🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <40008.2B5E58FE@puddle.fidonet.org> Stephanie.Merino@p0.f14.n346.z1.fidonet.org (Stephanie Merino) writes:
>Hello Everyone!  My name is Stephanie Merino.  I am a senior at Bonnersferry
>High School.  We have just finished a chapter in Biology II dealing with
>evolution. Now that we are done, I have begun to wonder what other peoples
>views in this area are.  Ther have been so many different ideas passed
>around over the years, one sometimes finds it hard to know what to believe.
>Is it possible to have formed from non-living matter (spontaneous generation)?
>Or could we have been created by "GOD", as many have been taught to believe.
>Lastly is it possible that we have evoled from the apes and are distantly
>related to them.  This subject has been disputed over for a number of years
>but there are still many questions to be answered and mysteries to be 
>solved. Thus, I am very interested in what people from all over believe.
>It is easy to get very confused when trying to dicipher between right and
>wrong when dealing with this subject.  I would appreciate any replies you
>might have regarding Human Evolution.

Stephanie, it is easy to get very confused when trying to dicipher between
right and wrong when dealing with *any* subject.  As a result, we humans
have developed a process of sifting information through a filter that only
passes information and ideas that meet a strict series of requirements.
That filter is called science. 

Science is a method, a process, like any other process.  Think of it as
the ultimate murder mystery.  You may believe, with every fibre of your
being, that "the butler did it".  You will find, however, that the DA isn't 
even going to prosecute without evidence, and your evidence had better be
good, that jury is going to be a tough one!  Sooo....gather your evidence,
interview your suspects, make predictions based on the facts, test those
predictions, and see where it leads.  You may find your belief was correct,
or you may be suprised; either way, belief doesn't count.

Evolutionary theory has passed the test of science.  Period.  Whether
one "believes" in it or not is irrelevent.  Evolutionary theory has proven
to be the best description we have of the process of life on this planet.
Period.  It makes no judgements as to the existence of God, life after death,
the literal truth of the Koran, or whether autos should have air bags.  
Beliefs and belief systems are separate from science, because they are
inherently unprovable using the process of science.

As to the remaining questions and mysteries, you will find that science tends
to generate new questions as it answers old ones.  The more we know, the more
we know we don't know.  If there are mysteries you want solved, go solve
them!

---Bill VanHorne