Up@dawn 2.0

Thursday, March 7, 2013

H01 Group 1 Trollface Socrates's Discussion on Charles Darwin

Hey, guys. It's Logan this time, I'm very tired, and I've never done this before. It ain't gonna look pretty, but I'm gonna get the gist of our short conversation down, and everyone else can comment away and make this post beautiful.

Dr. Oliver pretty much started our conversation by first addressing the precautions that even Darwin had about his theory. Referencing and recommending a PBS documentary series, Evolution, Dr. Oliver pointed out that Darwin held off on publishing his theory because he was worried it would cause an uproar among religious people, his wife being one of them. Darwin was probably not an atheist, but an agnostic, and recognized that evolution did not necessarily contradict the concept of a god because it is too complex of a subject for the human mind to grasp. Finally, when another biologist was about to publish his work on the same theory, Darwin published his findings. Our group appreciated Darwin's humility, and it got Trevor talking about his belief in Theistic Evolution, that of Dr. Oliver's father.

So...Trevor said that there was no more evidence for one theory than the other. Dr. Oliver disagreed, and said that while science can never reach an empirical, there is more evidence in favor of science. Our group, especially myself, did not think this was a very philosophical or educated point, however. It is important to remember just how much scientific "progress" we've made in the last hundred years. What we think we know today, we disprove tomorrow with a new theory, which is also later disproven. Basically, I think if you're going to consider evolution and creation together, each topic has as little solid evidence as the other. On the scale that spirituality implies, any scientific data is just as flimsy as testimony. I'm a biology major, by the way.

Morgan instated his belief that science and religion can back each other up. Our group pretty much unanimously agreed with this.

That's about it, friends.

2 comments:

  1. Terrific job, Logan, even without the collaborative assistance of your groupmates. (Where'd y'all go?)

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  2. But, one more thing: when we say science will back religion up, we need to be clear on which religion we have in mind. Science will NOT back up any religion that affirms (for instance) a "young Earth" creation story or rejects evolution.

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