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Evolution and Religion Collide Jessy Hart There a lot of evidence for evolution and it an accepted scientific theory

that has withstood testing; most evidence for evolution is uncontroversial since DNA testing is now available and we are able to determine common ancestors and relationships between organisms. The Catholic Church does support the idea of evolution but how can this be if they did not take the bible as it was written, the world was created in 7 days and there would be no adaptions needed in the world due to God creating everything the way it was supposed to be. There is conflict to be seen when science is mixed with religion especially when it comes to evolution.

Evolution is a scientific theory which is a concept that has been well tested and is accepted as an explanation to a wide range of observations; evolution is a fundamental key in biology and other sciences in modern time. When Darwin first proposed evolution, it was not a completely new idea but it was still in its infancy, Darwin did not know about genes and did not have DNA testing available to him; Darwin did have a fossil record and observable differences in organisms and how they were being defined by what he called Natural Selection. The fossil record have many missing links and very few transitional forms found during Darwins time but there have been many new discoveries of missing links and transitional forms showing the change in species such as Lucy who is a common ancestor of modern humans but still has a lot of characteristics similar to primates. We still have not found remnants or fossils of every species that has ever existed, The total number of species that ever lived on Earth has been estimated to range between seventeen million and four billion. Since we have discovered around 250,000 dierent fossil species, we can estimate that we have fossil evidence of only 0.1 percent to 1 percent of all specieshardly a good sample of the history of life! (Coyne 23). Once the

discovery of genes, chromosomes, and DNA were understood the use of DNA testing has allowed for the comparing of DNA of different species which has strengthened the ideas of evolution since we are able to observe the commonalities in the DNA giving some relationships to different species that had not been determined before especially since the fossil record is still very incomplete. The first organisms that are known to exist were, simple photosynthetic bacteria These single cells were all that occupied the Earth for the next two billion years, after which we see the rst simple eukaryotes, (Coyne 28). The addition or growth from simple single cells to a more complex organism is one of the main principles of evolution. "This adding new stu onto old principle also explains why the sequence of developmental changes mirrors the evolutionary sequence of organisms. As one group evolves from another, it often adds its development program on top of the old one, (Coyne 83). Evolution occurs because the natural selection is acting upon a population and there are changes that occur over a long period of time that can lead to new species and new types of organisms or plants. With the use of the fossil record and DNA testing, We can now show continuous changes within lineages of animals; we have lots of evidence for common ancestors and transitional forms and we have dug deep enough to see the very beginnings of complex life, (Coyne 28). Even with all the evidence of evolution, we have not truly found the true origin of all life, the one thing that started it all. As stated in Genesis God created all things in 7 days, he created man and animal. Religion has been characterized as, For better or worse, though, religion is much more than a set of ethical principles or a vague sense of transcendenceEdward Tylor noted that the minimum definition of religion is a belief in spiritual beings, in the supernatural, (Bloom). The problem that occurs with the belief in something supernatural is the inconsistency in the beliefs and the different interpretation of religious texts. The Catholic Church does support the

idea of evolution, but how can this be if the Catholic Church took the bible literally with Genesis and God creating everything the way it is in seven days. The fossil record and the age of the earth would be inaccurate if you take the Bible and other religious texts as is without personal interpretation. When looking at the Bible, it was written by man and it has a tendency to contradict itself and be left for interpretation, which different religions all do differently, and the Bible is also translated differently depending on the language it is being translated into because the meanings of some of the words will be lost in translation. There is something that a religion must do for those that believe in it, Freud summed it all up by describing a three-fold task for religious beliefs: they must exorcise the terrors of nature, they must reconcile men to the cruelty of Fate, particularly as it is shown in death, and they must compensate them for the sufferings and privations which a civilized life in common has imposed on them," (Bloom). Evolution has no meaning to it, it is chaos and has no order in which it acts upon an organism, which is why evolution and some other sciences are so difficult for those that are highly religious to comprehend and be able to connect with. For example, The movement of nostrils to the top of the head in ancestral whales could have preceded the evolution of ns. That could be the providential act of a creator, but couldnt have evolved by natural selection," (Coyne 150), it is unknown if evolution is controlled by a creator or if the designs of a creator only make things appear to be evolution. Everything in what someone understands of a religion is personable and left to their interpretation of their belief.

Religion and science sometimes struggle to coexist peacefully since there are some things that religion can explain that science cannot, and there are things that science can prove that contradict what religion teaches. Evolution is one of the biggest struggles when dealing with religion and science, there is the ever constant debate on which one is correct.

Religious authorities and scholars are often motivated to explore and reach out to science, as when the pope embraced evolution and the Dalai Lama became involved with neuroscience...they are legitimately concerned about any clash with scientific findings... so religious authorities and scholars often make serious efforts toward reconciliationfor instance, trying to interpret the Bible in a way that is consistent with what we know about the age of the earth. (Bloom) It concerns me how much the Bible can be interpreted to fit science to avoid such conflict, evolution or the facts of science cannot be manipulated so much because it would not be accepted by the scientific community because the results could not be replicated constantly. There are some instances within the evolutionary theory in which a Creator or God might explain things such as the origin of life or for example, can we determine whether mutations were mere accidents in DNA replication or were willed into being by a creator? (Coyne 148). This is still one of the conflicts seen today; Darwin had to face those ideas when he first shared his findings, When Darwin wrote The Origin, most Western scientists, and nearly everyone else, were creationists. While they might not have accepted every detail of the story laid out in Genesis, most thought that life had been created pretty much in its present form, designed by an omnipotent creator, and had not changed since, (Coyne pg. 17). Even though today evolution is more accepted, there is still much conflict when religion and science collide, but there is a difference between something that is seen as truth by many individuals than compared to being up for interpretation be each individual.

Evolution is an excepted theory that continuously seems to collide with religion. When religion and science collide it begins a game of which is correct, but with religion it all is up to interpretation while evolution is seen as a truth in science. They should be kept separate, to avoid any conflict that occurs between them, because it does not make sense to have religion interpreted just to fit the newest scientific discovery that contradicts it.

Works Cited

Bloom, Paul. "Is God an Accident?" The Atlantic. N.p., Dec. 2005. Web. 26 Jan. 2013.

Coyne, Jerry A. Why Evolution Is True. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2009. Print.

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