...Outline I. Introduction Thesis: In studying the underlying constructs of psychology – the origins of humanity, human nature, and human purpose – one sees the extensive influence of evolution. When contrasted with the biblical view of creationism, it becomes clear that modern psychology shares little in common with biblical principles. II. Basic Constructs of Human Psychology A. Human 1. What is a human being? 2. How do humans differ from animals? B. Human Behavior 1. Thought, feeling, action 2. Inner and outer worlds of human perception III. Human Origins A. Evolution 1. Life from non-life material/Big Bang Theory 2. Genetic mutation 3. Natural selection a. Competition as the foundation of behavior b. Law of the Jungle B. Creationism 1. God created the universe and all creatures 2. Each species was created separate and distinct 3. God created man special in God’s own image IV. Human Nature A. Evolution 1. Survival of the fittest a. Social behavior b. Mating c. Reproduction 2. Behaviorism a. Behavior is a combination of social learning and genetic influencces b. Effect on antisocial behavior on reproduction 3. Biological determinism a. No real basis for free will B. Creationism 1. Humans were made in God’s image a. God is love, justice, kindness, and joyful 2. The Fall of Man separated humans from God a. ‘War’ between good and evil b. Man’s nature is now sinful 3. Jesus the Son of God redeemed human...
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...In the history of science vs. religion there has been no issues more intensely debated than evolution vs. creationism. In the age old debate of creationism versus evolution, many people have given their lifelong work to supporting one side of this debate. But what we must consider are the facts. Theories will only get us so far in life, but the facts, the hard evidence, will convince a doubting person to believe if they will only consider the evidence. Through my research I hope to uncover that very evidence to show those who still doubt the real truth. Creation and Evolution are two major beliefs that people follow as a guideline. The two philosophies have different effects on our lives and the make-up of who we are and what we believe. Creation is a belief followed by many people and generally speaking the Holy Bible serves as a guideline and a set of instructions to show how the earth was formed and to guide us through life. Science backs up this Holy Book it is a very reliable source of the history of the world. There are many questions in life that man has always longed to find the answers to and the questions are: Who am I, why am I here, how did everything get here, and where will I go when I die? Well if you believe in evolution then you came from non-living material that all came together from the big bang. There is no purpose to life, you have no one to answer to, so if it feels good than do it and when you die then you will be recycled into a plant. We supposedly...
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...Creationism VS. Evolution “Why evolution should be taught in public schools” by Laura H. Kahn discusses how evolution being taught in the public school system is essential to our future in science and medicine. Kahn discusses how the theory of evolution has come to be over the many years of research and experimentation by many famous scientists, she also talks about the uphill battle it has been for the theory of evolution to be taught in the public school system because “certain segments of society insist that religious doctrine, masquerading as science, be taught instead. Laura presents her audience with the facts that in the nineteenth century theory of spontaneous generation, the theory that proposed that life could emerge from nonliving material, was the main theory of evolution back then. How ever a French chemist, Louis Pasteur, would try to disprove the theory through his discovery that yeasts were responsible for making wine palatable and bacteria was responsible for turning wine bad. He also discovered through the use of silkworms that microbes caused their illness and death. She states that Pasteur saw the connection between microbes, fermentation, putrefaction, and disease. She claims that his biggest challenge however was to try to convince the scientific community to accept is idea. She backs up her statement with bringing to our attention that at the same time Pasteur was pushing his theory a scientist by the name of Felix-Archimede claimed he had successfully...
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...this happened. One is the belief in creationism, which is the idea that there is a god that created the whole universe out of free will. The other belief is in darwinism, which is that the universe came from evolution and purely science. Both of these beliefs cannot be 100% proven and everybody has their own opinion on what they believe to be true. Creationism is the belief of some sort of creator, that somebody made up everything in the universe. This theory is based on faith and the ideas of the theory come from the bible mostly from the book of Genesis. Here it says that God created the earth in seven days. One of the biggest differences between the two is that with creationism, everything has a purpose. Creationism says that God created everything on purpose so that one thing leads to another and everything co-exists. There is also evolutionary creationism which is understanding the process of evolution but believing that God was involved as well. This is not a scientific theory but shows that the two theories can go hand in hand. With the belief that everything has a purpose there is the...
