Do you believe in...

Don't ask me why Oscar the Grouch is the picture for "Neither."

For my reasons, see my soapbox article on this topic.

There is no god.

God controls evolution. Even Darwin admitted to it before he died.

I strongly believe in Evolution.

I can't just be one thing or the other.

I'm not sure what to believe, everything has it's doubts

I also strongly believe in Evolution, but also that both are applicable. I believe that evolution can take us so far with an explanation of life and howit started etc. But then you hit a wall.... a wall that creationism breaks through. I don't believe that some supreme being (i.e. God) instigated this, as you then get into a whole other debate about where that deity has come from... evolution? creationism? Its a big headache. But I do believe that this deity is some kind of metaphor for the process of life from around the cosmos finding one common ground. A place where various forms of life have been able to continue their own evolutionary process independent of each other. The question is... did these life forms fall into place, or were they pushed?

yes, i know that all the science and everything points to evolution.
i know it seems like some fairytale saying God made everything in 7 days and what not.
i dont care.
i believe :)

My opinion I would like to believe in creationism but it seems a bit to romantic for me. Personally I think creationism was created to fill in the holes before science. Though I doubt even science truly knows what happened.

I just think that as time went on, we all adapted to our environment and so evolved to adapt it

There is a phrase for every single "proof" of creationism: Blind faith.

"I do believe that this deity is some kind of metaphor for the process of life from around the cosmos finding one common ground."

thecon, I think I love you...

I've believed that for most of my intellectually adult life.

everything evolves. Any that you look at, has or will evolve! in Islam we believe there were creatures like us before Adam. The difference betweenis that we have reason and logic. They were animals before us. They felt joy and pain but they couldn't have reason and logic. It doesn't necessairily mean that we came from monkeys and apes

Material, animals, humans, they all evolve. whether it's big changes or small ones!!!

We will all know the truth when the universe ends and we have passed on from this life (sorry if that's too full of religion but it's just my opinion)

The idea that we "came from monkeys and apes" is a common misconception about evolution actually. Rather, what Darwin meant was that we share a common ancestor with monkeys and apes, millions of years ago.

I took a biocultural anthropology course in which this point was stressed to no end. It was asked TWICE on the final exam, once as a true and false question (True or False: Humans came from monkeys and apes) and then a second time as multiple choice (Humans evolved from: A) Monkeys and apes B) Australopithecus afarensis C) Australopthecus boisei) Etc.

Just have a little faith.

I've studied them both thoroughly and evolution just doesn't make sense to me.

Care to elaborate, maybeastarbucks?

Both really

I believe in evolution, I believe in science. I believe that while creationism is a nice story that's all it is.

Because I support science and things that you can prove. Creationism sounds nice, but is totally unrealistic because if God were truly all powerful he would've been a techie and created the worlds in 5 days

I believe in evolution to some extentent, but not in extremes.
All you have to do is ask someone who totally believes in Evolution "... and where did that come from?" over and over.
Eventually, science will not be able to give them any more answers, and that's where God comes in.

I agree, kateliness, and that's why I believe that they are both compatible. God is the catalyst, and evolution is the mechanism.

"Because I support science and things that you can prove. Creationism sounds nice, but is totally unrealistic because if God were truly all powerful he would've been a techie and created the worlds in 5 days"

If someone was that powerful then stopping time and doing things in no-time would suffice...why mess about?? Why wait millions of years for something to grow legs, arms, fingers etc etc...

Evolution is the way I see it working...We started small got big and then small again....AAARRRHHHGGG I'm Shrinking... :P

Well, it depends. Do you mean that if you believe in evolution at all you should pick Both? I don't think that humans were ever another species. We may have been much smaller and had much more body hair, but we were still humans. So, I believe a single species can evolve within itself, but not into another species.
Should I change my answer to Both?
Because I assumed that I wasn't a firm enough believer to qualify for the Both answer, Cinders :)

I find that most people who don't believe in evolution actually don't understand it. Conversely, most people who don't believe in creationism pass it off as faith-based speculation and don't bother to try and understand it.

The world is a funny place.

I took a biocultural anthropology course in which it was assumed that you believed in evolution, or at least allowed for its possibility, and to be honest... even if you didn't believe in evolution before the class, you definitely did afterwards, and not because it was 'taught' but because we analyzed the bone structure and progression of apes in the fossil record, and we examined the behavioral patterns in apes and chimpanzees today, and looking at these things, it was like God was telling a story.

