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Well said Scott! I'd like to recommend a book that supports what Scott says: "THE LANGUAGE OF GOD: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief." By Francis S Collins. (ISBN-13: 978-1-84739-092-9) Amazon.com<http://www.amazon.com/Language-God-Scientist-Presents-Evidence/dp/0743286391> Nic 57/15 On Fri, Oct 2, 2009 at 4:01 AM, Scott E Antes <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Hi Ray (and All)! Please accept my apologies for sounding like I'm in the > classroom. The last thing I want to do is insult anyone's intelligence. So > many people don't recognize what for me is a very major difference in > thinking, though, that I feel compelled to bring it up. > > I make a great effort to help my students understand this: Belief requires > no facts, just faith. As a scientist--like anyone who simply examines the > evidence, I need not *believe* in biological evolution; I *accept* it and I > *know* it, from the overwhelming facts that exist. We have fossil evidence > of it, DNA evidence of it, archaeological evidence of it, and now we can > *watch it occur*--something we couldn't do very well a few decades ago. > Most of us who teach university-level courses no longer use the term > "evolutionary theory" because it's confusing or misleading. (A theory is an > explanation, but no more than that until it is supported by factual > evidence.) We teach evolutionary science. Nothing we teach in science is a > matter of opinion, it's a matter of facts. Again, belief doesn't enter the > picture. > > As far as the statistic of only 39 percent of Americans "believing" in > evolution, that figure certainly is not representative of the hundreds of > students I've had over the past decade and a half. Per my experience, the > number of university students (again, those in my classes) who accept > evolutionary science as fact is closer to 80 percent.--maybe higher That > figure might be lower on the first day of a freshman class, but by the last > day they've examined the facts for themselves and drawn their own > conclusions, favoring knowledge. A minority, however, always will believe > what they've been told to believe, regardless of solid evidence to the > contrary. > > Belief is an amazingly powerful phenomenon, but we don't need it in terms > of biological evolution. Human evolution has favored us with the ability > for abstract thought, thus the ability to believe in that which we cannot > perceive with our senses. Belief was a powerful survival tool for our > ancestors. What they couldn't know, they had to believe. Today belief > still is useful to us, of course, but we have supplanted it in many respects > with knowledge: scientific knowledge, historical knowledge, the knowledge > that comes from a wider range of personal experiences than our ancestors > had. Our *scale of observation* is hundreds of thousands of times wider > than that of our ancestors. Yet, many people today continue to believe what > our ancestors believed. They will believe beliefs that have been passed on > through millennia, even those the facts dispute them. Pretty amazing, when > one thinks about it. > > Bottom line: Please let's not *believe* in biological evolution. That's > like believing in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. In other words, if we > must believe in something, believe those things for which we have no > evidence. Otherwise, let's either accept the facts, or not. > > Be well. Scott > > Scott E. Antes > Northern Arizona University > Department of Anthropology > PO Box 15200 > Flagstaff, AZ 86011 > ________________________________________ > From: Parkinson's Information Exchange Network [ > [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of rayilynlee [[log in to unmask] > ] > Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 1:50 PM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Darwin Film "Creation" Controversial > > only 39% of Americans believe in evolution; many people are hostile to the > scientific method which is self correcting and this has negative > consequences for those of us unlucky enough to have incurable diseases. > > Rayilyn Brown > Director AZNPF > Arizona Chapter National Parkinson Foundation > [log in to unmask] > > > From: Diane Wyshak > Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 1:04 PM > To: [log in to unmask] ; ray ; don C. Reed ; chew Nee Kong > Subject: Is Darwin Film "Creation" Too Controversial for American > Audiences? « MrGreen.Biz > > > > > http://mrgreenbiz.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/is-darwin-film-creation-too-controversial-for-american-audiences/ > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto: > [log in to unmask] > In the body of the message put: signoff parkins > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto: > [log in to unmask] > In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn