Spiritual beliefs are on the rise. Certain aspects of science indicate Creationism.

Coincidence? I think NOT!

Seriously, great essay.

Very nice. I like it a lot! It pinpoints all the theories of evolution, and find faults, without really saying that they are totally and utterly wrong. Outright, that is. I am totaly with you in saying that it is ridiculouse of people to leave the room when certain sicknesses are mentioned, but we are not aloud to leave when our religeon is being squashed into little peices. Anyways, full marks for creativity, and hitting the nail on the head! Most excellant!
Cheers!
Charity

Oh my god, I am offended. I am so offended.

:)

i disagree with you, but have this to say...

thanks for writing this and adding to the controversy. its always interesting to hear other people's points of view.

you know, if the big bang / expanding universe is so heinous to you, theres always the clergy.

i think in one of your responses you mentioned weapons of mass destruction and such, yet in your original rant you seemed disgusted with the concept of your hypothetical relationship with the surrounding vegetation and fauna. how is it that we are better again? i cant ever remember a skunk committing genocide, or a cactus blowing its self up on a bus full of children. i personally would rather share a species with those who can coexist with their own kind.

you might read a book called Ishmael, if you honestly believe that humans are great.

i think that if you really wanted to reconsile the big bang and all the whats outside the universe questions with god, call it one of his mysteries. i mean, how does god really do anything? where IS god? oh, its one of his mysteries. maybe whats outside the universe is god or something absurd like that. also, what more incredible way for a god to begin a universe than arbitrarily deciding to make it explode out of nothing?

okay, im done. thanks for writing this, it made me think about various things religious and scientific. i dont agree with you in the slightest, but thanks anyway.

cheers

there is so much more evidence of all the thoeries you just mentioned than any religious belief. you really think that it is much more believable that some big man in the sky made everything in 7 days, just because a book says so. all these thoeries are so simple, and clearly factual. you just never took the time to open your mind and understand them. or you were never smart enough to understand them. without scientific understanding, you woulndt be on this computer you are on right now, the one you probably spend too much time on.
by the way, i do not believe that science is the answer to everything, but i do believe that all the main religions are crap. email me back if you have anything to say.

Im blown away by youre arrogance a 16 year old who isnt ever been in college to learn advanced science or theory is going to tell us me how the universe is created, boy do you have a pair. Listen heres a fact youre right that it is a Theory because the only way to make it a law would be to acctually reinvent the universe which could make us a little uncomfortable. Obviously youre 200 page high school didnt spell it out enough for you but the theory of evoultion is a fact but we can say so because of bible beater who need a crutch like god to drive thier life. you little slime explination left out natrual selection in which select organism all go out and evolve and some dont based on condition not everything evolve because there not under thosse conditions. hell why doesnt oxygen evolve only people with no understanding of science would ask these questions. stop trying to disprove science and go back to critzing clinton or whatever bible beaters do

i just thought i would let you know that there IS evidence that proves the universe is expanding. scientists measure the distance of stars/how much light they emit. i don't remember the exact details. and evolution isn't a theory anymore. the hypothesis of evolution is so accepted among scientists that it's taken as fact, not theory. as for the big bang, i'm not sure about. there is something called oparin's hypothesis though that supports that the earth came about from inorganic materials. this is accepted as well. could you please check your facts before you post? mistakes make you look like an idiot.

Ah, well, it appears that I did a much better job offering evidence for evolution than I did for the big bang. A mistake on my part ;-)

So, you wish to know why it is we have rationalized that the Universe as we know it started with a bang. There are several rationales that lead us to this premise, and you don’t need to understand anything about astrophysics to comprehend them. The first of our observations that lead to the theory is how planetary bodies formed. The stars, as you know, are made of huge chunks of gas that have provided us with heat and light through fission. Gas doesn’t just do this for fun; it has to be combined and pushed just the right way. This applies to all stars, and the Big-bang is the most plausible theory as to where this force came from.

That’s the first tip-off. The second comes from observing the behavior of galaxies, and for this you would need high-end telescopes. Were you to get your hands on one and do some snooping, you would observe that the galaxies are moving away from each other. To get a good picture of this in your head go watch a firework show and observe the behavior of the sparks as they move away from the point where the fireworks explode. This is how we know the Universe continues to expand.

The third piece of evidence is the leftover radiation from the Big-bang. Yes, it is still there, even after an estimated 13-14 billion years, and it’s distributed in a manner that supports it having originated from a single massive source.

The most puzzling part of the theory that you point out rather succinctly in your rant is that it isn’t known for sure what existed before the Big-bang, or why all the matter in the Universe was balled up into a singularity much smaller than the walnut you describe. Just like what’s beyond the event horizon of a black hole, we may never know for sure. It could be that our Universe is one that is continually stuck in a pattern of expansion and contraction brought on by the death and creation of stars, or it could be the Universe will just keep expanding forever. Evolution and the Big Bang are just theories, but the evidence backing them up is pretty compelling, and so I can see why your science teachers wanted to treat the matter as established fact. It would have been tactful for them to explain the evidence for the theories more thoroughly rather than just believe their classes would accept them as a given. Big-bang and Evolution touch upon some core human beliefs that can send a person into a frenzy if the lecturer poking at them doesn’t offer adequate explanation.

