Evolution is a religion!

[The_Evelyonian]

This is a claim that I'm hearing more and more from creationists and, despite the fact that I've attempted (repeatedly) to explain that evolution doesn't meet any of the criteria of a religion, I continue to hear it with growing frequency.

The thing I cannot help but wonder is, what is the reasoning?

Why do you think that creationists claim evolution is a religion?

 

[Kilgore Trout]

It's a sadly ironic attempt to bring evolution "down" to the level of religion. They don't seem to realize they're insulting their own beliefs in the process.

 

[Caladan]

The thing I cannot help but wonder is, what is the reasoning?

That religion is bad?

Why do you think that creationists claim evolution is a religion?

I assume that some feel that their religious convictions are threatened or even brutally targeted, caliming that the Theory of evolution is a religion or that Atheism is a religion may give these people a frame of reference. it is much more easier to define two hundreds years of evolutionary biology as a dogma than bring academic material to counter it.

 

[Autodidact]

This is a claim that I'm hearing more and more from creationists and, despite the fact that I've attempted (repeatedly) to explain that evolution doesn't meet any of the criteria of a religion, I continue to hear it with growing frequency.

The thing I cannot help but wonder is, what is the reasoning?

Why do you think that creationists claim evolution is a religion?

The reasoning is:
We can't teach creationism in school because the Supreme Court says it's religion. So we need to call evolution a religion too, so it won't be taught in schools.

 

[averageJOE]

I would think it's because those are the same people who also believe atheism to be a religion. And they usually equate atheism with evolution.

 

[LuisDantas]

From the arguments that some creationists insist on presenting, I believe that they have such faulty understanding of the scientific method that they end up convincing themselves that evolution is supported by arbitrary choice alone.

There is a thread where I actually asked if a single hard-to-classify fossil could be significant challenge to the ToE. I have no reply yet.

When they see how unconcerned we are about not having "all the answers" and having convinced themselves that we are "ignoring evidence", it takes little for a specific kind of creationist to believe that ToE is based on dogma.

 

[logician]

They also believe astronomy, physics, biology, and chemistry are religions.

 

[Delilah Roo]

There is a thread where I actually asked if a single hard-to-classify fossil could be significant challenge to the ToE. I have no reply yet.

On a different forum, I had a similar conversation about fossils. And someone told me that God made the fossils to test peoples faith... Strange.

It was a post about if the dinosaurs are real or not...I said, Why would god of made fossils and dino bones, but no dinosaurs. To test your faith... What ever.
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Maybe they think evolution is a religion becasue they see religion and science as being equal opposites or something. Creationism is part of religion, so evolution must be part of some opposite religion? IDk. They might just be crazy.

 

[Madhuri]

I think it's a refusal to acknowledge that evolution is based on real evidence rather than just wanting or 'faith'.
I don't think it would be wrong, however, to say that some people approach their belief in evolution with religious zeal. But that doesn't make evolution a religion.

 

[Caladan]

On a different forum, I had a similar conversation about fossils. And someone told me that God made the fossils to test peoples faith... Strange.

It was a post about if the dinosaurs are real or not...I said, Why would god of made fossils and dino bones, but no dinosaurs. To test your faith... What ever.
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Maybe they think evolution is a religion becasue they see religion and science as being equal opposites or something. Creationism is part of religion, so evolution must be part of some opposite religion? IDk. They might just be crazy.

Heh this reminds me of something amusing. an archaeologist I worked with told me about a prank they pulled on someone who worked with them, she said that he wasn't really favored by the rest of crew, so they decided to have some fun with him. they took a piece of clay and inscribed some hieroglyphs on it and planted it in his area of work, when it was excavated, they watched him get one hell of a thrill, only to find out that the hieroglyphs were saying how much of an *** he is.

 

[LuisDantas]

I don't think it would be wrong, however, to say that some people approach their belief in evolution with religious zeal. But that doesn't make evolution a religion.

