evolution seems to have failed (for instance the platypus while the alligator hasn’t changes in millions of years).” Evolution is an ongoing process. We see it today with people being bigger, diets are changing, people are being born without wisdom teeth, etc. Evolution to me explains our physical being, our physical existence and our close-net links in DNA with other species on our planet.
The question comes in gaining intelligence. How did humans gain conscience? Evolutionist and intelligence design theorists can agree that something happened to the human race about 8000 years ago. Humans started agriculture, domesticating animals, burying their dead in rituals, and living in established settlements. This did not occur in just the Fertile Crescent, but it started to occur world wide at the same time. Many people equate intelligence to discovery. For instance the Chinese discovered gunpowder before the Europeans; therefore they must have been more intelligence. The American Indians did not have the wheel; therefore they must be less intelligent. But discoveries are either accidental, or based on needs, not based on intelligence.
Let me ask a question “Do you believe that man is more intelligent today than he was 4000 years ago?” Most people would say yes man is smarter today than in the past. I do not believe this. Man is more efficient today than in the past, but not anymore intelligent. But this can not be proven. Whenever we look at an ancient wonder we always ask “How did they do that” without ever thinking about the intelligence behind it, we mentally see slave labor and religious faith that build things.
How does intelligent design fit into the equation? I’m not sure, but it is possible that something influenced man about 8000 years ago. We will never know for certain how many gained conscience and intelligence. This can not be found in fossil remains.
Does intelligent design fit into the world of academics in our schools? No. Intelligent deign is a hypothesis to explain something we don’t understand, it is not a theory, it lacks any scientific evidence. Evolution does have scientific evidence. Therefore it is up to parents to teach Intelligent Design to their children if they wish to.
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