Before Darwin Where Did Atheists/Agnostics Think Humans Came From?
 

For those people on earth who didn't believe in a God/Creator prior to Darwin's theory of evolution what were their ideas/beliefs for the origin of humans?

The Stork. :thumbsup

http://www.madspiders.com/images/thestork.jpg

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There was no scientific theory at the time, and a lot of people believed in God precisely because no plausible alternative explanations existed that were consistent with a non-god explanation.

They probably kept their beliefs to themselves for fear of being labeled a heretic by the religious

since when do beliefs ever require fact and reason behind them?

Who said they did?

In the absence of science any belief is possible, for rational men the presence of convincing scientific evidence closed the book on the origin of the species.

it's called age of enlightment

I've seen a few academics suggest that deism and pantheism were likely atheists without the evidence. Both can easily be "atheistic" as long as you take out the deity part, and would be pretty plausible alternatives to the typical Protestant / Catholic views.

Atheism isn't a belief system. Humanism, Buddhism(without Karma and reincarnation), Satanism, etc., are some belief systems that atheist may subscribe to.

Further, atheists are a big bunch. A person doesn't really need scientific evidence to lack a belief in any deities. You just .... gotta lack a belief in any and all deities. It's that simple.

Now... rational people, however, would probably err on the side of caution before Darwin and subscribe to something like deism if anything, as it made more sense given the known evidence at the time.

Atheists/Agnostics just didn't afraid to recognize that they don't know. Because people invented the God precisely because they afraid of this feeling of unknown.

Before Darwin's theory of evolution there wasn't a Darwin's theory of evolution ....

I'm an atheist but it IS a belief system, no-one can totally disprove god, for example some people now think that the universe is an experiment or even a computer simulation, which if so means that whoever created that becomes god. It's even possible that there is a "traditional" god that takes a far further back seat than religion has us believe. I don't believe any of that, I believe in a scientific rationale behind everything but that doesn't mean that I or anyone can disprove god.

Nope, not believing in something is not believing. See more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell%27s_teapot

Evolution is not a 'belief' it's a scientific fact.

Did you know when you were in the womb, you developed a full blown tail and had a set of gills? The tail then was reabsorbed and the tail bone stop developing and is now your coccyx. The gills you developed are all but gone, one gill still remains and that gill tract is now called your eustachian tube, that connects your throat to your ear.

That's just a couple of tid bits for you "Evolution is a crock of shit"" folks to chew on today.

oh, and at minimum, 60% of our DNA is identical with plants!! Not just other mammals, but with plants!! Mammals have a much higher %, chimpanzees share 99% of our DNA. Very subtle changes in the genetic code makes the differences you see with your eyes, but we are all essentially the same beings.

All life comes from the same building blocks, DNA. Primitive man never knew about DNA and how we all evolved so the easiest way to answer all the questions was to look up at the sky and say "Golly gee, must be a God that created all of this."

How many hundreds and hundreds of Gods has man had thru the centuries? Too many. The God you believe in has a great deal to do with when and where you were born.

Gods will come and go with time, but science is forever.

LOL. Missing link. There even shouldn't be a link there, as we haven't evolved from Neanderthals. This stupidity really gets new heights, it isn't even funny anymore.

you have to ignore him - otherwise you want to bang your head on the desk

Atheism isn't a belief system. Those "some people" who think the universe is an experiment or even a computer simulation - that BELIEF is a belief system, just like any religion. An atheist who is also a humanist would have a belief system - humanism. Atheism isn't a belief system just like theism isn't a belief system. I'm not sure how logically one arrives at the idea that a word which is defined as "the lack of a belief in a deity" is somehow a belief system. It isn't. A belief system is a system in which morals and other guiding factors for living may be found - humanism, Buddhism, any of the major Abrahamic religions, etc. Atheism is quite simply the lack of belief in any deities - that isn't a belief system - at all - it is simply stating a matter of fact.

Also, anti-theism and atheism are two separate things. I'm atheist as well, but I'm an evidence-based person who relies on hard data rather than feel good shit. If hard, empirical data comes to light that any of the thousands of deities out there exist, guess I better convert.

Probably they had the good sense to doubt what they couldn't see with their eyes, and were skeptical because of the actions of the "holy" people, and the evils perpetrated in the name of religion. The scientific method is just another of many excellent reasons to deny the validity of organized religion. But, before Darwin came, and you had a big crowd around you, you kept your mouth shut so no one stuck a red hot poker up your ass to "save your soul".

Aliens, obviously.

http://a2.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/i...559b0a0f/l.jpg

http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/i...ullbinding.jpg

OMG!! Aliens!! Or just some stupid humans. Google "skull binding" and you can find more that shit. The first example is about skull flattening (with stone, etc.).

Nice one, did you paint it with fingerpaints, all by yourself?

That solves everything.

atheists (like me) cannot prove there is no god, therefore it is a belief.

Dam! you found it!!

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SXI9xWkTQe...y+Sleestak.jpg

Facts work fact basis, not excluding everyhing else out to filter facts.

So there is no need to prove god's unexistence. If hypothesis is that there is god, there is need to prove god's existence. Other way around doing science would be practically impossible.

this is how the flying spaghetti monster got invented.

It is real!
http://www.venganza.org/images/th_FSM3d.jpg

My favorite type of god. :winkwink:

:thumbsup :thumbsup

http://static.fjcdn.com/large/pictur...3b_4405202.jpg

this sounds much more logical actually than creating Eva from Adams rib - just saying

They didn't think about it. Instead they created shit like buggies, plows and other shit.

Absolutely :1orglaugh:1orglaugh

The lack of a belief in any deities isn't a belief, or a belief system. It is simply stating a matter of fact. Philosophers smarter than you or I have debated this topic for over a century, and I'm just regurgitating what they've said(and summarizing). Atheism also doesn't attempt to disprove or prove anything. Again, it is simply stating "I lack any belief in any deities". That's it. Quit complicating it and confusing it.

You're thinking anti-theism I'm assuming.

Yes, exactly. without proof it becomes a belief.