Do people just not have the mental capacity to understand evolution?

Question

I don't understand. Someone asks why there are still monkeys, receives an adequate answer then asks the same question again and again. Even now as I'm typing this I know a person will say, "Well... Why are there still monkeys? Why have mammoths 'de-evolved' to regular elephants? Why haven't cockroaches evolved to have brains?"

Answer 1

I know! What is up with people!? Is it really so hard to understand!? It always frustrates me when people keep asking about it!



-Seeker

Answer 2

I'm definitely irked that a lot of people don't think critically. If they did, it would be easier to show them that some ideas are fruit-loopy and probably are just tradition, rather than "divine" or "true."



A lot of bad ideas have been discarded over the years. Maybe evolution will be an easier sell as people start to discard ideas like the "young earth" (the earth is a little over 6,000 years old).



What I wonder is, what does it do for them, on a spiritual level, to believe in creationism, especially the young earth idea? Do they think it brings them closer to God to ignore pretty obvious geological proof that the earth is really old? Does it help them be more spiritual to answer valid questions about evolution with pat answers they learned from a highly flawed religion? Does it make them stronger in their faith to swallow all the lies and hypocrisy of their religion without looking at history to find out where that garbage came from?



Really, I wish Christians would stop focusing on how the world started and how it will end and focus on right now. It would be better for everyone.

Answer 3

The problem that I know that you , myself and many others have is that we try to put forth our arguments in a rational form . We get frustrated by the other sides inability to see what we know is a well thought out point of view.

The reason our arguments do not work is because our approach to the problem is all wrong.

To the religious mind all arguments are allegorical not literal. Arguing from a literal perspective then of course must fail.

Telling a member of a faith that believes that the consumption of alcohol is a sin that Jesus did in fact turn water into wine not grape juice but real live 13.5 % red wine is a waste of time.

You could talk about historical context, cultural expectations , the fact that grape juice if left alone will ferment w/o human intervention, the fact that the Greek Orthodox and the Catholic Churches do still use real 13.5 % red wine for their communion services and you will be wasting your time.

What he heard was that you just told him his religion was wrong which means that he is wrong and that you support the abuse of alcohol which has a cascade efffect that ultimatley leads to sin, debauchery and human degradation.

MADD - see above

Anti- abortion is not about the alleged sanctity of human life because as we all know if it was then the ant- abortion people would be against war, capital punishment , and in all likehood would be all vegetarians and then we could hold then up and praise them as worthy role models.

The ant-abortion argument is in fact about the dis- approval of the sexual behavior that allows people to need abortions in the first place.

Gay marriage should be legal It's a simple 14th Amendment equal protection under the law issue . The State basically puts few if any restrictions on hetero- marrige so what is their legal basis for discriminating against gay people ? Realitically none, The simple fact is that it is easier to get a marriage licence in any US state than it is to get a food handlers permit , a hunting license , a beauticians license or a drivers license But then the allegorical arguments kick in and things get freaky.

The same thing with evolution.After a lifetime of being told that you are intentionally made by God, that you are super special and that God personally cares and is involved in all the minutiae of your everday life to the point where he plays baseball with you and helps you determine whether or not you should swing at a 3-0 [ actually you should because a lot of 3-0 pitches are thrown for strikes but coaches hate the idea] then some non believer with more brains then common sense wants you to believe that you are merely another life form that evolved from other life forms apes no less. and that all that God made me on purpose and very special at that stuff is simply not true. Man that has got to kick in the allegorical defend the faith response.

So watch how you approach these arguments.

Answer 4

Because the "facts" that we thought are true don't have concrete basis at all. Measurements of how things have aged are not accurate as we think, and a lot of so called "evolution proofs" have been found untrue. I'm a science & math geek myself, and so is Einstein, who admitted to an Intelligent Designer, and Pascal, who by logic cannot understand how oone cannot admit to a Creator.



Read on the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. There are no "new" creatures. All organisms degrade, not upgrade. Moreover, Darwin's postulates are now being widely debated even by non-Christians, because he didn't see that there were tinier detailsabout organisms other than their species. (book Darwin's Blackbox by M. Behe, non-Christian)



If you just know how precisely coordinated, specialized & masterful the human body works, to say that you came from an organic soup is just an insult to your totality. But then again, so long my speech went; with your ears closed from the start for any reasoning, your query leaves nothing but a paradox.

Answer 5

I think its just a case of those people taking natural selection to the extreme in that the old model shouldve died out giving the gift of existence to its new model. For instance, all butterflies are coloful but then an asteroid slams into the earth darkening everything with ash. The colorful butterflies die out almost overnite because they have no camoflage from predators. The dark butterflies however with God vision go on that is why we theoretically could end up with all dark butterflies with kickass night vision.



