Gravity is a Theory, Evolution is a Theory, why do Christians believe in one but not the other?

Question

Both have been carefully scrutinized by thousands of scientists over the centuries, and mounds of evidence and testing have been compiled on both. Even real world products have been created and used by millions based on these theories, and yet I don't see why one is so readily accepted, and the other so readily discarded.

Is it perhaps that gravity is a little harder to deny, because its influence and impact (pun intended) on our lives is immediate and obvious.

Answer 1

Gravity, as a theory, is supported by a much greater body of fact. Objects do fall to earth with the same rate of acceleration. Evolution, on the other hand, has not been nearly so well proven.

Not all Christians completely deny evolution. I, for one, don't believe that creation and evolution are mutually exclusive. I believe that God created the world, but I don't believe that Adam and Eve necessarily looked like me. We, along with the animal kingdom, may well have evolved from our original shapes in other to adapt to changing conditions, etc. I think that the concept of evolution as sole mechanism for all lifeforms known today is ludicrous. A one-celled organism crawling out of the primordial ooze and evolving into all the billions of species of animals known and unknown today is more far-fetched to me than a Supreme Being.

Answer 2

To be one of those annoying technical people, contrary to what it is called, evolution is not a theory. A scientific theory must be applicable to the scientific process.

First, you have an observation about something in nature.
Second, you have a hypothesis regarding something in nature.
Third, you test your theory to see if what you suggest actually happens in a controlled environment.
Fourth you repeat your tests several times to make certain that what you have in your theory did not happen due to another unaccounted for variable.
Finally you make conclusions about your hypothesis, along with what the scientific evidence suggests to say whether your hypothesis was correct or incorrect.

At this point, your conclusion becomes a theory. A theory still has no definite authority, because there is still the possibility that there were unforeseen variables that were not accounted for.

Unfortunately, when dealing with the concept of evolution, we have step one, people observe things in nature. We have step two, they form a hypothesis...
This is where it breaks down. There is no way to test how life originally formed on earth against this theory. Why? Because the evolution theory states that it takes millions/billions of years. Unfortunately, the theory of evolution has only existed for around a century and a half.

The hypothesis can not be tested, and most certainly cannot be repeated. Therefore evolution is not a theory.

Gravity, however, is not a theory. Gravity is a law. A scientific law is a logical, mathematical statement describing a consistency that applies to all members of a broad class of phenomena when specific conditions are met.

Laws describe a fact, they do not explain it. Gravity is how we describe the pull that physical objects have upon one another. That's just what it is.

Gravity has not really been argued over the centuries, the understanding of how exactly it works is what has been tested. Scientists haven't really disagreed whether it does exist, only what effects cause variations in how it behaves.

Evolution, on the other hand, has been in great debate since the time that it was first speculated. The fact that Charles Darwin himself found it to be an impossibility throws additional scrutiny into the pot. As far as scientific evidence for evolution. It is all circumstantial. It is not conclusive evidence. As far as the evidence to the contrary, it is neutral evidence, not supporting another idea, it just simply does not support evolution. This leaves evolution as an untestable speculation on how the world and life on it may or may not have been formed.

Answer 3

The theory of gravity is a theory, you cant deny this people, unless you don't understand it. Religious people don't try to understand gravity as a theory because it doesn't go against their beliefs, they just accept it.
Evolution theory however basically explains away a lot of what their religion claims, and so then they think, ah well, its only a theory.
Theory of gravity is not absolute, if you asked religious people to prove gravity they would say how things fall to the ground, but ask them how to calculate it and they will maybe turn to Newtons equations if they are smart enough, but even these old equations from an early gravity theory are now found to be inaccurate compared to newer ones taking into account space-time etc.
In short they believe in one and not the other because religious people believe odd things in order to make their lives seem important.

Answer 4

Probably because if you dropped a scientist off a bridge I wouldn't have to wait millions of years for the evidence that gravity is real. However, if you dangled a scientist over the bridge and told me if I wait millions of years the rope will break and I will be able to see proof of gravity, I would probably have a hard time believing that theory as well. But, in all reality, to compare gravity to evolution shows you have no real grip on the argument in general and it is obvious that you have done no actual study of your own on the "theory" of evolution. And no, a scientific theory is not a fact. A theory in science, when it becomes fact is called a "scientific law". And, as a previous answer states, "the second law of thermodynamics - entropy" states that all systems left to their own, go from order to disorder. Evolution is completely contrary to this "law" of science. Evolution states that things, given enough time, can go from disorder to order...or get better.

Answer 5

We know gravity exists but we just don't know how. As you said, there is lots of evidence of its existence. But evolution, no real evidence that it exists. Gravity still exists, but why did evolution stop? And it did. things from the ocean would still be changing. We have never never found anything half human, or in the process of a change in any rock formations or in the ground. Why, because it has no basis in fact. If we can have a Big Bang for the universe, then we can have a big bang, as it were for all creations to begin. All there is too perfect not to have a master scientist as the source of a beginning.

Answer 6

Seems the dates you provide are a bit erroneous.. Darwin was from the 18th century. Scientists also said that there was danger of going thru the sandy crust of the moon and not be recoverable.

Just because a scientists says something, doesn't necessarily make it a fact. Further, the newer evidence being produced in this new century, continues to deprive the evolution theory of its validity. In other words, it is self destructing at this time.

Need to catch up with the times. Not to present things from an emotional level.

Answer 7

I don't believe all christians blatantly denies Evolution. Personally, I believe in the theory of natural selection since it makes sense that the organism better adapted to a specific environment would thrive more and so reproduce and then its characteristics & genes are passed on. But i also believe that God created this Earth and its creatures and that natural selection was a tool He used to keep the Earth running.

Gravity is a fact that can be easily proven and seen by everyone. Evolution is a little harder to show.

Answer 8

Gravity is not a theory, more like it will not go away !

Evolution has doubters, the past is involved, unknown to some.

Christians I would say for the most part, believe in gravity, and sooner or later come to grips with evolution. Christians seem to want to have an answer other than finality, a loss of all one knows.

Answer 9

They get hung up on the word 'theory'. It does not mean the same thing in science as they think it does. In science a theory is accepted fact until it can be disproven. And nobody has come close to disproving gravity or evolution.

I think they accept gravity easier than evolution because gravity doesn't conflict with the garbage that fills their heads, while evolution surely does.

Answer 10

Gravity is only a theory? Wow!!
Evolution a theory? Okay I can go with that as long as that does not negate the possibility of exploring additional "theories".
It appears to me that more accept the theory of evolution than those that reject it. Remember...a theory is just a theory nothing else. Unless of course you reject by default any theory of intelligent design because it doesn't fit your so-called science, which by the way is supposed to make conclusions based on empirical evidence, not theory. But isn't that whats been going on?