No doubt. I wonder how many those would be, though - probably far less than some assume. Evolution has a surprisingly poor reputation, given the actual facts.

 

[doppelganger]

This is a claim that I'm hearing more and more from creationists and, despite the fact that I've attempted (repeatedly) to explain that evolution doesn't meet any of the criteria of a religion, I continue to hear it with growing frequency.

The thing I cannot help but wonder is, what is the reasoning?

Why do you think that creationists claim evolution is a religion?

Evolution is based on a profound spirituality. It places the human being in a completely different relationship to the universe than "god-creator" religions and their attendant spirituality - specifically by removing the individual's ego as the centerpiece and purpose of the holstic system that is the universe. This is why the Church feared Copernicus/Galieo - because their ideas took the Earth out of the center of the cosmos, and changed human spirituality. And it's why the Church has been even more resistant to "evolution," because it further removes the individual human ego as the centerpiece of Earth's systems, and thereby negates the ability to maintain the individual ego's illusion that it is special and loved. Not infrequently, this illusion is the main psychological appeal of "god-creator" religious belief for many people.

 

[doppelganger]

And this is why you see such an emotional/irrational response - evolution takes away the psychological pacifier that is "God loves me" or the "universe is all about me and my good" that many people use to mismanage their existential angst.

 

[mhiggs]

The reasoning is:
We can't teach creationism in school because the Supreme Court says it's religion. So we need to call evolution a religion too, so it won't be taught in schools.

I agree, this is probably the most likely reason behind it all for sure

 

[mhiggs]

it really depends on how you define 'religion'. Words only have the meaning that we people give them, but evolution is nothing at all like the traditional religions. Evolution is science. I don't really know how anyone can seriously suggest that it is a religion. I guess it's because of how adamant some evolutionists are about it, but that's only because they need to be adamant to get it through the thick skulls of the creationists who refuse to even look at the evidence

 

[evolved yet?]

Why do you think that creationists claim evolution is a religion?

Because religion requires faith and faith requires believing without evidence so they are inferring that there is no evidence for evolution.

 

[mhiggs]

has anyone seen the new episode of Futurama about evolution? It's hilarious. Season 6, Episode 9 - check it out!

 

[Reptillian]

There is a thread where I actually asked if a single hard-to-classify fossil could be significant challenge to the ToE. I have no reply yet.

I would suppose it would depend on the nature of the fossil. A chimera would be bad for evolution...a centaur or maybe a half duck/half octopus.

 

[The Neo Nerd]

Easy answer. Because bringing evolution down to the level of a religion allows the theist to argue against it the way atheists argue and their religion.

Bring evolution down to a religion changes it from a FACT to a BELIEF. Facts cannot be argued with beliefs can.

It's an EXCEPTIONALLY cheap piece of mental gymnastics for the sole purpose of denying that which disagrees with their world view

 

[wmjbyatt]

To argue that evolution is a religion is just silly, but there is possible credence to the claim of science as a religion, but you'd have to define religion and understand faith in specific ways.

While faith is usually understood to be belief in spite of evidence, there are those who take articles of faith as self-evident. This mode of thought exists in theologians and the "common man" alike. I'm sure we've all heard claims from theists that nature itself stands as a self-evident declaration of the existence of God. While most of us do not see the self-evidence in these claims, if we accept for a moment that these articles of faith are, indeed, self-evident to the faithful, then there's no essential difference between the faithful accepting an article of faith and a geometer accepting the axioms of geometry. The axioms of geometry are understood, by definition, as unprovable but self-evident truths.

Science, too, it can be argued is built axiomatically. Beginning specifically with the Axiom of Universality, which states that the universe operates via the same essential governing principles everywhere. These axiom is, clearly, unprovable but it seems to be fairly self-evident.

With this parallel drawn, and a rough understanding of science as a generalized "belief system," then science can, indeed, be understood as a religion.

But, as has already been said, this all boils down to a question of definitions.