[quote name='specialk']correct me if i'm wrong, but didn't Darwin always present it as a theory?
I'd be careful defending something with so much passion if the guy who came up with it didn't even present it as fact.
but that's me, and i'm just sayin'[/quote]You obviously don't know what a theory is, despite it being described a number of times in this very thread. This also leads me to believe that you have no idea what Darwin's research was about, which makes sense if you can't read the definition of "theory" in a thread.
A theory is not a random guess that just sounds good. A theory is an explanation that is falsifiable, yet is able to stand up to replicatable scientific rigor. The Theory of Evolution has not ever been able to be proven false. Therefore, for the time being, it is a theory that is considered truth.
And Darwin's explanation of evolution is based entirely upon direct observations he made while travelling around the world by sea on the HMS Beagle, much of which was observed in the Galapagos Islands. And furthermore, a guy named Wallace came to the same conclusions simultaneously and forced Darwin to publish (On the Origin of Species) sooner than he wanted. Now over 150 years later, science has only strengthened Darwin's conclusions.
That is what a good theory is. A theory is not a guess.
I wish people would stop taking comments like the one above as typical comprehension of any person who believes in God.
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On topic, I am intrigued by this trailer. As intelligent as Ben Stein is, he absolutely cannot discount evolution all together. I want to see what this movie is really about. I agree this has to be just drawing attention to the film. And I do think it is okay to have alternative views and that people should not be ridiculed for having alternate views. Remember, Copernicus went through the same thing. It's just that roles are now reversed.
I do believe in "Intelligent Design", but not how others would explain it's meaning. I believe in and have total faith in God. But I believe in a God with ultimate knowledge and who can use the natural laws of the universe to fulfill His purposes in ways that we do not understand. I do not blindly attribute unexplainable phenomena to an unknown god. Rather, I attribute the things we have come to understand as having been set forth by an omniscient God. And the things we do not understand, I believe have an explainable solution that we simply do not have a grasp on yet, but God obviously does. That being said, I don't see why God wouldn't use evolution for His creations to progress. Furthermore, I don't see why an all knowing God would rather use hocus pocus magic and *poof* things into existence. In fact, I refuse to believe in such foolishness. If some people believe that all occurances can be some day understood by rational science, then I don't see why it's not okay for others to believe in a supreme being who understands more than us and who adheres to His own laws in order to bring about His purposes and designs. Either way, there are ultimate scientific laws that cannot be defied. It's just one option has us randomly arising from primodial ooze (imagine an Oxford Dictionary being torn into a million pieces, tossed in the air and having it all land in readable order - that's about the odds you are looking at) and the other option has a being who used the same mechanism, but executed His plan with a specific knowledge and a specific end goal.
I always expected Ben Stein sees things about the way I do. And I don't expect that his definition includes "supernatural occurances" that have no ultimate explanation by logical science. That is just dumb. Science has a solution for everything, even if we don't understand it yet. And true religion is in total compliance with science.