The other issue people have with evolution is they cannot comprehend the time frame, or what is meant when they say changes happen over billions of years. Five hundred years ago was a long time ago to us, and as humans were the same then, people make the mental leap from five hundred to five thousand to five billion. Now this is a brain trick that the mind often uses in order to make abstract ideas more concrete. In truth we have no way of comprehending these time frames. But if you try really, really hard, and think of a small change happening every few thousand years or so, it really does make sense.

For those who don't like evolution because you think it implies that God makes "mistakes" think of it as the life-span of the human species. You started off young and playful and then you grew up into something cynical and old. LOL.

(That was just my argument for evolution).

The point of the "Both" answer, katie, was to give those who think that the two theories are apples and oranges an option. Personally, I never believed evolution and creationism were mutually exclusive. Neither one contradicts the other (in a metaphorical interpretation of the Bible which is my favorite way to interpret it). And therefore, since one doesn't conflict with the other, they are unrelatable. In that, you can believe in both.

I believe in a sort of creation. Something sparked life. I'm not saying it was God as we know Him, but it was definitely something.

Deja vu. Did I say this already in another thread? Hm...

What is interesting is that both Creationism and Evolution are accurate but on different planes of idealism. Darwin had, for most of his life, proclaimed atheism. But towards the end of his life gradually moved back towards God. Now this is why I feel creationism and evolution go hand in hand. Where I've seen scientists and ministers agree is that God uses nature as His toolbox, and a thus "primordial soup" let forth one of the Earth's first beings. Look at Noah's Ark. It WAS found on Mount Ararat. Although it was not exactly built as depicted in Childrens' Bibles, it was still proven that it was there, in what is now modern day Turkey.
And what were depicted in the Bible as Sodom & Gomorrah, ruins left behind after its famous destruction at God's Hands, Archealogical digs have found human remains and pottery and whatnot. This is where I know Science and Faith go hand-in-hand.

You cannot believe in Evolution. It is a scientific theory. You either accept or not. Beliefs should stay in the religious sector of debate. I chose Neither because I do not belief either. I do however accept Evolution as the most plausible explanation based on our current knowledge.
I am sorry if I have offended anyone, I assure you that is not my intent. It has always been one of my pet peeves when people mix beliefs and science. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that when I was in Junior High School our school board outlawed Evolution to be taught in schools (not sure if it was all schools or just public but I went to a public school.)
Most of the reasoning stemmed from people mixing beliefs and science. I have touched on this subject before on my soapbox article on the global warming prevention spot.

Continue on with your debate.... =)

Semantics. You can't accept a theory if you don't believe it's possible. "Believe" doesn't always have to have religious connotations. If someone tells you a tall tale, you choose to believe him or not, don't you?

let me say it this way...beliefs shouldn't be involved in science. maybe you would think it was more than semantics if you went to a school or in my case lived in a state, where a teacher could get fired if they even mentioned the word evolution. trust me it was very embarrassing and frustrating for those like me who are passionate about science.
so it is a pet peeve of mine that stems from the fact i have been affected by what can happen when people mix what they believe with scientific theories. maybe I am oversensitive to the word, but that's me.
you are entitled to your opinion and i respect it. likewise i am entitled to mine.

i don't know if i've commented yet but everything evolves. maybe not totally from monkeys but we haven't always looked like this. the computer has evolved. the internet has. the internet used to go probs like 50 mph. now internet can go so fast. we have email and instant messegeing. html and etc.etc. fanpop has evolved. used to not as much people used to be on, not as many spots, and not much content. i don't necessairily believe in what Darwin says, but I do believe in evolution.

however creationism comes in because of my religion. God is the source of everything.

""I do believe that this deity is some kind of metaphor for the process of life from around the cosmos finding one common ground."
thecon, I think I love you...
I've believed that for most of my intellectually adult life."
i heart you both! i don't even need to say anything more, that summed it up perfectly. (although, i didn't pick "both" because to me, creationism means literally believing "god" created the world in 6 days).
on another note: maybeastarbucks "Ive studied them both thoroughly and evolution just doesn't make sense to me." - really? i hate to be snide, but it's really beyond me how anyone can choose to ignore scientific evidence. having faith is one thing, but trying to explain away facts with faith is entirely another.

this is so off topic, but every time i look at this pick i want to say "magic".

just because i belive in evolution it does not mean that i don not belive in a god, just that the bible or any other text that talk about creationism. has it occured to anyone that maybee god put us on earth in a base form such as ameba, knowing we would evolve (he may or may not have known what into). Just my opinin as somone that belives in the God-chaos, a god that does not necessaraly have all the answers, (again contradicting the biblical ceiw that god its Omnisiant)and cannot see how all things will pan out.