However, the sheer breadth of geography would negate this principle stating that many regions would be unaffected and have loads of all kinds of butterflies thereby preserving the colors.



Not that I believe in evolution at all, I think its a crock. But I dont believe that the "monkeys shouldnt be here argument" makes awesome universal sense.

Answer 6

Yes i do have the mental capacity to understand evolution. In your description you explain the frustrations you feel. I truly can agree with your frustration. It is much like people take things out of context. That's the same way I feel when someone takes the Bible out of context. If the origin of the species by evolution took place in totem. Where are the mutants of such random acts. As a scientist can you answer that simple question. I have taken nothing out of context

Answer 7

I understand the theory fully. What's missing is any concrete evidence that shows it works, has worked or might work.



Creationists have been producing evidence in support of creation for review for years, but as soon as the word "creation" is mentioned, most evolutionists decide to turn off their brains.



So rather than say "Evolution is true", show us evidence that we might decide for ourselves.



Or are the supporters of evolution afraid that people have the mental capacity to see through the tenuous web of smoke and mirrors.

Answer 8

They mostly just see it, in their own way and don't want another explanation.



But really the answer to those questions are simple.



Also We never evolved from Monkeys, we evolved from a common ancestor.

Answer 9

there are probably a lot of people that believe in evolution in a limited form and don't think it is the perfect panacea some profess it to be. If anyone thinks evolution is exact and without questions, they are as foolish as anyone they might be critiquing

Answer 10

Why do you assume that anyone who disagrees with all or part of the theory of evolution is mentally diminished in some way? That's pretty arrogant on your part.



Just because I don't accept the theory at face value doesn't mean that I'm incapable of understanding it.

Answer 11

The problem is, THERE IS NO "ADEQUATE ANSWER."



Darwinistic theory GOES AGAINST "good science."



The vast majority of mutations are TERMINAL to the creature, yet you keep asking people to accept that humans are the result of BILLIONS of CONSECUTIVE or, in some cases, SIMULTANEOUS "BENEFICIAL MUTATIONS."



The statistics that YOU are asking everyone to accept BLINDLY are mind boggling.



With 1:1000 or lower chances for any BENEFICIAL mutation, to assume that we are the product of MILLIONS of them against those odds takes a lot more faith than most people have.

Answer 12

Do people just have the mental capacity to not understand God? Can you answer these questions as well?

Answer 13

It is difficult to grasp. "Millions of years" is a concept our human minds cannot imagine. The same can be said about the size of the universe or an atom.



There is also the fact that people choose to ignore information that challenges previously held beliefs.

Answer 14

I just don't believe the theory. I do understand it's just fine

Answer 15

Because it's easier somehow to believe man tamed dinosaurs and we all just popped onto earth without any prior existence. How small is it to believe that?

Answer 16

It is partly that, and partly that religion has done such a thorough job of brainwashing that people simply cannot muster the intellectual horsepower to work their way through the problem, even if they have it. See:

Answer 17

They don't want to understand it, they don't try. They are afraid of the truth, that it will contradict what their "divinely" inspired book says, what then?.



Intelligent people accept reality and embrace the truth no matter what it implies, hence in a sense I guess you are correct.

Answer 18

evolution has been proven wrong several times.



See Kent Hovind on google video



debate with me

my e-mail address is [e-mail]

Answer 19

I find it to be a very logical theory but the ignorance of religion is taking over the world.

Answer 20

Some of us just refuse to trace lines between the stars in the sky and make mythical creatures appear in the sky. It's not hard to see the man in the moon, but its just your imagination, not reality.

Answer 21

If people truly and I mean truly understood evolution, then there'd be no denial, it's that simple

Answer 22

understanding is one thing; seeing all the holes is another...



I understand it, and can even conceive it, but not believe it. Low probability, gaps in theories and all that...

Answer 23

its it because of adaption, i dont think we came from monkeys but some form of humanoid

Answer 24

Be gentle my friend, many have closed minds from birth.

Answer 25

I am so glad to be in the presence of one so intelligent.

One that can judge the stupidity of others.

Can we bow to you?

Oh, great gugajuga.

Highly exalted one.

Answer 26

Where is the missing link? Everything is fine and dandy, but it don't fly, that's why.

Answer 27

oh soooooo true!

Answer 28

I understand it just fine, I don't believe the theory.

Answer 29

Obviously not, thanks to MTV