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...Creationism vs. Transformism During the first week of September, prior to reading chapter 5, Evolution and Genetics, a friend by the name of Joan and I got into a long conversation about the creation of earth and the existence of god. We talked about how the earth was created according to the Catholic belief and slowly an argument unraveled. Apparently, Joan did not believe in evolution and thought I was nuts! The idea that man and woman were created from god’s hands and dirt was not something I could possibly believe. I started to explain to him about Charles Darwin’s ideas on evolution and how I thought that quite frankly; we were not created in seven days. That conversation ended because he did not want to listen to anything that did not have anything to do with god. Two days later, I finally open up our textbook and turned to the assigned reading homework: chapter 5. As I began to read, I learned that the idea that life was created in 6 days was called Creationism. I then logged onto to my laptop to do further research on this idea and of course the first thing I stumbled upon was a website called creationtheory.org. In this website, it stated that there was a fossil finding in Kenya that dated back between 2 to 3.5 billion years ago. Researchers suggest that the fossil is unlikely to be of our human kind but rather our ancestor. It then began to point out that creationists could not believe in these findings because humans were fully developed at creation. As I began...
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...Jubin John Ms. Diomande Compare & Contrast Final Draft 10/22/14 Creation vs. Evolution Today many scientists would have to believe that evolution is the only reasonable explanation of the universe. Scientists, like Stephen Hawking, claim that they proved that evolution is the only correct answer to the origins of life and the universe, yet evolution is a theory proposed by scientists to explain the origin of all species. Evolution is not the only answer but in fact, the creation theory is based on the bible and that God created the universe. This is the idea of creationism which is supported by religion. Creationism offers a more credited answer to the development of the universe than the evolutionary theory because creation has the support of the bible. To make a decision on which theory is more appealing to them, people must choose either religion or science. The creation theory is solely based on the bible. The Bible, in fact, is actually one of the most proven books in history. Creationism is the theory that God created the universe and it's creatures in six days. For example, in Genesis 2:7 it states "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters". The Bible is not considered a science book, but many consider it to be scientifically correct. For instance, the Old Testament is quoted in several ancient...
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...Creationism vs. Evolutionism The quandary continues of whether or not creationism should be taught as an alternative viewpoint to the theory of evolution within the American public school systems. If scientific creationists believe that God's message is the defining element for the content, aims, and conditions of educational practice, then the argument can be made that creationism belongs in the classroom. On the contrary are those who assert creationism is not science and further suggests that "creation science" is a misnomer and oppose religion into public educational programs. They maintain the position that public educational programs should be made separate from concerns of the church. Fundamentalist Christians differ from liberal Christians with respect to the basic theories to how life began. Liberal Christians mold their lives around the theory of evolution; forging their spiritual doctrine around their lifestyle, where as fundamentalist Christians remain faith based; life created by God and their lifestyle strictly follows biblical doctrine. Those who side with the theory of Darwin and claim that creationism is really anti-science are in direct conflict with adamant creationists; and somewhere among these groups are a third group, scientific creationists, who use scientific terminology to prove that only life can come from other life. During the 1960’s the United States began an initiative to catch up with newer science teaching standards which...