I've seen a few posts like blisslikethis' (3 above) that say they didn't pick both because of something like they don't believe the Earth was made in 7 days. Well, this is a religious answer: What is a day to God? Is it a billion years? Who knows?

Oh and I'll defend maybeastarbucks for a minute too: He didn't say he was explaining away scientific facts (by the way, evolution is a theory not a fact), he said that "they didn't make sense."
Sorry, I felt like you were putting words into his mouth.

I don't believe there is a god. I think that his story was just thought up by people a long time ago, to explain things that they could not prove.
Now that we have the technology and the science to prove these things, I don't see any need for a god. Evolution all the way x]

Kateliness, you're right, evolution is a theory, but it is based on scientific fact-- facts like the fossil record, like anthropological notes on the behaviors of apes and chimps, like the similarity in DNA and bone structure, etc...

I still say Creationism and Evolution are apples and oranges-- incomparable. But that doesn't mean everyone else sees it that way.

It's so weird when MajorDork and I agree though. I get chills. LOL!

theres no such thing as god, honestly, how can there be 'someone' 'up there watching us all the time' etc etc i think its bullshit so yeah im all in for the scientific side of life

I dont belive in god either
i dont belive in religon, i see it the freeudian way

A painkiller is only there to cover up ailments and aches, but it does not cure it. What you should really do is try to fight it off, not drag through hoping your painkillers will get you through it
we have to face our own problems, not rely on somthing else to do it for us

now take religon as pain killers, the problems of life as the aches, and trying to "pull through it" as peopple turning to religon to solve their problems

we shouldnt rely on others to help us through our problems, we ought to face them ourselves and grow from our difficulties

its this reason and my strong and near complete understanding of evolution which decided my choice

its not up to me whta you choose, as some of us need pain killers to get through life, but i just think in general it isnt the healthiest way to deal with your problems

I like that. Religion is a drug. That sounds like a badass punk rock song.

I have changed my answer to both. I now have my own definition of evolution, and what it is to me and how I see the evidence. I've been doing research I doubt it is the same as anyone else's and I don't think I can word it well right now; I'd probably end up embarrassing myself. I'll probably write it down and come back. Evolution and Creationism arn't ironclad. I think I'm seeing the "light" LOL!

Oh and painkiller is an interesting way to define it, although I see where you are coming from. It's slightly more negative than I look upon it. I see it more as a friend to help you when you're down, but like Cinders, I think your post could be turned into a hit punkrock song ;)

not so much both as a hybrid of the two. I don't see why evolution & a creator would have to be mutually exclusive.

i 2 would like to hear that punk song :P

I believe that God made everything let everything run its course. When things didn't go according to His plan, He'd help it along a little bit.

kateliness, very good point about "what is a day to God?". however, the emphasis in the statement i made was on "god", not on the 6 days. i don't necessarily believe in god, so i can't really say i believe in creationism either.

and evolution is actually both fact and theory :). while it can't explain every aspect of human existence, "It is an incontrovertible fact that organisms have changed, or evolved, during the history of life on Earth" (http://www.actionbioscience.org/evolutiion­/le­nsk­i.h­tml).

i'm surprised no one's mentioned the "pshaw, we can't have evolved from monkeys!" argument. i was all set up with excellent rebuttals!

I don't think we DID evolve from monkeys though. We share a common ancestor with them, but we really evolved from some kind of fish. I think it was called the African Lung Fish. But no, we don't come from monkeys, we're just very similar.

And Cinders has already pulled out the "we didn't evolve from monkeys" card. Read her comments above.

thanks for pointing that out :) although, having a "common ancestor" means that humans and apes are two different evolutionary strains of the same species.. thus, it's not entirely incorrect to say that we evolved from monkeys, it's just not totally specific either.

i was born into a Catholic family.i go to church every Sunday and went to a school that did the equivalent of about a class on evolution a year. my beliefs aren't my own but they are all i know. to be honest i don't really know anything about evolution.

"my beliefs aren't my own."

Make them your own! I encourage you to go and learn about both and come to your own conclusion. A good website is the TalkOrigins Archive. Check it out!

I always encourage people to think about what they themselves believe and not just accept what others tell them at face value.

I don't believe either, and it doesn't really seem important to me. It doesn't matter how God made the universe.

I grew up in a family where I was taught both ways, it wasn't this way or that way. My parents raised me to think for myself and respect what I believe in. So in saying that....

I believe in both. I believe God did create the earth, but I also believe he left it to it's own devices. Meaning I do believe God created life, but I don't believe he created humans. I believe we humans are evolved from other species. Does that make any sense at all.