CBS Poll Simulation: The Origin of the Human Species

[BurtWorm]

This question on the origin of human beings, asked both this month and in November 2004, offered the public three alternatives: 1. Human beings evolved from less advanced life forms over millions of years, and God did not directly guide this process; 2. Human beings evolved from less advanced life forms over millions of years, but God guided this process; or 3. God created human beings in their present form.

[shain from kane]

1. I sometimes wonder whether human beings devolved from MORE advanced life forms over millions of

years.

[BurtWorm]

4. I think it's very possible.

It's certainly not necessarily the case that humans are more advanced than the species we evolved from. I'd need to see a lot more evidence for that.

[shain from kane]

25. That Geico caveman seems to be pretty smart.

[BurtWorm]

34. Jared Diamond makes a pretty good case for the devolution of individual human IQ

as the species becomes more urbanized. More and more, technology becomes the species' brain and body, while the human animal becomes dumber and dumber and less and less able.

[muriel_volestrangler]

45. When did he start saying that?

IN Guns, Germs and Steel he reckoned IQ was evenly distributed across the world. When did he start dissing the urban majority?

[BurtWorm]

46. I didn't say he was dissing the urban majority.

But he does make the argument in GG&S that urban Americans tend to have less intelligence about their environment than hunter-gatherers. A forest-dwelling Papuan, for example, knows what goes into producing virtually everything in the culture and has an encyclopedia of information about the everyday environment in his or her head. Americans tend to be much less aware of how what we come into contact with everyday gets to be where it is.

[genie_weenie]

2. Does god have a blind spot,

crappy lungs, an appendix, wisdom teeth, nipples???

Oh, I forgot once Sin entered the world man fell to his present disgraceful body?

Human body is sinful. Eech! Yuck! Sex is evil!

[Richard Steele]

3. That's a silly poll. How am I supposed to know what G*d did or didn't do?

Obviously, human evolution happened. But whether G*D guided it? :shrug:

[DawnIsis]

5. I don't get the vote for "created us in our present form" what about

Cro-Magnon man. We have a fossil record that shows evolution from the Paleolithic era until present time. Please explain this to me if you vote for that one.

[genie_weenie]

8. Secular Humanist Scientists lied about those bones

all fossils are either humans with dieseases (neanderthals) or apes (austrolopithicenes) which have been dressed up by scientists either through outright lies or ignorance.

[yurbud]

9. an they made up that shit about DNA & carbonized dating

[DawnIsis]

16. Why would they do that and what proof do you have?

[yurbud]

47. when open a soda, they's no way o' measuring how fast the carbon escapes, how can they measure that

millions of years ago?

[yurbud]

48. pastor cleatus said so, and he's called by god. Mabye god telled him

[genie_weenie]

18. It's a long running conspriacy.

DNA was invented by notorious atheists* Crick and Watson therefore it is wrong, Mendels discoveries where done by a monk therefore they are true but have been used by lying scientists.

Carbon dating is inaccurate. http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2002/carbon_dating.asp

*- Everyone knows atheists are inherently evil.

[DawnIsis]

19. I don't think your link to "bible study" is any proof of anything scientific

You don't think humans have DNA?

Deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA is a nucleic acid molecule that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all living organisms. The main role of DNA is the long-term storage of information and it is often compared to a set of blueprints, since DNA contains the instructions needed to construct other components of cells, such as proteins and RNA molecules. The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in regulating the use of this genetic information.

[genie_weenie]

24. Have you ever seen DNA?

obviously it doesn't exist. It's all a lie.

[DawnIsis]

26. You are playing with me which is a relief

I was getting worried there for a minute :scared:

[genie_weenie]

28. People really allow themselves to believe this stuff!

:patriot:

And the problem is religious figures use humans natural tendencies to believe authority to their full advantage.

Knowing the oppositions position is the best way to advance knowledge.

[DawnIsis]

35. I actually have "seen" DNA btw I worked at a company in Boston

several years ago that took DNA samples from burn victims to grow them skin in the lab. The company also worked on breaking the genome code and worked on mammoth DNA. That's how I knew you had to be joking.

[Crunchy Frog]

50. And who told you that? The liberal media? Do you believe everything you read?

;)

[DawnIsis]

14. I can't tell if you are being sarcastic about scientists "spreading lies" about fossils

that's a huge conspriacy theory involving decades of scientists living all over the globe. And what would be their reason for spreading these lies in the first place?

[genie_weenie]

20. DUers wonder where these ideas come from

search around sites like uncommondescent.com or answersingensis.org and, of course Pat Robertson, they work very hard and influence politicians across America and inclucate these ideas in young children.

Because children are the key battle ground. Children are naturally inquistive and seek knowledge but are also hardwired by evolution to respect and trust older people (authority) The Jesuit boast - "Give me the child for his first seven years, and I'll give you the man"

Science and mathematics is hard, it takes decades of study to attain a high level of competince these days, now theology requires just undirected thinking. And authority telling you read this one book (maybe with the add ons of Aquinas or Augustine).

[annabanana]

27. Pay him no mind, DawnIsis. . He's using your newbie status to

educate the lost by playing devil's advocate...

(HEY YOU! STOP PICKIN' ON THE NEW KID)

[DawnIsis]

29. Yeah I realized he was yanking my chain

:think:

[genie_weenie]

32. Sorry, but one must know his adversary

in order to be victorious...


Here endeth the lesson.

[nebenaube]

17. excuse me?

phffftt....

[theoldman]

6. Read Richard Dawkin's book "The Ancestor's Tale".

It's a long read but one of the most educational books on evolution that I have read in a long time. I think that Dawkins does not believe that we are a more advanced life form.

[BurtWorm]

10. I don't think he would say that the species evolved over millions of years either.

Exactly how long it takes a species to evolve into descendent species is an open question I think.

[Swamp Rat]

36. repukes devolved quite rapidly

:D

[DawnIsis]

37. Noooooooooooooooooo

I grew up in Mississippi I am doomed! :rofl:

[Swamp Rat]

38. doomed as doomed can be!

:D

[BurtWorm]

40. See? It takes just a matter of years!

:rofl:

[dave_p]

7. There's an option missing

... whose existence I think we godless types should acknowledge: that evolution is unguided but that its underlying mechanisms are part of a divine Creation. There are respectable scientists who believe that. To me it's a non-starter through absence of any indication of a Creator, but the position's a very different matter to ID. It's not mine, but I respect it and can't see any way of disproving it, if I was particularly concerned to, which I'm not.

* On edit In fact it's not logically missing, since option 1 covers it: I'd be interested though in a separation of the "unguided" view between a deity-free take and one in which a Creator sets the rules but takes no subsequent part in the process.

[yurbud]

11. it's that the "God threw some spaghetti at the wall to see how it splattered" theory?

[hayu_lol]

12. Freaky Fundies gettin' busy again...

The term 'god' does not belong in this equation. To place it as it is placed skews the entire question/purpose of the poll.

This is sorta like 'how often did you beat your wife/husband?'

Stupid is as stupid does.

[dave_p]

21. Haha

Yes, I missed that - it just shows how being surrounded by the notion as if it were a reality kind of lets it pass under the radar.

Such questions should be posted replacing the contentious creator with "A deity" or some such formulation.

[JitterbugPerfume]

13. If I find out god did this

I am going to be SO pissed at him:wtf:

[Zywiec]

15. Did Adam and Eve have belly buttons?

[BurtWorm]

23. What would that prove? Neither does Kyle XY.

;-)

[genie_weenie]

39. Does have God have nipples?

Or a blind spot?

[BurtWorm]

41. Or a bald spot?

:think:

[Arugula Latte]

22. Other: Humans evolved from less advanced forms, and a deity had nothing to do with it. nt

[BurtWorm]

30. Question for those who answered "God guided evolution"

Is God, in your belief, omniscient? Does it know all things, including the end?

[SoCalDem]

31. Doesn't really matter much to me.. Humans live to 75 (or so)

and then they croak.. They remain "with us" as long as anyone who knew them is still here, and eventually (unless they are famous), they are just a slab of marble or a marker in some out of the way cemetery..

Enjoy the time you have.. life's shorter than you realize :)

[shain from kane]

44. Such a long long time to be gone and a short time to be there .

[OneBlueSky]

33. depends on what the meaning of the word "God" is . . .

if by God we're talking about an old man with a beard who lives in the sky somewhere, than my answer is #1 . . .

if, however, God is another name for the Universe, or Creation, then my answer is #2 . . .

[DawnIsis]

42. Yeah I agree with you the word God in my mind refers to the "Christian" God

I am not without a belief in intelligence elsewhere who perhaps had a hand in our creation but I have zero belief in a being which demands any sort of worship or recognition.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

43. A new poll:

Regarding the light in your refridgerator. Which do you believe?

A. When the door swings shut, it pushes a little button, turning off the light.

B. When the door swings shut, a little gnome comes out and removes the lightbulb.

C. When the door swings shut, it pushes a little button, turning off the light- but a little gnome guides the process.

D. The light does not go off when the door shuts.

[Solon]

49. E. The Light comes out of your eyes, not the light bulb.

Oddly enough, this was considered "common wisdom" for about a thousand years, since the Greeks thought of it. The ONLY thing they got right about the properties of light, and sight, was that light traveled in a straight line, or, at least, straight enough by human perception. Sounds foolish today, and no, I don't know how they explained darkness.

What I do know is that, about a thousand years later, around the turn of the first Millennium, a Muslim scientist, in Egypt, was given a task by the Caliph at the time, to stop the Nile from flooding. Knowing the limitations of technology at the time, the scientist did the only thing practical when faced with a tyrant like this Caliph, he acted like he lost his mind, to save his life.

Here's a more extensive explanation of his life:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_al-Haitham

You know, its funny Ibn Al-Haitham thought light behaved like a particle, with a finite speed, and he was right. René Descartes thought light behaved as a wave, like sound waves, and he was right too.