This is my first poll. Apologies are implied if it fails.
Do you feel that accepting Evolution as truth makes you feel disappointed?
Or option 2:Do you feel that it actually enhances your feelings about yourself, your kids, your relatives, your fellow humans.
I can’t be arsed to spoiler this - I find that having read most of ‘The greatest show on earth’ by Richard Dawkins, I find myself being more euphoric about certain aspects of being human than I otherwise would be.
[too late for] edit: This was supposed to be a poll. I obviously fail at polling.
I would go with enhance. There are so many things about the human body and how we interact that could be heavily improved. The idea that an all knowing, all powerful being created us this way strikes me as really odd.
The idea that we have evolved from basically nothing is a miracle.
smart people can accept both evolution and spirituality. dumb people want to exclude one in favor of the other.
“Accepting” evolution is like “accepting” that the Sun, and not the Earth, is the center of the solar system. There’s really nothing to “accept”; it just is. So it has no effect on me how I view mankind.
But Creationists accepting creationism, now that always sorely disappoints me.
Humanity arose via evolution, to feel something special about it- well it seems kinda weird to me. I never really thought that “evolution” made me or my species more special any more so than the physical laws placed on in this universe have allowed life to come about on this rocky little planet.
But do I stop to think that sometimes it’s pretty damn cool- AND how amazing it is that we’re even here in the first place?
Yeah, I do. 
So mostly it just affects how I think about the existence of humanity but not really the individual elements of it- I never really thought about it in that sort of a way.
Now genetics- that’s something that I find kind of cool on a smaller level like family relationships and kids and parents and all.
That’s pretty much my sentiment as well.
I am much of a misanthrope (of the cliché “loves Man too much to tolerate its mediocrity” kind), but I don’t really see what evolution would have to do with it.
Come to think about it, discovering that a god purposefuly and deliberately created us as such incredible wankers would probably make me feel better about mankind - after all, then we wouldn’t have any choice in the matter, nor could we hope to get any better at this whole “humanity” thing.
Wouldn’t exactly make me like that god fellow, though.
Then again who isn’t to say God created everything and he uses Evolution as the means behind his/her creation?
Enhances. It’s more pro-human to think that we are animals who have clawed our own way up than that we are the degraded toys of a God. From an evolutionary perspective we have vastly improved ourselves; from a Christian perspective we are inferior beings. The story of human evolution is one of the rise of humanity from animality; the Christian creation story is about the Fall of Man from a purer state.
Religion is as a rule VERY negative about humanity.
Neither really. If I had to pick one, I guess it would be “enhances,” mostly because my assumption would be that anything we’d see as “God” would be an advanced alien species or something, raising us to sentience for their own inexplicable ends (hell, it makes as much sense as any other explanation for God).
If however, we did this ourselves- overcoming the strong emotions that keep us from behaving rationally, creating governments to prevent being ruled by whoever is the strongest while everyone else serves, letting education overcome superstition such that our technology is evolving ever-faster, and, even as we reach new heights in comfort and civilization, trying ever harder to make those things possible for everyone in the world rather than a select few, all while realizing that we need to do this in a sustainable way, with consciousness of how we affect the earth as a whole… well, I think that’s pretty frigging awesome.
It neither enhances nor detracts from my feelings about humanity, it just is. It’s reality. I don’t see where being descended from prior species makes you either more or less special than any other species.
None whatsoever – it could be true, but there’s no way to prove or disprove that hypothesis. However, if God’s sole interaction with the Universe was to get the ball rolling in the first place, then the existence of God is irrelevant for humanity’s purposes.
My opinion is that evolution enhances my feelings about humanity, but merely by default, since religious-minded people make me feel ashamed for humanity in general.
I saw two cartoons last week that answer that.
In one, a woman looks up and tells the man “Look at those millions and millions of stars” He replies:“Makes you realize how insignificant a star is”
In the other, two stars are talking and one says “Six billion people down there. Makes you feel insignificant, doesn’t it?”
Neither, it’s something that has been part of my life for so long and since I was so little, you may as well ask whether accepting the existence of noses enhances or detracts from how I feel about humanity.
Nice thread.
I would claim two views.
My meta-view is that form is form and we see it as we wish, so what?
From my human viewpoint and my interest in mathematics in particular, fractals in nature and in the human form absolutely astound me. I assume you all know what fractals are and a quick Google will satisfy anyone on the subject.
To look at cloud or a tree or a snowflake or our own cardiovascular system and see the underlying fractal structure in all is, to me, a miracle. It makes to me a good case for intelligent design thru evolution.
Enhanced.
I don’t know if I have the chops to pull this off but, evolution is just a theory. I don’t mean just a theory as in, It’s not true; it’s just a theory. I mean it is subject to all of the constraints any theory is subject to and-- very importantly-- it is a product of humanity. Evolution (the theory) continues to change and evolve over time.
Evolution as a process is sort of like digestion: fascinating in a way, but very smelly and gross in another.
Evolution as a theory is a product of mankind and gives me hope for the possibility of finding rational descriptions of what seem to be infinitely complex questions.
In short, Evolution is cool, people are very smelly and gross.
Considering my opinion of humanity isn’t terribly high to begin with at this point, I guess I would have to say I’d be much more disappointed in humanity if we were created in God’s Image then if we were animals that knew how to make digital watches.
Especially because if it’s the former, it implies God did a really bad job and/or that we’ve really fallen a ways.
Granted, if you take the Old Testament literally, maybe we are in God’s own image and we are living up to his example set in genesis admirably.
I’m a theistic evolutionist and accepting evolution enhances my views on humanity namely that we’re not perfect and indeed sinful beings.
My understanding of evolution has no impact on how I feel about humanity. It is devoid of moral or aesthetic implications. It just is.
We are what we are. Miraculous, tragic, amazing, and very, very tenacious.
Evolution gives us some insight into why we are the way we are, but accepting that it is the best explanation with a lion’s share of the evidence behind it, does not make our nature other than what it is.
I think that’s why so many Creationists are so hostile towards the thought of evolution. They think it makes us something other than what we are.