If you would like to see more technical and fancier sounding explanations about the observations that have lead to both the Theory of Evolution and the Big Bang I can point you in the direction of the right sources. Just send me an e-mail.

O GAAWD! I've just had to write a physics GCSE answer on the red-sodding-shift and I failed completely. :'( But here goes...

Y'know how light is a wave?
Well when waves are still the wavelength stays the same. (Like if you dropped a pebble on a pond the ripples would be the same distance apart)
But if the wave is moving the wavelength will stretch in one direction, (like if you were skimming the stone, not sure why you would be, the distance between the ripples would be smaller in the direction you skim it, yeah?)

Anyway, when astronomers look at light from other parts of the universe the the spectrum of light is shifted towards the red end of the spectrum, suggesting that light, as a wave is moving.
Which suggests that everything in the universe is moving away from everything else, ala. big bang theory.

Please say that makes sense, or it's another GCSE i've FAILED! Anyway, if someone clever explained it to you i'm sure you could come up with a counter argument, lol.

Also, *dances* i got mentioned!! Thanks for clarifying some stuff. I get what you mean about science and religion, it's just not what I believe. But hey, *shrugs*.

Ug, quarter to twelve British time is WAY to late to be thinking about physics... :(

I don’t know about you, but Science makes me sick. Especially the theories that are now taken as facts. Yes, we evolve. I’m not saying we don’t. But that does NOT mean that the Big Bang and Expanding Universe theories are also true. There is no proof of either of them, and I would prefer we didn’t have to talk about it in school. Religion is supposed to be separate from public schools. So why is it that subjects which challenge our religious beliefs are necessary to graduate? Must we all be slaves to Science’s every whim? As important as it may be to study the human genetic makeup, is it really essential for us to learn some dead guy’s theory on why there is no meaning to life?
*you said earlier in the essay that if you didnt hear other peoples opinions then there would be ignorance! so why cant you listen to a theory about how the universe was made? religion was taken out of schools because when people are dealing with beliefs they tend to get a little more passionate and closed-minded such as yourself in this essay...

i believe in evolution. i believe in the big bang. i believe that there is a god and he is as old as the universe. but that doesnt mean i cant accept the fact that maybe god made the slime first-then had a better idea.

oh one more thing...IYes, us humans, masters of the planet, are only a few small steps ahead of our naked furry cousins, the apes. With all our brain power, our instant messaging, cell phones, and almighty science classes, we are no better than the apes, the chimps, the snails, the slime… isn’t that a wonderful way to start off your day? Hearing about how you, a sentient, intelligent, literate creature with an imagination and the power to decide when you want to have children – you have common ancestors with the plants in your back yard..
* we are all equal...dont you think that IF god made us he made the slime and the plants and the snails? and in the bible it says god loves everything so doesnt he love the snails and the slime? the plants in MY backyard are beautiful and i am honored to even have a connection with such a complex and lovely organism...

I disagree. 1) If you don't want to hear about something, either stick it out or leave. Screw you if you don't want to learn everything. 2) No theory of how the universe was created can possibly be right. Everything needs to start with something, and without something nothing can start. *Everyone's* beliefs are wrong. 3) Religious people turn to a God or Goddess for false security. It's wonderful to believe in them, but not to rely on them as the great 'creator' or answer every question with them.

Learning science shouldn't make you think there's no meaning to life. You have to create your own meaning, and if that's religious fine, but you CAN do it without religion.

Your essay sort of backs up my thinking that religion is just an easy answer, like people can't face the fact that in our lifetimes we won't find out why everything works, so we have to explain it using deitys (sp?). Science and religion are quite similar when you look at it that way.
Also, I don't care that we evolved form 'slime' becausE I don't think we're incredably different from any other forms of life, when it all comes down to it. We all die, we all breath.

But your essay was good, I like the bit with the swimming pool anology because I like having my brain boggled by stuff I can't work out, lol.
And it makes sense and everything is backed up. There are loads of good points even if I maybe dont agree fully.

I dunno if you've asked your teacher if you can leave the class, they might let you. But think yourself lucky, I had to put up with Christianity taught to me as fact at Primary school, and it wasn't even a church school! That's a much more impressionable age, and at least you DO have your own ideas and can express them literatly.

The only REAL problem I have with this essay is when you say religion gives you a meaning of life. It's insulting suggesting that because I don't have religion I wake up empty. I don't. I have a deep meaning of my life because it comes from something i've worked out about myself, and not religios stories. Do you understand what I mean?

Oh and what's you theory on the Red Shift 'evidence' for the big bang theoery? Just wondering. Keep writin'!

I happen to like my religious beliefs. If I were to get up in the morning and think “There is no reason I am alive.” Then I really don’t know what I would do.
-- This is a very incorrect generalization. Many people who don’t have religious beliefs do *think* there’s a meaning for their lives and a reason for them being alive. It’s just not something that’s written in a holy book. They discover it for themselves. Also, there are people who believe in God without practicing a religion. It’s a matter of choice and, lucky for most of us, we are able to make that choice without influence.

