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06-07-2012, 04:25 PM #1
Scientist: Evolution debate will soon be history
http://news.yahoo.com/scientist-evol...GFnZQ--;_ylv=3
Richard Leakey predicts skepticism over evolution will soon be history.
Not that the avowed atheist has any doubts himself.
Sometime in the next 15 to 30 years, the Kenyan-born paleoanthropologist expects scientific discoveries will have accelerated to the point that "even the skeptics can accept it."
"If you get to the stage where you can persuade people on the evidence, that it's solid, that we are all African, that color is superficial, that stages of development of culture are all interactive," Leakey says, "then I think we have a chance of a world that will respond better to global challenges."
Leakey, a professor at Stony Brook University on Long Island, recently spent several weeks in New York promoting the Turkana Basin Institute in Kenya. The institute, where Leakey spends most of his time, welcomes researchers and scientists from around the world dedicated to unearthing the origins of mankind in an area rich with fossils.
His friend, Paul Simon, performed at a May 2 fundraiser for the institute in Manhattan that collected more than $2 million. A National Geographic documentary on his work at Turkana aired this month on public television.
Now 67, Leakey is the son of the late Louis and Mary Leakey and conducts research with his wife, Meave, and daughter, Louise. The family claims to have unearthed "much of the existing fossil evidence for human evolution."
On the eve of his return to Africa earlier this week, Leakey spoke to The Associated Press in New York City about the past and the future.
"If you look back, the thing that strikes you, if you've got any sensitivity, is that extinction is the most common phenomena," Leakey says. "Extinction is always driven by environmental change. Environmental change is always driven by climate change. Man accelerated, if not created, planet change phenomena; I think we have to recognize that the future is by no means a very rosy one."
Any hope for mankind's future, he insists, rests on accepting existing scientific evidence of its past.
"If we're spreading out across the world from centers like Europe and America that evolution is nonsense and science is nonsense, how do you combat new pathogens, how do you combat new strains of disease that are evolving in the environment?" he asked.
"If you don't like the word evolution, I don't care what you call it, but life has changed. You can lay out all the fossils that have been collected and establish lineages that even a fool could work up. So the question is why, how does this happen? It's not covered by Genesis. There's no explanation for this change going back 500 million years in any book I've read from the lips of any God."
Leakey insists he has no animosity toward religion.
"If you tell me, well, people really need a faith ... I understand that," he said.
"I see no reason why you shouldn't go through your life thinking if you're a good citizen, you'll get a better future in the afterlife ...."
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06-07-2012, 04:34 PM #2
How long have they been saying things like this? Yeah, good luck.
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06-07-2012, 04:56 PM #3
i will believe it when i see it, and if it is some partial bone fragments of one thing, i will have to say try again
what books are from the lips of god?
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06-07-2012, 06:12 PM #4
As long as the major religions have a hold on people's minds it will be tough...
However, I also believe that one day the "Evolution debate" will also end, the same way we don't have a "Gravity debate" or a "Heliocentric Universe debate".
There is so much evidence for evolution, I simply find it laughable when people keep denying it.
But I fully understand what Religions do to people's minds...
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06-07-2012, 06:44 PM #5
I've never seen one ounce of truth for evolution,just theories.Anyone can come up with a theory!
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06-07-2012, 06:56 PM #6
Yep, anyone can come up with a theory....
Like the Theory of Gravity....have you seen any truth for that?
Oh, you drop an object and it falls to the ground, how are sure that was actually gravity?
Maybe GOD made the object drop to the floor, that seems like a better theory, right?
OK, I'm going to be serious now.....You haven't seen any ounce of truth?
What about the fossil record?
Vestigial Organs in humans?
DNA?
These are all observable, undeniable evidence for evolution!
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06-07-2012, 08:24 PM #7
you keep referring to gravity, can you tell me your definition of it?
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06-07-2012, 08:49 PM #8
Sure, but it's not MY definition, it's the scientific definition.
Gravity or Gravitation: a natural phenomenon by which physical bodies attract with a force proportional to their masses.
Thus, this explains why objects fall to the ground and don't float.
Because the force of the earth is PULLING the object downward.
Gravity is also the reason why our solar system formed, and why our planet rotates around the sun.
In the ancient world, people believed that the sun rotated around the earth, after all, from our perspective it looks like the sun is moving from East to West.
Then an astronomer named Galileo was able to do experiments and proved that the earth rotated around the sun, not the other way around.
The Catholic Church almost executed him for going against Biblical doctrine which CONTRADICTED Galileo's theory!
About 70 years later another astronomer named Newton composed a THEORY which would later become the law of universal gravitation.
With observations and experiments, Newton revolutionized the world and changed the way we saw the Physical world.
Because of science we understand our world, religion tried to hold science back (This was called the DARK AGES), however, mankind's insufferable thirst for knowledge could not be held back!Last edited by JustAlex; 06-07-2012 at 08:54 PM.
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06-08-2012, 08:42 AM #9
just what i thought, so you disagree with einstien but agree with newton?
and just so you know it was not religion who held anything back but rather the man made church
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06-08-2012, 05:21 PM #10
When did I say I disagreed with Einstein?
I was just pointing out the history of how Gravity became an acceptable theory thanks to Newton.
Newton wasn't perfect, he believed in Alchemy and he was very much religious.
Einstein's theory of relativity pushed science even further and he is known as the father of modern physics.
All these men made GREAT contributions to science and they all deserve respect for making our world and universe a little easier to understand.
Man made church?
And you don't consider that a Religion?
That's what religion IS....a man made construct!
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Originally Posted by hawk2618 
