“Not just atheist and humanists accept the theory of evolution; we have, for example, Pope Benedict XVI.”
Spirited: Evolution is an ancient pagan anti-creation mythos which speaks not of creation but of forced and/or mechanical emergences out of the One Substance (i.e., watery abyss, void, primordial matter, prakriti matter) revered by all nature religionists.
The first mention of evolution is found in the very ancient Babylonian evolutionary cosmogony, Enuma Elish.
With the Egyptians’ self-evolved Sun-God Ra, the divine abyss or One Substance out of which he evolved is Nu — primordial matter:
“I came into being from primordial matter...I made all the forms under which I appeared by means of (or out of) the god-soul which I raised up out of Nu (i.e., the primeval abyss of water.) (The Long War Against God, Dr. Henry Morris, p. 243)
This is naturalism, or materialism, which is the belief that there is neither living God nor heavenly realm. There is only the natural dimension (one substance), thus evolutionary materialist Dr. Scott Todd wrote in the science journal ‘Nature:’
“Even if all the data point to an intelligent designer, such a hypothesis is excluded from science because it is not naturalistic.” (Naturalism in the Light of Reality, Robert Gurney, creation.com, June 14, 2012)
Materialism is of the worldview of monism which is held in common by pantheism and spiritualism and dates back to pagan antiquity and was or is taught by all non-biblical thought systems....including yours, amd.
Greek Stoics and Epicureans, for example, were materialistic monists and these two schools of natural science and evolution held the ancient world of thought in allegiance well into the Roman Empire.
Epicureanism reigns supreme in our own age through modern evolutionary materialism, which is merely revamped and revised Epicureanism. On the other hand, the spiritualized science of quantum physics, spiritual Transhumanism and New Age in general combines the monism of the Greek Stoics with that of Eastern mysticism (i.e., Vedanta Hinduism).
The pagan philosopher Epicurus (342-270 B.C.) believed in an infinite number of worlds, or parallel universes in the words of contemporary ‘new’ pagan materialists. Like his modern counterparts, Epicurus taught that there was no god or gods, first principles, moral law, souls and afterlife as all things on earth had evolved from the earth material.
Epicurus preferred lower things to higher things, as do his contemporary followers, thus he taught that “all that exists” is an eternally existing void and animated matter. This made human beings, their intelligence and volition, an evolved accident of chance. Reason is left, but reason is active only because sensations (i.e., firing of neurons, chemical interactions) stimulate it.
In modern “scientific” terms, the idea that brute matter spontaneously generated itself from nothing (void) in much the same way as Ra spontaneously generated himself from Nu is called abiogenesis. On the basis of this ancient mythological superstition, new-pagan evolutionary materialists assert that the living supernatural God, souls, spirits, angels, demons, heaven, hell and metaphysics do not exist.
As for ‘modern’ evolutionary theory, anthropologist Henry Fairfield Osborn, longtime director of the American Museum of Natural History reveals that Darwin is not its’ originator but rather ancient pagans are. In the introduction to his history of evolutionism Osborn wrote:
“When I began the search for anticipations of the evolutionary theory....I was led back to the Greek natural philosophers and I was astonished to find how many of the pronounced and basic features of the Darwinian theory were anticipated even as far back as the seventh century B.C.” (Osborn, From the Greeks to Darwin, p. xi)
Of course the Greeks received their evolutionary cosmogonies from the Egyptians and Babylonians.
Modern evolutionists do not occupy the high ground as they erroneously believe. No, that honor belongs to metmom, YHAOS, mitch, Alamo-Girl, daniel1212, MrB and all whose faith is in the living, supernatural Creator and His Revelation, in this instance the Genesis account of creation ex nihilo.
Having fallen into paganism revised and made palatable for modern tastes, contemporary evolutionists are down below, standing knee-deep in the stinking mire.
Evolution has been observed by many people over many thousands of years - but they didn't have a scientific theory to describe it.
Any pagan theological musings about change in living systems no more supplants Darwin as the originator of the scientific theory that explains the phenomena than the Mayans tracking of astronomical objects supplants Newton as the originator of the scientific theory that explains it.
As is typical you cannot make an argument against a scientific theory without arguing against atheism - materialism - paganism - anything BUT science.
Acceptance of evolution doesn't imply or necessitate atheism, materialism or paganism.
Methodological naturalism is the basis of science - not philosophical naturalism. Such MUST be at the heart of science because only then is science of any actual USE.
If one uses supernatural causation to explain physical phenomena it is of absolutely no use - because such an action is not measurable, replicable, understandable or predictable.
Using natural causation to explain physical phenomena is the most productive method for gaining reliable and useful information about the physical world.
That is why science is of use, while creationism is useless.
So while you may suppose that you occupy the “high ground” -nothing of use is done up there - meanwhile down in the trenches in the muck and the “mire” of actual intellectual inquiry we seem to be eating your lunch, drinking your milkshake, and doing a lot of productive work.