I don’t know about you, but Science makes me sick.
-- That is so wrong! Without science, you would have a life expectancy of 35! Without science, you would have no cure for deadly diseases! Without science, you would live in a cocoon of ignorance, never questioning why things are the way they are, finding answers in ancient texts. The human quest for knowledge is very noble and every child should learn from great people who’ve researched and experimented, and found concrete evidence to prove something that a holy book cannot explain without resorting to supernatural happenings.

But that does NOT mean that the Big Bang and Expanding Universe theories are also true.
-- Of course there is a possibility that they are false! That’s why they’re called theories! But they go a long way in explaining how the universe formed physically! From your comments, I can tell that you have not really understood what these theories actually indicate. Maybe it’s because you have no means of imagining such phenomenon, but that doesn’t mean there is no credible evidence that support these theories. Scientists spend their whole lives trying to find the origin of the universe, and they do so by examining the world around us. It would be simple to just say God created everything and just be done with it. But that’s not what science is about. It’s about what you see and feel. It’s about what’s real.

Must we all be slaves to Science’s every whim?
-- We can say the same thing about religion. But nonetheless, science questions things. It does not enslave.

It’s all right to not know about cancer – its not like it’s a serious problem in our society or something – but learning evolution, the big bang, and the expanding universe theory?
-- That doesn’t happen everywhere, so you are wrong to assume that we don’t learn about cancer at school. However, if your school is restrictive in that matter, nothing’s stopping you from finding it out for yourself. You can’t blame that on science. People are sensitive on this issue because it’s not something you can compare with the Big Bang, or some other physical phenomenon. They are completely separate issues.

-- What we know about the universe right now is almost nothing compared to what is really going on in reality. Our technology has not reached such a level that we can research well beyond this solar system and this galaxy. But we’re getting there thanks to developments in science. There are many holes within such scientific theories, but further research will help scientists form a better understanding of the universe we live in.

If we were all evolving, why is there still slime? Why didn’t we evolve into the same thing?
-- Evolution takes millions of years and if a group of species encounters dramatic change (in climate, environment, etc.), they will evolve to a species that will survive and better cope in that new environment. It does happen, and there is considerable evidence to prove that it has. With each evolution, the species gains certain characteristic that makes is distinctively separate from the species it evolved from. Therefore, comparing humans to apes does not mean ‘we are no better than apes’! It means we have some similar characteristics but we have evolved in such a way that we have become the dominant species. If it wasn’t us, it’ll be some other species. We are not the chosen or special ones in that regard. Nature works in such ways.

And why is it that every single form of life on this planet is carbon-based and depends on oxygen to live? Why is it that we all need sugar to turn into energy?
-- I think these things confuse you because you cannot understand how such things are possible but they are characteristics of organic life forms and all explainable. There is nothing mysterious or bizarre about it.

So the Expanding universe theory is bull. It makes no sense. The universe cannot be expanding, since what it would be expanding into is already a part of itself.
-- You seem to think you know better than scientists that have proof of the expansion of the universe. How can you write about and form an opinion of something you have only the miniscule knowledge of? Explaining astrophysics to you would be like explaining interior decorating to a domestic pet! No point. Your complete ignorance is only matched by your masterful grasp of profanity.

I see that in all your indignation about having to learn about the theory of evolution you never really grasped what the theory was. Simply put, evolution is the adaptation of an organism to its environment; not an increase in the complexity of the organism, unless this complexity is what allows for survival. Natural selection, survival of the fittest, and a million other sayings are based on that. The theory holds that we humans are smart because intelligence is a survival tool, and that the slime is still slime because conditions do not warrant a change in it. Also, we did not evolve from chimpanzees (our closest genetic relative), we simply shared a common ancestor. I don’t know about you, but I’m rather proud of how far we’ve come, rather than ashamed of where we supposedly started, but I suppose that’s a personal matter.

Now, I’m not sure where you got this idea that neither the big-bang nor evolution have any proof backing them up. Evolution and the Big Bang are not matters of ones' faith; the whole reason they exist as theories is that there is evidence to back them up. Microevolution, for instance, has been demonstrated rather thoroughly, and there’s been sufficient fossil evidence to offer support to the view of Macroevolution. The big bang is a bit sketchier, but astronomers have been able to confirm that the Universe is expanding, and analysis of the make-up of astrological bodies shows enough likeness that the theory can stand on its own two feet. So, since both theories have demonstrable proof to back them up they have every right to be included in public school curriculum until someone can come up with something a little more convincing than Holy Scripture to prove them dead wrong.

The theories that you have made the subjects of your wrath in this essay are indeed controversial, but you cannot hope to convince people of your side of the story if you aren’t willing to look at the facts. Unless you can disprove the evidence through reproducible proof of your own rather than asking your readers to dismiss the notions because they *sound* absurd then reasonable minds will not flock to your viewpoint.