Do any christians belive that evolution and christianity don't need to be at odds with one another?

Question

I mean, couldn't God have directed every step of the way?

Answer 1

There are lots of Christians that accept evolution. In fact the Catholic church formally accepted it by Vatican decree in the 1980's

Answer 2

There are a lot of Christians that believe that (that evolution and Christianity don't conflict).

I am not one of them. I'll tell you why. To believe that scenario, you have to throw out what the Bible says in Genesis. You have to dismiss it as allegory or something else, which it clearly is not. It clearly is meant as narrative (an actual description of something taking place). There are Hebrew scholars that refuse to believe it, but say that it actually teaches (and is meant to teach) that God created the heavens and the earth in 6 literal 24- hour days.

They say that is clearly the meaning of Scripture, but they don't themselves believe it.

I do happen to believe it, as no solid science anywhere conflicts with the account given in Genesis. (we keep being told by the media that "science" has proven the earth is billions of years old, etc., bla bla bla, but when you look closely at the "evidence", there is none. It's all talk.

Anyway, to me the biggest problem with believing in the evolution story and trying to be a Christian at the same time (well, two huge problems). .

one is, in the Bible, the order given is opposite to what Darwinists tell us it happened in. In the Bible, you have death entering the creation only AFTER sin first appeared.

If you have the Darwinist (evolutionary) view, you have billions of years of death and struggle going on long before sin ever entered the picture. Either the Darwinist view is wrong or Scripture is wrong. Don't confuse Darwinism or evolution with science. They are not the same. The inventors of modern science and the greatest scientists in the history of the world have all been, with one or two exceptions, staunch believers in a literal six day creation.

The other huge problem you have is, if you say that the Genesis account is all fable, just a story with no basis in reality, then at what point do the characters in the Bible become real people?. . at one point do you start trusting what the Bible says as actual fact? Actual real history? If you take the sensible view (as I see it), you don't have this problem. There has never been any solid hard science that actually has shown the Bible to be wrong about anything, and certainly nothing that science has shown points to the 6-day creation being false.

of about 100 possible indicators of the age of the earth, only a small few of them suggest the earth is more than a few thousand years old.

about 90% of these indicators give an age for the earth of about 6000 - 10000 years old.

here is a link to a handful of articles that point out a lot of these "age" indicators:

http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/young.asp

Answer 3

There are two types of Christians when it comes to evolution.
Young earth Christians belive in the literal translation that the earth is only 5000 years old and the Bible is literal in every sense. No evolution occured.

The other is an old earth view. This view is often refered to as intelligent design. They beleive that evolution did take place but with a designers plan. They see the bible as an important tool in spirituality but not a literal translation. Evolution and Religion can work together. But extremeists on both sides will say I am wrong.

Answer 4

they are not at all at odds.
Genesis begins with In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. and then there's a period. doesn't say how long ago - doesn't say when - it just says.
Also, the verb in the original Hebrew for created is also the same verb for recreated - so notice the Bible says 'Let us replenish the earth...' - the important thing to consider is the re in replenish. As in, already was, and now there's a new beginning.
Also, in the Book of Job, when Job and his 'friends' are questioning God, YHVH says to them 'where were you when i created the giant behemoth whose tail is the size of a cedar tree?' The only creature ever (as far as we know) to walk the earth and had a tail the size of a cedar tree was a dinosaur.
The books of the prophets of the old and new testament talk about the previous earth age, where a group of fallen angels (nephilim) called the satans took one third of the stars with them.
Everything evolves - that's the whole point of this current earth age - so that people can evolve and learn the lessons given to our ancestors at the 'beginning' of time.
the journey of life is a metaphor for evolution. hopefully, no one is the same at the beginning of their life as they are at the end.

Answer 5

My problem is that I believe there are some major misconceptions in evolutionary theory and geological theory.Scientific minds are more closed to new information and direction than most theologian.We are still being told that the native Americans came here via land bridge at the end of the ice age when all the proof says they started coming here much earlier.There is even some speculation that the Clovis point was brought here by Europeans.

Answer 6

I was raised Christian but I'm really not any more, but if you read the Bible with a scientific mind, it would seem that most current theories actually support parts of creation and other beliefs. It's just that the Christian establishment would rather take every word in the Bible literally instead of actually being serious about it and thinking about it rationally to make sense of it in the real world, they have been at odds with each other since the beginning of religion so I don't expect them to reconcile any time soon,

Answer 7

I do believe that we evolve in a sense . A lot of things have been left out that makes it hard to understand , but we should not allow ourselves to lose faith . In Job , I believe chapter 40 & 41 it speaks of great creatures that are the first ways of God , which could be the dinosaurs .
He did direct everything from the very start and knew the outcome as well . Continue in your quest and never give up .Matthew 6:33
God bless you and your family .

Answer 8

Evolution and Christianity dont mix.... everything about them is backwards...and why would God need billions of years when the bible clearly states that earth is about 6,000 years old (and yes there is scientific evidence to back this up!) .....if you cant get passed the first few chapters in the Bible then how do u know when the rest of the Bible is literal of figurative? how long was Jesus in the grave? 3 million years???!?!?!? Christens just cant compromise those to theories and why would you wanna believe in evolution when there is no real proof for it anyways?

Answer 9

They aren't at odds with each other. It isn't a gamble. It isn't a role of the dice or side of a coin. Creationism is old theory and evolution has superseded this old theory.

The church will need to make up some other excuse to save face. They always do. The earth was once flat and at the center of the solar system.

Answer 10

The smart ones do! There are many scientists who are christian who see their work as getting to know God better and using the intelligence he gave them.

It really gets to me that if you are a scientist you are automatically considered by our brothers and sisters who have, shall we say, not been as blessed in the intellect department as being un godly and evil. I suppose the stupid always resent those with a little more upstairs. Oh i don't understand it therefore it must be wrong. Ggrrrrr.