Science and you
By 
Shan-ul-Hai •
July 26, 2008
I’ve noticed that people are completely willing to accept Einstein’s theory of relativity, but many people refuse to accept Darwin’s theory of evolution. The most interesting thing about this is the fact that relativity is a very complex idea that can only be truly fathomed by people with a deep understanding of mathematics and physics; evolution, on the other hand, is a very simple concept that can be proven without much difficulty. Einstein’s theory also challenges social norms by saying that everybody else was wrong about the entire field of physics; Darwin, on the other hand, simply pointed out an ecological principle that did not necessarily rule out the possibility of a divine creator.
I think that people rejected the theory of natural selection simply because it deals with more familiar subject matter. Only a student of physics can understand why relativity is such a radical theory; when I try to explain it to people in lay language, they’re not too surprised by the fact that classical physics can be defied. But when I try to explain evolution, people love to say that God created the world in six days and that it just doesn’t make sense that we could have evolved from monkeys. Some people go as far as to say that the experiments I conduct in my own lab (which often prove the fact that evolution happens) are somehow part of a grand conspiracy… or, even more interestingly, that evolution happens on a small scale in my lab but not on a large scale in nature.
Why is it that people feel the need to form an opinion about every scientific principle without first understanding the facts? People who deny evolution rarely have an understanding of how natural selection works. People who deny global climate change rarely have an understanding of how greenhouse gases work. You can learn about the topic or you can admit that you don’t know enough to have a stance… but why do you have to automatically adopt a stance just because it’s championed by your favorite politician or your favorite clergyman or your favorite celebrity?
HIV was not created to destroy the black man or homosexuals. Global Warming is not a hoax. The gas tax holiday is a bad idea. The war didn’t cause the imminent recession. Evolution happens.
Don’t take the experts’ word for it… go out and read the objective scientific reports. Then go and read about the research so that you can confirm its authenticity. But please don’t jump to conclusions without looking at the facts… and if you feel the need to do it, then please, please, please don’t vote.
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The problem when you go on a fact finding mission on the internet is that is it so jumbled with garbage that finding facts is very hard. I have also noticed the propensity of garbage to be more easily copied and reproduced than facts.
You can check my attempt at debuking a few myths about condoms in the link above.
I’m partial to Wikipedia. It’s usually pretty accurate in my experience.
I think it’s partly because the creation story is taught to all children before critical thinking develops, because it’s a very simple story to undertsand. After critical thinking develops with an exposure to science when evolution is introduced it makes sense, a bit, and encourages further thinking. Though at a young age the hrad questions tend not to get asked until somebody else thinks of them.
I was taught evolution, panspermia and creationism in high school science classes for the IB. Evolution by far won out.
Some people like to say “If I can’t understand it, God did it” rather that “I don’t understand it.”
I have always said this. From what I have seen, evolution is how I see things done. Things change, organisms adapt. To combat the religious people who don’t accept it, I bring this point to them. God created the world in six days, but, how long is his days. I believe it says that God has to time, thus what would be six days to him? 5 minutes, 1,000 years? Who really knows, I guess if you believe in God, you can ask Him yourself when you see Him. But also, science and religion really can’t mix, sense religion is based of faith, and science is based of fact, which is where people start to hate each other.
With just going with what people say, I always belive in educating yourself. That main problem I see with the United States, and especially with this presidential election, is that there are a lot of uneducated voters voting for the wrong reasons. Just because you are told you are a Democrat of a Republican doesn’t mean you have to vote for them, that just means you have been labeled, which the founding fathers told us not to do in the first place. Look up, research topics, and come to your own decisions, and vote for who you think will do the best to show your views, and in that sense better this country. Just because someone says something, that doesn’t mean it is true - that just means they know how to speak.
About Wikipedia: I have had plenty teachers outlaw that website, saying that the information on there is not credible. I see where they are coming from, as they say any bimbo can go on there and change the information. I say this: the smart people change it back to the facts. Wikipedia is a very controled environment, and you cannot just change something and it stay there, unless that article is rarely viewed, but still it won’t be there that long most likely. If they find out you keep posting false material, they can ban you from posting there again, and they can lock topics (as with the case with the elephants and Steven Colbert).
1. “evolution, on the other hand, is a very simple concept that can be proven without much difficulty. ” I was under the impression that you generally cannot prove theories (otherwise it would be a law)
2. I think many people want or need to believe in God for whatever reason. Possibly because it’s fairly simple to believe (you can explain almost anything by saying a higher power played a role) and inculcated in most people’s minds from birth.
I think this video explains the 2 sides very well–they simply cannot communicate with each other due to their differing notions of the world:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnMYL8sF7bQ
(well worth watching the entire thing)
Ultra-religious types will never accept the simple fact of evolution, even though they know deep down they are in a losing battle. For them, if evolution is real, then there is no Adam and Eve. No Adam and Eve means no original sin. And therefore no need for Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sin. It also means the Bible is not the inerrant word of God, but a book written by men. This is a purely fundamentalist, literal biblical interpretation viewpoint not shared by most Christians, who are for the most part just ordinary people with faith who are able to see reality as it really is. Most believers in Christ are fully aware that we have always been sinful by nature and don’t need a talking snake tempting Eve with that nice juicy apple from the so-called Tree Of Knowledge. Unfortunately, it’s always the extremist minority who makes the most noise, and in doing so they tend to skew non-Christians’ perceptions of all Christians as a bunch of fearful ignorant Bible-thumping hilljacks.
mama, you are correct that theories are never considered “proven”… the evidence simply gets more and more overwhelming. In science, “Theory” is the top of the heap. We don’t use the word “law” anymore, except in the context of mathematics. This is partly because of Newton and Einstein. Newton’s observations about the behavior of gravity were called “Newton’s Laws” until a patent clerk named Albert Einstein showed that Newton’s “laws” broke down under high-gravity situations. Although Newton’s work is still relevant in low-gravity situations, Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity is (so far) all-encompassing and any cracks that have appeared in the framework of his theory have been minuscule at best. However, there may well be a discovery awaiting us that makes Einstein’s work seem like just an approximation - that’s why we never refer to “Einstein’s Law Of Relativity”.
Hope that helps!
I think any understanding that can not be realized in the length of time to watch American Idol is beyond the interest of most people. It isn’t to say that they couldn’t understand but it is reallllly hard and they aren’t that interested.
Interestingly, many of these things intersect in modern “spiritual texts.” In “Conversations with God”, the big guy/gal tells us how Einstein has come closest so far, how time does not exist, and quantum physics drive our experience down here.
Joyously enough, the same suggestions that all of the prophets have told us since the beginning of time seem to hold up under current science.
Love others like yourself. They really are you, and you are them. We all exist from the same source and you might have even been that person in another iteration of your experiences.
I and the father are one. They all say this, not just Jesus. We are the same, an extension.
By the way, of course evolution. If you’re designing a planet full of life, of course you’re going to use something like evolution. It’s a far more robust system than just creating people out of thin air.
It’s like programming, you can just hard code one set for a certain problem, but you’re going to have trouble down the line. Better to create an elegant solution that can evolve with the test of time.