Theory Of Evolution Quotes - Page 3

• As to harmonizing the theory of evolution with the Biblical account of creation, I do not believe it can be done, and I do not see why it should be. The story of Genesis is beautiful, and profoundly significant as symbolism: there is no good reason to torture it into conformity with modern theory.

  Will Durant

  Beautiful, Believe, Biblical

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• The theory [of evolution] is a scientific mistake.

  Louis Agassiz

  Mistake, Evolution, Theory

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• The fundamental religious objection to the theory of evolution is not scientific but moral. [Fundamentalists believe that] evolutionary theory must be opposed because it leads to rampant immorality, on both the personal and political scales. The basic cause of this immorality is atheism.

  Elizabeth S. Anderson

  Religious, Believe, Political

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• The fact of evolution is the backbone of biology, and biology is thus in the peculiar position of being a science founded on an unproved theory -is it then a science or a faith? Belief in the theory of evolution is thus exactly parallel to belief in special creation - both are concepts which believers know to be true but neither, up to the present, has been capable of proof.

  L. Harrison Matthews

  Special, Peculiar, Facts

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• There are two theories of evolution. There is the genuine scientific theory; and there is the talk-radio pretend version, designed not to enlighten but to deceive and enrage.

  Edward Humes

  Two, Radio, Enlightening

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• I believe in the theory of evolution, but I believe as well in the allegorical truth of creation theory. In other words, I believe that evolution, including the principle of natural selection, is one of the tools used by God to create mankind. Mankind is then a participant in the creation of the universe itself, so that we have a closed loop. I believe that there is a level on which science and religious metaphor are mutually compatible.

  Christopher Langan

  God, Religious, Believe

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• Agricultural practice served Darwin as the material basis for the elaboration of his theory of Evolution, which explained the natural causation of the adaptation we see in the structure of the organic world. That was a great advance in the knowledge of living nature.

  Trofim Lysenko

  Practice, Agriculture, World

  Trofim Denisovich Lysenko (1948). “Soviet Biology: Report to the Lenin Academy of Agricultural Sciences”

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• There is the theory that all the living forms in the world have arisen from a single source which itself came from an inorganic form. This theory can be called the 'general theory of evolution,' and the evidence which supports this is not sufficiently strong to allow us to consider it as anything more than a working hypothesis.

  Gerald A. Kerkut

  Strong, Support, World

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• I can have little patience with those who oppose ... the theory of evolution or what are called "mechanistic" explanations of the phenomena of life because of certain moral consequences which at first seem to follow from these theories, and still less with those who regard it as irrelevant or impious to ask certain questions at all. By refusing to face the facts , the conservative only weakens his own position.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Littles, Faces, Firsts

  "The Constitution of Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek, 1960.

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• Today, the theory of evolution is an accepted fact for everyone but a fundamentalist minority, whose objections are based not on reasoning but on doctrinaire adherence to religious principles.

  James D. Watson

  Religious, Science, Atheism

  James D. Watson (1970). “Molecular Biology of the Gene”

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• Aristotle especially, both by speculation and observation... reached something like the modern idea of a succession of higher organizations from lower, and made the fruitful suggestion of "a perfecting principle" in Nature. With the coming in of Christian theology this tendency toward a yet truer theory of evolution was mainly stopped, but the old crude view remained.

  Andrew Dickson White

  Christian, Views, Organization

  Andrew Dickson White (2012). “A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom: From Creation to the Victory of Scientific and Literary Methods”, p.52, Transaction Publishers

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• Darwin's theory of evolution is a framework by which we understand the diversity of life on Earth. But there is no equation sitting there in Darwin's 'Origin of Species' that you apply and say, 'What is this species going to look like in 100 years or 1,000 years?' Biology isn't there yet with that kind of predictive precision.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Years, Diversity, Looks

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• Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection is the only workable explanation that has ever been proposed for the remarkable fact of our own existence, indeed the existence of all life wherever it may turn up in the universe.

  John Maynard Smith

  May, Facts, Natural

  John Maynard Smith (1993). “The Theory of Evolution”, p.15, Cambridge University Press

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• Creationists reject Darwin's theory of evolution on the grounds that it is "just a theory". This is a valid criticism: evolution is indeed merely "a theory", albeit one with ten billion times more credence than the theory of creationism - although, to be fair, the theory of creationism is more than just a theory. It's also a fairy story. And children love fairy stories, which is presumably why so many creationists are keen to have their whimsical gibberish taught in schools.

  Charlie Brooker

  Children, School, Fairy Stories

  "When it comes to psychics, my stance is hardcore: they must die alone in windowless cells" by Charlie Brooker, www.theguardian.com. December 3, 2006.

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• Of course the theory of evolution would be vacuous if it offered a glib explanation for every inexplicable act.

  Steven Pinker

  Atheism, Would Be, Vacuous

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• Of course, there is no reconciliation between the theory of evolution by natural selection and the traditional religious view of the origin of the human mind.

  E. O. Wilson

  Religious, Views, Mind

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• It {Darwin's theory of evolution] was a concept of such stunning simplicity, but it gave rise, naturally, to all of the infinite and baffling complexity of life. The awe it inspired in me made the awe that people talk about in respect of religious experience seem, frankly, silly beside it. I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day.

  Douglas Adams

  Religious, Silly, Ignorance

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• The theory of evolution by natural selection is an ecological theory-founded on ecological observation by perhaps the greatest of all ecologists. It has been adopted by and brought up by the science of genetics, and ecologists, being modest people, are apt to forget their distinguished parenthood.

  John L. Harper

  Science, People, Parenthood

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• In the theory of evolution there is no talk of God and no Bibles are used. They're not looking for higher powers, extraterrestrials, or anything else that could be found in the science fiction section, because they are not dealing with fiction.

  Henry Rollins

  Fiction, Used, Found

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• I am a firm believer in intelligent design as a matter of faith and intellect, and I believe it should be presented in schools alongside the theories of evolution.

  Rick Perry

  Believe, School, Intelligent

  "2010 The Vote: K-12 Education". San Angelo Times, September 11, 2010.

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• Some claim evolution is just a theory. As if it were merely an opinion. The theory of evolution, like the theory of gravity, is a scientific fact. Evolution really happened. Accepting our kinship with all life on Earth is not only solid science. In my view, it’s also a soaring spiritual experience.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Spiritual, Views, Cosmos

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• Essential to the theory of evolution is the premise that everything has come into being by itself.

  Unknown

  Aquariums, Essentials, Premises

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• Those who cavalierly reject the Theory of Evolution, as not adequately supported by facts, seem quite to forget that their own theory it supported by no facts at all.

  Herbert Spencer

  Wisdom, Facts, Forget

  Herbert Spencer (1858). “Essays: Scientific, Political and Speculative”, p.389

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• New knowledge has led to the recognition in the theory of evolution of more than a hypothesis. It is indeed remarkable that this theory has been progressively accepted by researchers, following a series of discoveries in various fields of knowledge. The convergence, neither sought nor fabricated, of the results of work that was conducted independently is in itself a significant argument in favor of this theory.

  Pope John Paul II

  Discovery, Religion, Atheism

  "Popeular Science" by Phil Plait, www.slate.com. October 29, 2014.

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• Morphological information has provided the greatest single source of data in the formulation and development of the theory of evolution and that even now, when the preponderance of work is experimental, the basis for interpretation in many areas of study remains the form and relationships of structures.

  Everett C. Olson

  Science, Data, Development

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