Edit: debate ended, at least for me.

Have you ever seen... Carl Sagan?

If there's no evolution, why would men and chimpanzees have 99 percent of genes in common? Is it god's way of messing with our heads? Did the devil do it to confuse us? And why was it hidden so well you need highly specialized techniques to find this out?

the '74 "evolved" from the '72, thanks for playing.

Is there anything specific about it that is "ridiculous"? I'm not familiar with the views against the idea of gradual progression from single celled organisms to the complex masses of trillions of cells that my soul now embodies today. There is an alternative idea?

I only hope you're not referring to the idea that the world as it is in it's present form was instantiated 5,000 years ago with all the plants and animals, oil and fossils, mountains and fissures, and of course, humans. People who believe in that are typically brainwashed into it from a very young age and it's very difficult to reverse.

If we somehow found an extraterrestrial civilization, and they had a ground friction effect vehicle that was as similar to ours as a '72 Barracuda is to a '74, that'd be too incredible to believe. Same for why a man is so similar to a chimp, if he was designed separately then why the similarity?

Why is the word "separately" in there? Pretending for a moment that the creation account is true, what assumptions can we make about the process? I'd say none ...

If I were the super-cheesy fundie type, I might think God made animals like man when He was trying to find him an appropriate partner in the Garden of Eden. That's a perfectly congruent theory I just yanked completely out of my butt (sorry about the smell). But ultimately, I got no clue. You got no clue. All I know is a look at a man and I look at a chimp and I think "Yup, that's pretty close" and move on, because it's meaningless. It can be explained without evolution. You could probably come up with as many congruent theories for it as there are theories of creation, ridiculous or otherwise. Something that can "prove" a multitude of theories strikes me as pretty poor proof, but hey ...

Stephan Hawking would be having conniptions knowing his words were twisted in such a way. And Einstein muttered about "The Old One" and "God" in a metaphorical way, but he was a devout atheist.

I'm pretty open to the idea that we're not entirely 'natural' and have had outside influence from extra-terrestrials. It's possible that our genetics have been modified, on purpose, by a significantly more advanced civilization. For what purpose, I do not know.

The evidence I see in support for that idea is the white skinned blue eyed creatures like myself. It's a bizarre strain, and the civilizations they have created seem more successful with their progress towards world domination than other strains. They've colonized the most land and have historically wiped out the indigenous populations as they go.

... but that's not going to turn me into a self-hating white racist It's equally as likely that this strain evolved naturally by adapting to their region of the planet. The survival mechanisms and physical traits they have would be a reflection of that.

[edit]

That seems to be your answer for everything If you could link it, I'd believe you.

Seems to me that's just a pseudo-science type of "god". Who created them?

The people who moved into northern Europe needed to absorb more sunlight for vitamin D production, so natural selection favored white people. "What? Hit her up? She's got rickets! Eewww!" And they favored science over religion a bit more than the people who stayed in mellower climes, so they refined ships and projectile weapons more than the others. Guns, ships and germs conquered the world.

Not "won't stand a chance" but a fraction of a percentage less likely to survive will add up over time. For instance, the organisms who could tell light from darkness, with no ability to focus, much less pass an eye chart with 20/20 vision.

Edit: debate ended, at least for me.

Also doubtful.

[EDIT]

OTOH, I'm amazed by how close our ideas about coding are. Maybe it's because we started with old Borland crap on an old 8088 compatible etc.