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...Acceptance of Evolution and Support for Teaching Creationism in Public Schools: The Conditional Impact of Educational Attainment JOSEPH O. BAKER Department of Sociology and Anthropology East Tennessee State University Public acceptance of evolution remains low in the United States relative to other Western countries. Although advocates for the scientific community often highlight the need for improved education to change public opinion, analyses of data from a national sample of American adults indicate that the effects of educational attainment on attitudes toward evolution and creationism are uneven and contingent upon religious identity. Consequently, higher education will only shift public attitudes toward evolution and away from support for teaching creationism in public schools for those who take non-“literalist” interpretive stances on the Bible, or to the extent that it leads to fewer people with literalist religious identities. Keywords: evolution, creationism, religious identity, education, science and religion, public policy. INTRODUCTION Acceptance of evolution and support for creationism has been publicly debated since the initial diffusion of Darwin’s theory about the origin of species, particularly in the United States (Numbers 1998, 2006). From before the infamous Scopes Trial (see Larson 1997) to the present, many Americans have resisted ideas about evolution, leading to a relatively low global ranking on public acceptance of the theory...
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...World Religions Evolution vs. Creation In society, there are many diverse issues that raise intense controversy. One that is particularly interesting is the ongoing conflict between the world of science and some segments of religious society. This essay will refer to the debate between evolution and creationism which has ranged through the course of human history, but intensified as the science and evolving proofs of evolution are generated. Evolution has proved that Creationist beliefs and their denial defy logic, science and reality. One of the most common questions that humanity tends to ask itself is where we came from and how we came to be. It is inherent to every human being to ask himself about their origin and purpose of their existence. Humanity’s first attempt to answer these questions was religion (Christianity, Judaism, Islamic); however science has introduced an alternative to religion’s so called answer, evolution. The current argument began with an English naturalist by the name of Charles Darwin. Darwin was the first to propose the theory of evolution, which states that mankind, through genetic mutation and natural selection, evolved from a common ancestor over a prolonged period based on natural selection processes. This theory directly defied religious beliefs at the time; more specifically those of the Catholic church which believes in creationism, or in a more general sense intelligent design. Creationism is essentially a belief...
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...The Scopes Monkey trial of 1925 is considered a success for the teaching of biology in the United States. Although John T. Scopes was found guilty and the christian plantiffs won, the spokemen for the case were labeled as silly in their explaination of concepts in the book of Genesis, such as Adam and Eve and Noah's Ark. Even after the violation of the Tennessee law, other states were less willing to propsing laws similar to the Butler Act (Cornish,2007,para.3). The trial was just the beginning of a century-long war between creationalists and scientists. The conflict also turns into a christian vs atheist debate, due to the overwelming amount of atheists who support the theory of evolution. After reading Randy Moore's article, I was surprised by the number of Americans who want creationalism to be incooperated in a biology curriculum. Based on statistics provided by Randy Moore, while half the U.S. Population support...
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...of loss, making matters worse, was the fact that I was unable to be at her side in her time of need, nor was I able to attend her funeral services. With the passage of time I began to question the meaning of life, my life. I began to question the purpose for which I was born, was there really any purpose? So many other questions filled my thoughts, within me was a longing, a deep inner desire to know. Quest It had been two years since my Grandmother passed on. I can only describe them as tumultuous years.my emotions ranged in anger, and frustration, and so began my quest for meaning; purpose, and truth. Where did man come from? Why were we here? Was there any purpose to man’s existence? My journey led me to examine the theory of evolution vs. creation. The word "evolution" is often used as a shorthand for the modern theory of evolution of species based upon Charles's theory of natural selection, which states that modern species are the products of an extensive process that began over three billion years ago with simple single-celled organisms, and Gregory Mendel's theory of genetics.http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Theory_of_evolution Extensive archival research on my part led me to reject the evolutionary theory. There were just too many gaps within...
