Things Christians Say, Part 3 - Dogs give birth to cats?

A weekly series of responses to the things christians say to atheists, based on the video reproduced here on 30th January 2012.  The aim is to tackle one every weekend, to give both a moderate, polite response to each question ('Piano'), followed by a more forceful rebuttal of the same question ('Forte'). 

If evolution were true, we'd see dogs giving birth to cats

Piano

Lots of people misunderstand evolution for understandable reasons.  Darwin's beautiful idea is so good at explaining things, and yet it is so badly taught in many schools – and indeed in many countries. If you open your mind to the possibility that it is true and look at the evidence, you will see how gradual small changes, from generation to generation, are inevitable due to errors in copying the genetic code. Many – perhaps even most – of these errors are not beneficial.  But once in a while the change makes the offspring better able to thrive or even just to survive in its environment and that change is most likely to be perpetuated. It is not truly random. Yes – the errors are random but the survival is most definitely not.

One of the best books on the topic is The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins, (known to fans as TGSOE). At over 450 pages long, you would find it hard to select a more interesting read.

My own well-read copy of TGSOE

If you are religious and feel that it threatens your faith, you might even consider checking the surprising revelation that for a large proportion of christianity (including the Catholics and Anglicans) evolution is accepted into doctrine. Not all churches are officially anti-evolution and if yours is, then you are probably not ever going to change your mind, whatever the evidence might be. Even as recently as a couple of weeks ago a Roman Catholic friend told me that she hadn't realised this.

A few other people deliberately spread lies about evolution because they feel threatened by it. When it comes to specific points like the statement that we would see dogs giving birth to cats, it is almost certainly a case of mischievous lying because nobody believes that to be a sensible conclusion from the Theory of Evolution.

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Forte

Not that ridiculous and ignorant argument again! No!  We wouldn't. Whatever theory you are describing it is NOT evolution.

Try to remember who told you that we would 'see dogs giving birth to cats', and be VERY suspicious of them.  I certainly wouldn't trust them with my eternal soul - even if I believed that I had one!



Last week:  You're a What?
Next week: These so-called atheists are just rebelling against god.