It’s one of the most fundamental questions and has been asked by humans for centuries if not millennia, who created us and was it “God”? didgodcreateus.com has been set up to poll the population of Earth on what they think, pretty much a opinion poll. The stats are going to be slightly skewed in favor of “No” due to some previous abuse however at last count 1,083,648 said no and 196,439 said yes. So out of 1,280,087 voters 84% said no and only about 15% said yes. Put any form of error correction algorithm on that and it still shows a definitive image of what people think, even if it discovered 80% multiple votes. It would be interesting to see the population of yes and no voters from around the world based on country of origin, I wonder if the bible belt of America would light up like a Christmas tree?
I love polls like this one as they bring about a plethora of debate, and one thing I do like is a good debate, religion is a great base for debate as it lends to long deep, sometimes heated conversations, almost as good as politics haha!
So which is it going to be? Creation or Evolution, I for one believe in Evolution as it would be the most intelligent choice instead of basing my scientific beliefs on the thoughts of people who by today’s standards where “Cave Men”! It’s not that I don’t have faith either, as both Creation and Evolution are founded on faith therefore the real question should be which is most beneficial to Mankind, the belief in god or not. To answer this a definition of God must be brought up, for all parties concerned “God” is a creator, for religion God is an intelligent designer (don’t get me started with that intelligent design pseudo science those bible bashers came up with), while for Evolutionists “God” is a creator, but they rather refer to it as nature and place faith in it being a totally random and unconscious idea which encapsulates cause and effect over everything that we don’t have control over.
If you think of “God” in terms that I described above then neither Evolutionists or Creationists can be said to be Wrong as they both believe in similar deities’, and although their theories are wildly different neither can be proven wrong in respect to wether a “God” does or doesn’t exist. When it comes to creation theory however, there can only be one side that’s right, the one with unquestionable scientific proof…
Hi Simon
Firstly, in interests of full disclosure, I am an evangelical Christian.
Secondly, until we define what the word ‘God’ means, there can be no intelligent debate on the subject. Contrary to what a lot of people would have us believe, ‘God’ means completely opposing things to huge sections of the planet.
Just to take five belief systems, orthodox versions of Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism and Christianity have fundamental differences of opinion, and that’s before you begin exploring the huge range of shades and flavours of belief that exist within them.
Thirdly, using the internet to do a ‘did god create us’ poll is fundamentally flawed, seeing as the majority of the people who would answer a flat ‘yes’ don’t even have access to a phone line!
Fourthly, ‘unquestionable scientific proof’ is, by its very nature, not a valid concept. Science is something that explores, and reports data. Final proof is never achieved, because not everthing has ever been explored and quantified…
science and religion are two systems with the same goal: to explain the universe, they both ask where did the universe come from in the first place, and like the kid asking ‘why’ to every answer the adult gives them, both systems’ final answer is “because”.
21st Century scientists would say everything came from nothing… which, whether it is possible or not, isn’t exactly a satisfactory answer
Theists (Muslims, Jews, Christians, etc) would say that everything came from God, and that God has always existed… with time being something he created…
Some of the best scientists in the world are ‘religious’, in fact, there is good historical evidence to show that modern western science was founded by religious people eager to find out more about God’s creation, and how it worked
ok, rant over
brett
Brett, I agree with you on several points and for the record I am not an athiest as I do have faith in there being some form of God (I know you didn’t dispute that but I feel it nessesarry to the conversation). I simply stated a simplistic arguement as to what “God” could be defined as so as to raise debate on the subject.
The poll is more of an interesting consept that I happened to stumble upon yesterday and thought it deemed some form of exposure, I admit that yes those people who would answer yes don’t have access to a phone line but does that also mean that they are not from a western culture therefore not being exposed to other theories? I’m not saying that those other theories would change their mind, because as you say some of the worlds best scientists are religious.
I personaly voted for yes, because I believe that although the universe came out of nothing and could quite posiably have been a random event, there must be some form of force greater than our understanding and maybe even beyond the realm of any science, wether that force is inteligent or not is unprovable and therefore I tend not to venture too far along that branch.
Religion is a good thing, it teaches morals I have forgotten whom the following quote is by (Einstein I think) but science needs religion just as much as religion needs science and they must work together one looking after the other in the search of greater knowledge.
I hope I didn’t offend, it wasn’t my intention to do so, and thanks very much for commenting.
Simon
there was no offence taken simon
all the best
brett