Do you believe in Evolution?
I get asked that question a lot and it bothers me. I don’t mind being asked about scientific matters, in fact I love it when someone is interested in discussing life, the universe and everything. It’s not the question that bothers me, it’s how the question is asked: Do you BELIEVE in evolution? No, I don’t “believe” in evolution, I accept evolution as fact.
For me to “believe” in evolution I would have to reject the endless amount of evidence and simply “have faith” that evolution is true. I could no more “believe” in evolution than I could “believe” the earth rotates around the sun. We know for a fact the earth rotates around the sun, we don’t rely upon our faith that it does.
I realize for many people it may seem like I am “picking nits”, but I have found that unless we stop using words like “believe” in terms of scientific issues, many theists will think of science as some sort of religion. For many theists you either “believe” in creationism or evolution. In my mind this cheapens evolution and science, this makes it sounds like there is no real proof for evolution.
In a previous column I told about a couple who came to my door to “spread the word”. They tried to use the “believe in evolution” argument with me, telling me how I must have a lot of “faith” if I believe in evolution. I of course told them I have no faith and I don’t “believe” in evolution. I explained that there is scientific evidence for evolution and I don’t need to believe in evolution when I have proof showing me it’s true. The couple in turn attempted to tell me about how the Bible was full of proof that creationism was true. I asked them for some scientific evidence of this and they just gave me blank stares.
In November of 1999 at the Symposium I attended a workshop discussing evolution. I heard at least three people say “when we evolved from apes...”. Now I know that this is not what they meant. We all know humans didn’t evolve from apes, rather humans and apes have a common ancestor. If you wait 5 million years an ape will not evolve into a human, but this is the impression we give to those uninformed about evolution.
I think it’s worth the few extra moments to make ourselves clear on the issue of evolution. By spreading the scientific word, we can make this a much more intelligent world.
Hello. My name is Angela Christine Byers (yes, my mother actually named me “Angel of Christ”), and I am an atheist.
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