How did you learn about Evolution?

[Giliell]

I was thinking about the fallacy that atheist=evolutionist christian=creationist.
It is probably true that most atheists accept evolution and totally untrue that everybody who accepts evolution is an atheist, I was wondering how I came to accept evolution.
The first thought that came up was "highschool", of course, but thinking a bit more I came to the conclusion that this was not right at all.
I remember being taken to the Dordogne Valley in France to see the caves and museums on our Cro-Magnon ancestors before I could read, having books on dinosaurs (real ones, telling you about millions of years ago) and being facinated by the bone-fragments and 3-d Models of ape to human skulls in the local zoo.
It really was like one of those many things we kind of know for a long time and then get the details and the science behind it in school, like a rainbow being white light split into "7" colours and the physics behind it.

So, what's your story?

 

[richi1173]

Around a year and some months ago when I was entering university.

It was the summer before I began university and I was looking to expand my knowledge on various subjects like calculus, biology, chemistry, and physics.

It was at a spur of the moment that I decided to investigate one of the topics that I did not know anything about: evolution.

I typed in "How Evolution Works" on Youtube and it lead me straight to DonExodus2's playlist.

The rest is history.

 

[Ciraric]

The basics of evolution were from High School biology class.

I then got into Dawkins and Hitchens in an effort to educate myself in order to defend science from my Christian friends.

I then got into Thunderf00t and Pat Condell, and from them all other youtube scientists in the debate.

I actually realise at times that my High School's biology teaching was really very good. Although it was taught simply as natural selection and evolution was very rarely mentioned.

 

[Marcus]

It's lost in the mists of time for me. I have always been an insatiable reader - my mother tells me this has been so since I was three years old, though I have no clear temporally fixed memories that far back. I'm fairly confident, given my equally huge appetite for science, and the fact that I loved dinosaurs even more than most kids, that I would have read about evolution at a very early age, and never looked back.

 

[nasher168]

I used to read a lot during Primary school (for those in other countries, that's from 4 to 11 years old).
I came across Evolution sometime during this period, and found it fascinating. I never had to deal with creationists (although the school did seem to miss out the fact that genesis is a myth during RS lessons).

 

[xman]

My story is the same as yours, Giliell. Evolution was as much a part of my upbringing as religion is to some people. What 8 year old boy doesn't live dinosaurs? We learn about extinction and evolution around then. Just about the time I stopped going to Sunday school. Not that I went to church much at all. The icing on the cake would have been in grade 11 biology class when I had to write a test on it. By the time I was 16 it wasn't even a question and still to this day I'm dumbfounded when I run across people who deny it. Question it? Sure. I did. Gotta be sure right, but to flat out deny evolution in the face of mountains of evidence just boggles the mind.

X

 

[Spase]

I'm having a hard time remembering exactly. It seems like something I always just kinda accepted on some level.

I remember when I was maybe 6 or so having my dad explain to me that my understanding of evolution was flawed... because at the time I visualized a kind of Lamarkian evolution since that's more intuitive when you don't have an understanding of genetics. So.. I always accepted that species arose from past species in response to their environment but clearly my understanding of natural selection started out pretty weak.

So, I suppose I would say that as young as I remember I "believed in" evolution but I'm not sure at what point I would say I understood it. It seems like it came in a more or less smooth gradient, though my dad explaining to me selection rather than a Lamarkian mechanism would have been a kind of turning point.

 

[borrofburi]

AP biology was when I got a deep understanding of it and why it was viable. Previous to that it wasn't a big issue to me, I just figured "god did it" was as perfectly compatible with evolution as it was with the formation of snowflakes or granite: god did it, and it works by this process. The only thing I objected to (previous to AP Bio) was that humans came from evolution. Then I took AP Bio, knew I had to learn the material to pass the class, and was perfectly fine with that, figured I'd learn evolution and if I found it wanting I would better be able to argue the flaws in evolution (obviously, I did not find it wanting at all, especially because AP bio did a good job demonstrating the persaviness of evolution through all of biology) (and now to give credit where it is due: my AP bio teacher was fantastic, has been teaching AP bio for 20 years or something, moved to a small charter school so she could have better control of her classroom and how she taught the course, and did an absolutely brilliant job)

Anyway, ironically creationists who say evolution is a threat to their religion are both right and wrong: on many levels the fact that many of the people I respected as christians were saying things so blatantly and demonstrably false (namely "evolution is wrong" or "evolution has problems") did make me question their competence for pretty much the first time. So yah, evolution cured me, but only because they opposed it so strongly for such silly reasons. (though the true final nail in the coffin was reading "the case for faith" with the same critical eye that I applied to evolution, only it didn't stand up quite so well...)

 

[coddlinghimmler]

I first learned of Darwins little "Theory" in middle school and boy was it a big deal. The school was forced to send home letters telling the parents about the curriculum that was about to start and did the "fundies" ever start a ruckus. I can actually remember asking my mom what the big deal was. See we were not a very religious family tho my father to this day will not tell me his believes on the subject!?! So my mom explained why children were literally pulled from our science class and how science refuted the book of genesis. :roll: This was the day I woke up I think I was 11 or 12. Haven't looked back since.

 

[WaxItYourself]

I know it is a fallacy the all evolutionists are atheists because everyone that believes in evolution is not an atheist. However all Christians are creationists. IT just matters what kind of creationists we are talking about. I don't even remember when I first thought of evolution. I've always held a great interest in ancient civilizations, donisaurs, astronomy and history from the time I was young. I was brought up in an agnostic/atheist household so basically it's just always been for me.

