As I'm not an expert on the field of Evolution and neither do I care to become one I will only point out that
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution has more than 300 references!
Gravity has only 45 references....
I think that is enough to state that the Evolution Theory is widely accepted from the scientific society.
Tora, if you haven't figured out yet my point is that you can not use the Term Believe for a Theory! People that support a Theory do not believe in it. (they might believe at its correctness)
Whether Evolution is correct or not is a different question which I can not answer. I can tell you that the scientific evidence indicate that the Evolution Theory is the most probable explanation for the biodiversity of the planet.
Whether we come from a family of apes or not, that is a very specific question that scientists still try to find the missing links.
Fossils are good evidence by the way. Having bones as fossils gives a lot of information.
A personal linguistic advice:
Regarding my personal beliefs I already said I don't disbelieve in evolution. However I recognize that it is just a scientific belief which is subject to change by scientists.
If you rephrase the above as:
Regarding my personal
opinion I already said I don't
reject evolution. However I recognize that it is just a scientific
theory which is subject to change by scientists.
then your statement would be semantically correct.
The point is not to attack you and say that evolution is a false hood and you need to start following a religion.
No one ever said you said something like that. Also no one actually is trying to make you accept the Evolution Theory.
I'm just trying to point out that there is an error in the semantics of your argument.
The point is to show that evolution and many other scientific theories are "beliefs." They are subject to change based upon new evidence and observations. Much of it hasn't been proven and can't be proven.
Yes it is clear, that your opinion is that Evolution is a belief. But what I'm arguing is that it is a Theory and not a belief. Theories by definition lack completeness and are revised as new data are processed. That does not change the fact that it is a Theory. People do not believe in Theories, Might though believe in the correctness of a theory in the lack of evidence.
To back down your point of view in a scientific way:
We have collected enough information for Evolution Theory in general to be considered correct. But we lack evolution links for the origins of specific species, such as Humans, as it is hard to observe the changes over a span of millions of years.
in other words: Evolution Theory is experimentally confirmed. For specific species, we lack information for their full evolution chain.
Thus to put it in your words: Yes, Evolution Theory in general is proven but people still need to have a belief that Humans originated from Apes and before that Lizards and before that fishes as we still miss links for that.
The semantics of your words play a big role in this topic. You can not refute Evolution Theory as there is scientific evidence. You can though claim that we are not certain about the origins of Human as we lack some links there. (Still the existing evidence put the Ape etc. as the most probable ancestors)
Cheerios!
ohh and guys this is a calm fun conversation nothing to get passionate about it.
A good opportunity to try your skills in arguing! In practice we are using the dialectic approach to a topic! (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectic)