evolutionism

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04 Jun 2009, 12:02 pm

Do believers in evolution ever refer to themselves as "evolutionists" or is it only nonbelievers that ever use that term? I believe in evolution, and yet, I wouldn't refer to myself as an "evolutionist" any more than I would refer to myself as a "gravitationist".

MattShizzle
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04 Jun 2009, 12:12 pm

No. And we certainly don't use the term "Darwinist."

gina-ghettoprincess
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04 Jun 2009, 12:18 pm

I believe in evolution, but wouldn't identify as an "evolutionist", because I don't think it's a case of belief. Evolution is proven scientific fact, and the people who dispute that are closed-minded creationists who are too stupid to realise that "theory" in science does not mean, "Hey, I have a theory that we evolved from monkeys!* How do I know? I just guessed! Let's call it fact." It means it has been proven beyond all reasonable doubt.

*Just for the official record, humans did NOT evolve from apes. Humans and apes share a common ancestor.

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04 Jun 2009, 12:27 pm

gina-ghettoprincess wrote:

Also a common misconception that creationists have is that evolution is about the origin of life, when in actually in only discusses how it changes over time, not how it originated.

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04 Jun 2009, 12:38 pm

No, I don't refer to myself as an "evolutionist" or "Darwinist." And as gina noted, it's not a case of belief. That evolution occurs is simply an observed historical fact. "Darwin's theory of evolution" refers to the mechanism of evolution (ie natural selection) not to the process of evolution itself.

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MattShizzle
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04 Jun 2009, 12:48 pm

Isaac Asimov once said "Creationists seem to think a 'theory' is something you came up with after being drunk all night."

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04 Jun 2009, 1:13 pm

"Evolutionism" is used pretty much entirely by creationists. Wikipedia sums it up about right with

Quote:

The Institute for Creation Science, however, in order to treat evolution as a category of religions, including atheism, fascism, humanism and occultism, commonly uses the words evolutionism and evolutionist to describe the consensus of mainstream science and the scientists subscribing to it, thus implying through language that the issue is a matter of religious belief.

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04 Jun 2009, 2:34 pm

I would say that term could apply though to atheists who 'believe' evolution and preach it without having a rational understanding of the theory. I see this all the time, unfortunately.

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04 Jun 2009, 2:42 pm

SystemDown wrote:

I must confess to being a medicationalist, as I have taken prescription medicine in the past.

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04 Jun 2009, 2:59 pm

Can I be an acreationistist? I find it hard to believe in the existence of people who can grow up in a first-world country with the many fruits of science and technology being part of their daily lives, yet not "believe" in science.

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04 Jun 2009, 3:09 pm

SystemDown wrote:

And I don't refer to myself as a Spherical Earther, either.

Evolution is a fact. The current theory of evolution is an extremely well supported theory. Just as the current theory of gravitation is an extremely well supported theory. But gravitation, as such, is a fact regardless of which theory is invoked to account for it.

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04 Jun 2009, 3:23 pm

Gravity is caused by the Noodly Appendages of the Flying Spaghetti Monster pushing down on everything.

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04 Jun 2009, 3:25 pm

We refer to ourselves as Educated.

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04 Jun 2009, 3:27 pm

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04 Jun 2009, 3:38 pm

Obres,

Yes, I would say you "believe" in science. If you do not understand something, you "believe" it. As humans, we believe a lot of things to get us through the day. There is nothing wrong with belief- we operate our lives by it. We get on elevators because we believe they will take us to another floor, we believe that the mechanics are sound and we will not plummet to our deaths. We believe getting on a plane that it will take us to our destination, not crash in the ocean. No noodly monster or propaganda machine is involved.

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