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we would probably have reached the level of scientific knowledge we now possess around the year 1200 if not for christianity destroying much of the ancient texts of the world and suppressing learning.
Originally posted by Atzil321
A good point well made, lots of the ancients saw hints of what was to become the theory of evolution. unfortunatley for mankind the Abrahamic religions swept out of the middle east and stunted all progress for much of our history.... we would probably have reached the level of scientific knowledge we now possess around the year 1200 if not for christianity destroying much of the ancient texts of the world and suppressing learning.
Originally posted by sinthia
This thread is misleading, as the Bible is not a single volume by a single human author
The Bible is a collection of books written over a period of about 1700 years so the collection of books that we know as the Bible obviously can't be anything BC because if refers to Jesus Christ AD (anno domini - year of our Lord)
However, parts of the Old testament such as the book of Job are thought to be circa 1500BC.
Part of the key to understanding was recognition of the vast time scales involved. If people thought the earth was 6000 years old, it would be hard to imagine much significant happening in 6000 years in evolutionary terms. Once we realized the earth was much older, that opened the door for Darwin.
Several ancient philosophers expressed the idea that nature produces a huge variety of creatures, apparently randomly, and that only those creatures survive that manage to provide for themselves and reproduce successfully; well-known examples include Empedocles[23] and his intellectual successor, Lucretius,[24] while related ideas were later refined by Aristotle.[25] The struggle for existence was later described by Al-Jahiz, who argued that environmental factors influence animals to develop new characteristics to ensure survival.[26][27][28]
Abu Rayhan Biruni described the idea of artificial selection and argued that nature works in much the same way.[29] Such classical arguments were reintroduced in the 18th century by Pierre Louis Maupertuis[30] and others, including Charles Darwin's grandfather Erasmus Darwin. While these forerunners had an influence on Darwinism, they later had little influence on the trajectory of evolutionary thought after Charles Darwin.
Until the early 19th century, the prevailing view in Western societies was that differences between individuals of a species were uninteresting departures from their Platonic idealism (or typus) of created kinds. However, the theory of uniformitarianism in geology promoted the idea that simple, weak forces could act continuously over long periods of time to produce radical changes in the Earth's landscape. The success of this theory raised awareness of the vast scale of geological time and made plausible the idea that tiny, virtually imperceptible changes in successive generations could produce consequences on the scale of differences between species.
It depends on how you define the term "witness".
Originally posted by brokedown
Microcosm evolution is NOT Macrocosm evolution.
We all witness inter species adaptation, however that fact does not in any way prove a Fish evolving into a Frog.
Since there is the fact that there is zero evidence of Macrocosm evolution the Belief in it is no different from any other Religion.
Only ignorant creationists make a distinction between "micro" and "macro" evolution. It's the equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and going "la la can't hear you" when presented with irrefutable evidence. What exactly do you think the "micro" changes are over hundreds of millions of years
Originally posted by brokedown
Microcosm evolution is NOT Macrocosm evolution.
We all witness inter species adaptation, however that fact does not in any way prove a Fish evolving into a Frog.
Since there is the fact that there is zero evidence of Macrocosm evolution the Belief in it is no different from any other Religion.