Ok, first-evolutional, is that even a word?
Anyway, I was just curious about something: Do any other fundamental groups, besides Christians, dismiss evolution?
When I think about it, I have to say no, I don’t know any. I have never read any people of the Jewish Religion dismissing evolution. I mean, wouldn’t the theory of evolution hit them the hardest?
I’ve never heard of a Hindu, Buddhist, Toaist, etc dismiss evolution. Why is it only certain groups of Christians?
“Evolutional” is not a word, at least according to Merriam-Webster.
The rest of your question is more GD than GQ, but in general terms, are you fluent in one or more Asian languages? If not, how did you get the impression that Hindus, Buddhists and Taoists are not dismissive of evolution? They might hate the idea. Or they might not. You’d have to read some religious texts (or speak to somone from that background) to get any straight dope on the subject.
In any event, some people can reconcile religion and science, some choose to forgo religion (atheists) and some choose to forgo science (fundamentalists). There’s no general rule one can apply to large groups of people and no real way to predict where one individual will end up.
I am Conservative Jewish and I haven’t heard anything directly going against evolution from a conservative standpoint, though it is pretty likely that Orthodox/Chasidic Jews disagree with it.
Nope, not fluent in any other spoken languages other than English.
I suppose I should narrow the field a little. In America, the only groups I hear that are taking on school systems to promote Creationism (or any religious based psuedo-science) are Christian groups.
My experiences are anecdotal, but whenever I talk about evolution, I seem to never have anyone disagree with it, besides fundamental Christians.
I’m pretty sure that a few people, from a variety of different spiritual back grounds (or lack thereof), dismiss evolution.
The adjective form I have most often seen and heard is “evolutionary”. But in the sense of the OP title, it would be correct to phrase it as “Evolution denial”.
As to the gist of the question – there are indeed heaps of people, and preachers with followers, in other religious traditions who are not convinced by the scientists. But you “only” hear about it in media from some groups of Christian fundamentalists in the West because they are the ones who bother to make a large political ( “don’t teach it in schools!”;“well, then give equal time to a myth!”;“OK, at least don’t require the kids to actually learn it!”) point about it, and can afford economically and socially to get publicity for their position (They are institutionally organized, have the numbers to influence votes and raise a lot of funds, and usually live in places where “public opinion” and lobbying is paid at least moderate attention)
Also remember not ALL religions have a fixed canonical scripture of a specific creation-story. This can make for what would look like a lack of concerted effort from, for instance, an Asian religion whose adherents may have, dependent on their ethnicity, grown up with variously Indian, Tibetan, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Mongol, Khmer, etc., creation-stories. And even among those who do have a canonical creation-story, many, including most Christian mainstream denominations, do NOT have a doctrine of absolute Scriptural Literalism, but are satisfied with inerrancy in matters of moral teaching.
oops…
My post seems to have gotten chopped in half.
After “dismiss evolution” should be:
I just never hear any of them. Maybe I’m just not listening, or listening in the wrong places.
Or maybe the rest of the spiritual world doesn’t consider evolution to deface their spiritual beliefs.
On a semi-side note: Do Islamic fundamentalists dismiss evolution?
Also, are their any threads on the SDMB by people who disagree with evolution who are not Christian fundamentalists? I suppose it might be hard to pin down peoples individual beliefs, but I was wondering if anyone had said something to the effect of “Jewish person checking in here, I disagree because…”
Bryan Ekers,
No idea about the Hindus, but neither Buddhism nor Taoism dismisses evolution.
JRDelirious,
With the exceptions of fundie Christian and Islamic creationists, we Asians know that those are stories, that they are not true.
Hindus don’t dismiss evolution; in fact they embrace it. The idea of the unity of all living things is central to Hinduism, and the evidence provided by evolutionary science supports this belief. It is their basis for their respect for all life, even ‘lower’ life forms.
There is definitely a pretty vocal Islamic creationist movement; Taner Edis, a Turkish-American physicist at Truman State University in Missouri has written a number of articles on the subject; go to his Papers and Articles section of his home page (scroll down to “Critiques of Creationism”). Harun Yahya is the website of one of the most active Islamic creationist organizations.
There are links between Christian creationists in the U.S. and Islamic creationists in Turkey and elsewhere; Taner Edis documents this in a number of his articles. See, for example, Cloning Creationism in Turkey.
Extremists in many religions reject evolution. There is at least one Orthodox Jew on this very board who has argued against it. I have seen letters to the editor from members of the Bahai faith who say they accept evolution except when it comes to humans. Muslims have already been addressed. Etc.
What about the Zoroastrians?
Won’t somebody please think of them!