Is there any validity for religious dogma to challenge scientific empiricism, and if so what proper evidence has religion for such an assertion?

First topic message reminder :

I have listened to theists and creationists make what I view as the most absurd claims about the validity of religious doctrine and scripture. So here's a thread designed for anyone who thinks they can to show any evidence for these claims.

Of course everyone will then be entitled to comment on the veracity of what is presented and whether it has at least as much validity as scientific evidence, or indeed if it really is evidence at all.

Perhaps it's worth pointing out that this thread is not just about evolution vs creationism,but seeks to uncover why anyone thinks faith based belief has as much or more validity as scientifically validated evidence.

Jsmythe wrote:So this means we (should) have fossils of gradual changes from apes to humans?

Fossilisation is an extremely difficult and rare occurrence,  requiring a very specific set of environmental circumstances to converge. So I'm not sure we should have any expectations of what it "should" show. However I already linked a page illustrating skull fossils charting the evolution of early hominid species.

I also already explained that humans ARE apes. We share common ancestry with the other extant great apes.

Jsmythe wrote:"Theories get updated  as you know - the 98% DNA common link with humans and apes is still debateable for example."

It's part of the requirements of a scientific theory that it leads to new areas of research and expands the knowledge of the  scientific field it belongs to. So yes they get updated. The scientific theory of evolution has been expanding for over 150 years of intense scientific scrutiny. The creationist lobby have tried constantly to dishonestly discredit it and pour huge sums into this propaganda campaign. Yet species evolution remains a scientific fact that the entire field of biology and ALL medical research is based on.

I have no idea what you mean by the shared DNA between humans and other great apes being "debateable"? However the head of the human genome project is a devout Christian who has stated that without a single fossil or any other evidence, genetics alone evidences species evolution beyond any reasonable doubt.

Jsmythe wrote: Theories get updated  as you know - the 98% DNA common link with humans and apes is still debateable for example.

It's not a theory of course, though it does constitutes part of the evidence that supports the scientific theory of evolution. As I said I have no idea why you think this fact is debatable, but here are some salient facts from a fairly recent study:

"Scientists have sequenced the genome of the chimpanzee and found that humans are 96 percent similar to the great ape species.

"Darwin wasn't just provocative in saying that we descend from the apes—he didn't go far enough," said Frans de Waal, a primate scientist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. "We are apes in every way, from our long arms and tailless bodies to our habits and temperament."

"To map the chimp genome, researchers used DNA from the blood of a male common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) named Clint, who lived at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta. A comparison of Clint's genetic blueprints with that of the human genome shows that our closest living relatives share 96 percent of our DNA. The number of genetic differences between humans and chimps is ten times smaller than that between mice and rats."

"Despite the similarities in human and chimp genomes, the scientists identified some 40 million differences among the three billion DNA molecules, or nucleotides, in each genome.

The vast majority of those differences are not biologically significant, but researchers were able to identify a couple thousand differences that are potentially important to the evolution of the human lineage."

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0831_050831_chimp_genes.html

Nothing about that study suggests the shared DNA is "debatable".