I've had many debates with atheists that flat-out told me that they had never read Darwin completely (at least they were honest!). Fewer yet have read it more than once. This being their 'bible', you'd think that they would...
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Unlike religious works, scientific publications is reprinted to include more recent discoveries.
Yet, I've seen many fundies who obviously haven't read their own bible.
You are right, i havent read darwin. I have read your bible though. It was hilarious! I loved the part where they destroyed jericho, all that gore and stuff. After that i was kinda dazzled by the "turn the other cheek" thing later on though.
The bible is a nice way to lose faith!
Considering the Bible's track record, and how it's read more thoroughly by the heathens and apostates than the TROO BELIVURZ!, I reeeeally wouldn't talk. Especially seeing how we update our "bible" and read the new versions instead.
I don't understand this...
Why should the denial of the existence of god require a study of evolutionary theory?
You can be an atheist and not give a fuck about how we came to arrive at our current state if being.
I havn't read anything of darwin either.
Mainly because i prefer the newest scientific articles instead of reading an old obsolete book.
That's how science work, you add new knowledge all the time.
And surprize, the last 150 years have only confirmed that darwin was right.
I learned evolution in bio class and I don't see how The Origin of Species would help me understand it any better than I've already deduced on my own.
Although I might get a copy of the book to keep in a bookshelf to attract females of higher intelligence.
Darwin wasn't even an atheist. Darwinian Theory isn't a prerequisite for being an atheist either. It might surprise you to know that atheists really don't have a set of beliefs that everyone agrees upon. Atheists can believe in just about anything, including that the earth is flat, and that we were created by aliens without evolution. The only thing that ties atheists together is the fact that they don't believe in any God or gods.
However, most atheists and freethinkers do believe Darwinian Theory because, despite what you religious zealots like to promulgate, its supported by evidence, logic, and reason.
Just by understanding the inane religions humanity has dreamt up, reading the ridiculous scriptures, and observing the ludicrous behavior of all the various religious adherents, I became an atheist without even understanding anything about evolution.
There is a strong enough case for atheism without Darwin.
We don't have a bible. I've never read Origin of Species and have no pressing need to. I have, however, read Carl Zimmer's Evolution: Triumph of an Idea , which is both awesome and pretty modern.
(Also check out his science tattoo gallery on Flickr...)
No thanks, I'm not a biologist; I just re-read "Quantum Mechanics" by P. A. M. Dirac.
Don't post again Jorge, until you can do all the homework problems.
Leaving aside how atheism does not demand belief in evolution (just lack of belief in gods), and how few Christians appear to have read the bible, how many Christians have read the Torah and the Talmud? How many have read the Epic of Gilgamesh or Atra Hasis? How many have read the Greek, Assyrian, Egyptian or Mesopotamian mythologies of which their own is partly an amalgam?
Almost no-one, I'd guess, because unless you are a bible scholar or theologian investigating the pre-biblical origins of the Abrahamic religions, they are barely relevant to modern belief. A similar argument applies to the relevance of the OOS to the theory of evolution.
The OOS is hard going, but ultimately worth reading if you are at all interested in the history of science or the idea of evolution, and is remarkable for the way it anticipated and refuted then many of the objections still raised against the theory of evolution today.
But cutting edge science it is not. If you want to learn about evolution as it is understood now, Dawkins or Coyne are good starts for the lay person, and Shubin's Your Inner Fish is simply brilliant and should be read by everybody. If you want to learn about evolution in more detail, first get at least a highschool level grounding in general biology, then consult a good undergrad textbook on the subject, e.g. Evolution by Barton, Briggs et al.
Hitchens' The Portable Atheist , which may serve as a primer for atheists, devotes only a small portion to Darwin, primarily his biography.
So, no.
Darwin's work is actually outdated and so we really don't use it all that much anymore... just as we don't really use Newtonian physics, or Copernican Heliocentricity. We only recognize it as a major step in the right direction, which unfortunately for you, is not going back to Genesis 1 of your holy babble.
Cry me a river bitch.
I have read both Darwin and the Bible, in my mothertongue.
I'm telling you flat out that I have never read it. I don't need to, especially as it really has fuck all to do with atheism to start off with.
Evolution does not disprove God, it only disproves your silly Creation story.
I haven't read it but have read exerpts of it and explanations of Evolution from more modern sources. That's only because I've had an intrest in it.
To the Atheists here that haven't: So what? Atheism doesn't depend on any books, never will. Disbelief in a God isn't a commitment to other beliefs.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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