Do you believe in evolution? Please explain why. Also, please indicate whether or not religion has anything to do with your answer. If you answered "yes," do you think god is guiding evolution or letting it happen naturally (if you believe in god)? Or is "naturally" and "god" the same thing?
By "evolution," I mean Evolution by Darwinian Natural Selection. Genetics teaches us that evolution is a "change in allele frequency." Micro-evolution occurs when species undergo changes (like bacteria acquiring drug resistance) but the end result is the same species (because they are still bacteria).
Macro-evolution, on the other hand, is when a species undergoes small changes and over a VERY long time, eventually the species is different from the original species (ie, speciation). An example would be if a geographic barrier is placed in the middle of a group of one species, and then the two halves evolve separately to the point where they cannot mate with each other anymore (because they are different species).
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/general-discussion/29553-evolution.html
From what I have seen on other forums, most Sikhs believe in evolution (but there are more than just Sikhs in this forum).
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=29553
To be fair I will answer my own questions. Evolution by natural selection has mountains of evidence in its favor and in the scientific community it is regarded as fact (except, as James Watson who is co-discoverer of DNA and Nobel Prize Winner says, regarded as false by a fundamentalist minority). My conclusion about evolution is independent of religion. There is mountains of evidence to support both micro- and macro-evolution.
What are your thought? Please criticize.