 

[Giliell]

However all Christians are creationists.

Could you clarify yourself here a bit?
Of course, if you mean "creationist" in the sense of that they believe that their sky-pixie was behing all of that, that he made the big bang happen and set the laws of physics so that one day life would come to happen and that it would diversify via evolution, then of course you're right.
But not al of them believe that god just wiggled his nose and everything popped into existence 6000 years ago

 

[Ciraric]

However all Christians are creationists.

Could you clarify yourself here a bit?
Of course, if you mean "creationist" in the sense of that they believe that their sky-pixie was behing all of that, that he made the big bang happen and set the laws of physics so that one day life would come to happen and that it would diversify via evolution, then of course you're right.
But not al of them believe that god just wiggled his nose and everything popped into existence 6000 years ago

I think he got it backwards.

I'm sure he meant "all creationists are christians."

Even that isn't true though. Bring in he Islamists...

 

[Giant Blue Anteater]

I was always fascinated with the history of life on this planet and the Universe since I was a kid, perhaps since 5-7 years of age, it's been a while, so I don't know for sure. However, I didn't understand exactly how those creatures changed over millions of years until a few years ago. Even though I believed in God, I did not have any strong convictions that the Universe was created by him 4,004 BC, which is fortunate for me.

 

[Nashy19]

I learnt about genes and evolution at 13 in highschool Biology.

 

[WaxItYourself]

However all Christians are creationists.

Could you clarify yourself here a bit?
Of course, if you mean "creationist" in the sense of that they believe that their sky-pixie was behing all of that, that he made the big bang happen and set the laws of physics so that one day life would come to happen and that it would diversify via evolution, then of course you're right.
But not al of them believe that god just wiggled his nose and everything popped into existence 6000 years ago

Yes that's exactly what I mean. Creationism isn't just of the Young Earth Creationist kind.

 

[Squawk]

Interesting question.
Learned the basics in school as everyone else did, but for the most part had no real interest in it. I thought it was pretty cool at the time, but the teaching was a bit dry and I lost interest. Never had any issues accepting that it was true, never even considered there might be an alternative.

My biology education ended at 16, I was more interested in maths and physics.

At the time of leaving University (about 21) my knowledge was still minimal, at best. And then an interesting thing happened. A mate of mine ended up with a girlfriend who was creationist, and gave him a book that discussed evolution and in particular erected various ideas about why it couldn't be true.

At the time I was taken aback. I simply couldn't believe that there were people who didn't accept evolution. How naive can you be... Even with minimal understanding it was clear that evolution was a very powerful idea, basic observations such as arms races in nature for example.

I read the book, or skimmed it, and could tell it was full of deception. Some bits I knew to be outright lies (dating methods, which I knew a little about, for example) and other bits I suspected were lies, but didn't have the knowledge to counter.

I did a bit of reading around to satisfy myself that it was full of lies and learned quite a bit about various aspects of science. The real turning point came when I discovered various channels on youtube that were science based, and yet others that were lying for doctrine. I had never realised just how pervasive creationism was. On learning just how widespread it really was (I was genuinely shocked) I decided to read everything I could get my hands on.

I subscribed to all the usual suspects on youtube, partly to learn from them and partly to learn which things I needed to teach myself. I read numerous books on the various topics that creationists use against evolution. I joined and actively participate in a couple of online forums where I continue to increase my knowledge, of most note being the http://www.richarddawkins.net/forum/ and I actively participate in many debates online.

I figure I am now good enough not to be a victim of dunning-kruger when it comes to evolutionary biology. I can destroy pretty much any and all cannards that anyone might care to erect and I can describe the mechanisms involved in neo-darwinian evolution. At the same time I have nothing like a detailed knowledge of any aspect of evolutionary theory. Anybody with formal training in biology would run rings around me for knowledge, unless they started spouting falsehoods.

One thing that I have always possessed is good critical thinking. I assess all ideas on merit and weight them accordingly. I am not afraid to be wrong, and I love getting into debates with people who know more than me. I learn loads if someone makes an argument I haven't seen before and I have to read up.

The key with pretty much all of this is to know what you know, and to know what you don't know. And don't pretend to know what you don't.

 

[Morts]

ever since i can remember ive been watching national geograpich and the discovery channel..sooo....from there

 

[MRaverz]

Totally received the Origin of Species as a gift from my Grandmother.

 

[GoodKat]

Personal research during my first year of college, before that all I had was the incredibly skewed and flat out incorrect version that had been presented to me by my fundamentalist christian school, southern baptist church, and creatard websites.

 

[bipolarGod]

I visited LoR....haha
No I think for me it started when I left for college. I grew up when in a Roman-Catholic family and throughout my high school years I started taking physics courses. By my senior year I took an AP Modern Physics course which got me really interested in things such as theoretical physics, nuclear physics, and alot of other subject matters that had to do with the universe and the things we can't see. After I got to college I went in as an engineering major in electrical and computer science but I started getting into the intricate math and started applying it to the physics I was studying. I think what really did it for me though was when I read The Theory of Everything. I didnt quite understand all the math but I mean it really opened my eyes. Now hear I am. Turned me to an Evolutionist and Atheist. But more than that it also turned me into a Nihilist, which kinda pissed off my dad when he found out. My mom always sort of knew that I didn't have a strong relationship with "God" but she was ok with it. My dad, pretty much thinks I am going to hell but I think he accepts it now.