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...Title: Evolution and Intelligent Design: Which Is True? Introduction: * Controversial subject * Full into beliefs * Very political * Connection between Intelligent Design & Creationism I. Background A. Evolution is the scientific theory that all life forms on Earth today are descended from a single cell organism 1. Charles Darwin & Natural Selection 2. Genes carry the DNA codes for a evolutionary trait to be passed to the next generation B. Creationists feel the need to attack the evolution theory to “free God from its shackles” 1. Evolution provides a meaningful explanation of the relationship of the Creator to man & animals 2. We are formed, by the Creator, from the dust of the Earth C. Evolution is metaphysics 1. Something transforms into other things, but the process is unexplained 2. Breathing air, wings & fins are excellent examples II. First Side- Evolution A. Does not prove there is no God 1. May not be able to prove there is a higher power, can prove that a fish grew leg & walked on land 2. Provides the basis for the Creator’s work, macro to micro B. Historical trials & their outcomes 1. Wesley Roberts-“A Struggle in Tennessee” 2. John Scopes- trial of religion & science III. Second Side- Intelligent Design A. The theory by Mr. Charles Darwin 1. No sufficient evidence to prove that one organism evolves into another 2. Evolution & Alchemy go hand-in-hand;...
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...1 Religion in Schools – Intelligent Design vs. Theory Stephanie C. Hansen Western International University April, 2006 Intelligent Design should be taught in schools, not only viewed as a religious theory. The debate continues on what roles the school should take on controversies regarding Theory of Evolution vs. Intelligent Design. Opponents insist that this is a “veiled way” of getting religion into the classroom, and that it should not be allowed. One of the main reasons to have Freedom of Speech is so “Truth” can emerge from vigorous debate on all sides of every important issue. Why then should we Americans ever want to suppress the free discussion of important issues in our public schools? (William McGinnis, 2006) Opponents would insist that Intelligent Design has no part in science. On the contrary, the more Intelligent Design is argued, the more scientific it proves to be. In the book Darwin’s Black Box (Behe) the author contends that “Darwin’s response is no longer adequate because of scientific advances that have occurred since Darwin’s death”. Thus, the Theory of Evolution deserves to be revisited. It wasn’t until after his (Darwin’s) death those life forms could be inspected on a molecular level. Therefore, it would also be “scientific” to re-evaluate the Intelligent Design concept on a scientific level since it has been determined “scientifically” that “even in their most basic forms, various organisms are so complex that they...
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...Growing up, I was raised in church with my father being a pastor of a church in the community. I was taught the bible and the book of Genesis. The different beliefs that were instilled in me were to believe that God created man and woman. In evolutionary or ecology classes, we are introduced to the theory of where man came from amoeba-like organisms, or even that we evolved from apes. How did life of origin arise? The components of evolution might explain how, but Creation gives a reason to believe why. Origin of life’s existence, as well as age of the earth is a question that is looked under a microscope and probed through both biblical theories, as well as scientific. Looking at difference evidence, acceptance of creation is growing even in spite of scientists trying to prove evolution. Within this paper, there will be different pieces of evidence and facts supporting each theory and there will be an argument, within my conclusion, on which theory I support. The theory of creation can be explained through various books in the bible. Creationists use the Bible as the truth for which they believe the origin of life came into existence. In bible studies and bible school, we were taught that God took clay from the ground which he shaped to a man that he called Adam. A verse in the King James Version, of the Bible, mentions “and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Then, the Lord made...
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...for living is to survive. The first theory for this is known as creationism. The other is evolution and most schools have encouraged this. Why is one not right and the other false? Is there no balance between these two issues? The lack of evidence makes creationism hard to believe, and many holes in the evolution link makes that hard to believe. Theories of human evolution cause disagreements. Each theory has its own evidence to prove that its right, but lack of enough evidence to prove the others errors. Most of the theories that try to explain the human existence are labeled as creation theory, naturalistic evolution theory and theistic evolution theory. Naturalistic evolution theory states that evolution is a force and not controlled by a god, goddess or some other type of deity. Theistic evolution is a combination of both creation and naturalistic theories. To understand the struggle between creationism and evolution you must first understand creationism. Creationism is the theory that all life was created by God. In the book of Genesis you will find the story when God formed man from the dust of the ground. God also created all the galaxies, planets, animals, plants and everything else. In that same book you will find the story of Noah and his ark saved all the species, which are here today, from the great flood. In this teaching the earth is not over 10,000 years old. To understand creationism you must understand evolution. Evolution is the theory of the...
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