Why does evolution matter?

[SpontaneousOrder]

Please explain the Cambrian Explosion in terms of evolution

I don't know, but the way to stop it is with Head & Shoulders.

[MyUserName]

If we teach creationism as science why not the stork theory as procreation?

The main problem seems to be that it is difficult to reconcile a literal belief in many holy texts where the god creates humans fully formed with evolution. Normally it would not matter, fairy stories with no evidence are impartially crushed by science as a matter of course. However some people have massive amounts of emotional investment in their holy book and refuse anything which challenges it, others are better at compartmentalising and many it blur scientific fact with religious beliefs.

[EternalOptimist]

The theory of evolution has an impact on every day life. Look at the increasing resistance of bacteria to currently available antibiotics. Now, their development may have been guided by a supreme being (or something else), but the most likely explanation is that they evolved (I base this on stuff done in labs. By microbiologists You can see the bacteria changing)).
I don't see that the theory of evolution (correct application of the scientific method will never allow it to be the fact of evolution, btw) is in any way analogous to faith healers. One is a tried and tested method, the use of which has resulted in many useful and beneficial discoveries, and the other is populated by predatory, cynical individuals who exploit the sick and the weak. Sometimes the outcome is the same, but that doesn't make the methods equal.

Edit: Oh bugger - NF beat me to it.

The bacteria might adapt and change, but its still a bacteria.
I want an example of something that eveolves into a different species

[EternalOptimist]

More importantly, do you want your kids being taught lies? And do you want them being taught lies which cause them to abandon their trust in their own perception of reality and their own faculty of reason?

If a child believes in magical sky fairies, then what's to say that they should also believe in the laws of physics? Whats to say that they should believe that 2 + 2 = 4?

do you have kids ?
did you ever tell them about father Christmas ? or the easter bunny

[NotAllThere]

This is why Richard Dawkins compares raising a child to be religious with child abuse. The language is inflammatory, but his point is that you are damaging that child's mind and it may take decades to be fixed, if ever....
Lets imagine that we some day got to the stage where 99% of people were sane and didn't believe in all of that nonsense...

Only a small minority of people believe that any and all religious teaching damages children's minds. Very few people seriously hold that religious belief is a symptom of insanity.

But it's nice to know that atheists are also capable of living in la-la land.

[UglyBetty]

Only a small minority of people believe that any and all religious teaching damages children's minds. Very few people seriously hold that religious belief is a symptom of insanity.

But it's nice to know that atheists are also capable of living in la-la land.

Do you think that teenage jihadists have had their minds damaged by religious teaching?

[NotAllThere]

The fact that some religious teaching (and indeed some political teaching) is harmful does not imply that ' any and all' is harmful.

[Unix]

Religion has held back human progression for centuries, caused countless wars and misery (see ISIS and Gaza for current instances). The sooner humans are delivered from these delusions the better. People who believe in such bulltulip should be mocked in the same way people who believe Elvis is alive (which has more evidence, scant that it is) in my opinion.

[xoggoth]

Certainly the idea that our society should be governed in detail by the supposed word of god is an impediment to real progress but not all religion is like that.

Some just get great comfort from it and do not attempt to impose it others at all. Many British Christians, esp. COE and Baptists, (not to be confused with that "Baptist" church in the US) fall into that category. They are no threat to the rest of us.

The problem is not religion but human nature. Take away religion and other irrational ideas will soon fill the gap. Political views can be just as extreme and damaging. ISIS/Al Quaida/Bocu Harem have got to kill an awful lot more people before they catch up with Pol Pot, let alone Hitler, Stalin or Mao Zedong.

[NickFitz]

The bacteria might adapt and change, but its still a bacteria.
I want an example of something that eveolves into a different species

Herring gulls and black-backed gulls: Evidence for Evolution - page 10