25 September 2010

Evolution is 'just a theory'

How many times have you heard this? It is usually the first line of defence a creationist hides behind when their ridiculous views come under scrutiny, and I think this is all down to a simple misconception. 

In general terms, yes, a theory is just a hypothesis. But in scientific terms (and these are certainly applied to Evolution) it is so much more than this. A scientific theory is not simply an idea; it is an empirical explanation of how something happened.

I would have hoped that by this stage in history Evolution would be accepted as fact by everyone, but apparently some people find the concept of empirical evidence being more valuable and convincing than religious belief based on no logic whatsoever completely baffling.

Why is this still so difficult to grasp? Evolution is not a theory, it is proven fact. The theory of evolution is an explanation of how we evolved to what we are today. Why can't people accept this?

I think partly education is to blame. There's even a girl in the same school year as me (13) who has made it into the second year of sixth form but refuses point blank to accept that evolution is correct. When someone offered to argue this with her, she refused because if she did she would become 'really angry'.

I think this sums up the attitude of creationists perfectly in today's world. Bigots. Please do your bit for science by taking these people into a quiet corner and performing a lobotomy. You'll be doing society a favour. If they still haven't accepted empirical evidence by this stage, well, what hope is there for them in the real world?

3 January 2010

The Intellectual Restraints of Religion and the Migration Away from Delusion

Ever since organised religions have emerged in human society, they have limited scientific discovery and human advancement to a considerable degree.

At around 0AD, the European populace had reached its peak of scientific discovery and advancement that it would achieve for many hundreds of years. After the Roman era, the foundations were laid for many societies that could begin to discover great and life changing things. However, with the creation of the major modern religious faiths that we know so well today came a gigantic, impenetrable barrier that would scar human development forever.

Although in a prime position to develop and learn much more about the world around them, our 2,000 year old ancestors knew astonishingly little when compared with people today. Religions were formed to fill in these huge gaps in people's collective knowledge and due to the fact that there was no alternative at the time, religions were almost entirely adopted worldwide.

For hundreds of years this had the effect of steering people away from reality and towards fantasy. Religion offered answers when it was first born and science did not, but as science feebly developed, hampered immensely by the iron ceiling of religion, answers were found. People were used to religion and it was accepted 'fact'. Anyone who questioned or opposed it was condemned to hell and in many cases, killed.

It is unacceptable that something so detrimental to human advancement is still widely accepted in today's world. Look at how much we have achieved since the shackles of religion began to loosen. We know so much more about the universe we live in now than we did two millennia ago, and yet the majority of us choose to listen to the logic of books written by unknown authors, many years ago when we knew so astonishingly little.

Is it not obvious that science is the way forwards, and that religion is simply a defunct void from which no development emerges? We require science to propagate.

I appreciate the fact that religion is much more than a source of 'knowledge' for many people and is a way of life, but we must do as we humans have been doing ever since our emergence: develop and change. Let us use this knowledge we possess now to propagate and carve an enlightened path into the future. Turn away from these fallacies that still dominate the world over and reject them for the nonsense that they clearly are.

There is some hope, though. Since the late 19th century people have begun to reject religion and turn their attention to science. I sincerely hope that this growing trend continues and that we can look back at religion in a few decades' time as a restriction on our own success as a species.

I hope we move on and leave religion behind. I hope we change our culture so that it is centred upon knowledge and propagation, rather than myth. But above all I hope that this article has influenced your own opinion, and that after reading this you do some serious thinking about your own beliefs. Do they make sense? Are they really relevant in a modern, advanced society? Well, the choice is yours, but I would rather back teams of the world's most intelligent people working on cutting edge technology than a two thousand year old organisation formed when the geocentric model was widely accepted as fact.