Do Creation and Evolution have to be mutually exclusive? Could evolution be the process "God" used?

Question

The question is neutral. I'm not saying which one I believe and I'm not trying to "score points" for either side, so please don't flame me for being either a "f***ing bible thumper!" or a "poor soul who will face God's reckoning for being a non-believer."

I'm asking this question because I'm curious what other people, of various belief systems, think about the question. I'm just curious about people, and this forum is a great opportunity to ask those kinds of questions to a large, semi-random group...

So, please stick to your beliefs about the issue raised in the QUESTION, and NOT to your beliefs about me and my motivation (or punishment) for asking it.

Answer 1

I'm an atheist and I don't see any reason why there would be a conflict between a god and evolution. Evolution just describes the process through which life changed after it stated. A completely different theory (abiogenesis) touches on how life got here in the first place.

Answer 2

EVOLUTION

The introduction to Genesis and to the whole Bible ascribes everything to the living God, creating, making, acting, moving, and speaking. There is no room for evolution without a flat denial of Divine revelation. One must be true the other false. All of God’s works are good, great, wondrous, and perfect.

Man starts from nothing. He begins in helplessness, ignorance, and inexperience. All his works, therefore, proceed on the principle of evolution. This principle is only seen in human affairs: from the hut to the palace; from the canoe to the ocean liner; from the spade to the plowshare to machines. But the birds build their nests today as at the beginning. There is growth and development within man, but no passing, change, or evolution out from one into another.

For this theory or fallacy of evolution to be true there would be evident stages of evolution today. You would be able to find species in many stages of evolution in nature right now. For this theory or fallacy of evolution to be true there would be no God. And that’s exactly what evolutionists believe and are trying prove. The evolutionist bases his or her conclusions on human assumptions and reasoning, instead of on the documentary evidence of the manuscripts.

Answer 3

Answer this question plenty of time before.

Creation through evolution thats how God created this universe and all the living creatures including humans.

Answer 4

I used to think that way, but having lived a little longer, pondered a little deeper, I lean much more towards creation rather than evolution. Here's some of my main reasons why...

Understand first that the Bible is mostly answering the question of WHY not necessarily HOW. With that in mind...

1) Evolution is a process of chance. After so many permutations and combinations of events, something came together, lightning struck, and what do you know -- life. I do not believe this...in fact as an engineer, I think its ludicous of the scientific community to present such an implausible and unlikely theory. I believe God always has been and always will be in control of everything...he is all-knowing....there is no chance in the equation. Even if you do not believe this, consider this argument. The earth is postulated at being 6 to 13 billion years old. Suppose we use this large number as the origin of life on earth. Is that a reasonable and plausible number? Consider the confluence of individual events that must each appear at the right time and place...and in the correct sequence...for the ultimate event we call life...the molecules...the lightning...whatever. The number of events in the right time and place is perhaps an enormous number. Now look at this...suppose I flip a coin with 0.5 probability of heads or tails. Each flip is an event. As I flip the coin over and over, I am building up a unique sequence of flips or events, out of the entire span of possible sequences. How big is that span of possible sequences...because it gives some indication of the likelihood of any one sequence of happening? In my coin flip example, if I flip my coin 89 times -- 89 events -- I have a total number of possible sequences of about 6.2 x 10^26. Do you realize that if an event in the life sequence occurred every nanosecond for 13 billion years, we still would not have the same number of possibilities as in my 89 event coin flip example...there would be only about 4.1 x 10^26 possible sequences. What I am saying is this, the number of events that must come together to form life, if it can, must surely be greater than 89, and if so, the likelihood of it happening is unmeasurably small. Yet, we as humans prefer this science to believing that we may not be "the top of the food chain."

2) If there is no reason to not take the Bible literally, then take it for what it says. God created man from the dust...and to dust we shall return. This I see. I do not see evolution, not even on a epic scale. I do see scientists trying to fit data to the prevailing evolution paradigm. Yes, I believe we change and adapt, but not in the sense that we used to be monkeys. Rather, we change and adapt to our environments...I see this.

3) The Bible says we were created in His image...what does that mean. I think it means that humans, unlike animals or plants, have the capability to have God indwell them and reflect His love to others...in His image. I do not see how this can progress from an evolution from monkeys adapting to their environment in a chance kind of process.

4) And does it not concern you that evolution itself seems to produce more order in the evolved entity. Are we not far more complex, both in brain and body, than a worm? Does this not "fly in the face" of The Second Law of Thermodynamics. I mean if God does not exist, then perhaps we are in a system of chance trying to achieve thermal equilibrium. If so, the Second Law states that over time the entropy (disorder) will increase. Interesting problem, don't you think.

As I grow older, and hopefully wiser, I find the absence of consideration of God by our learned elite is more a matter of pride and hard-heartedness than that of true scientific pursuit. And, here is the rub...and brilliant it is...God must be accepted by faith alone in His Son, Jesus, as Lord and Savior. Scientists do not know how to measure this...how can you prove faith? Miracles cannot be explained by a cause-and-effect paradigm we can test and repeat. Therefore, we build our own world...void of God...one that we can explain...and call what we do not understand nor know how to measure bunk. Interesting....

I leave you with this passage...
"Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, I, the Lord, am the maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens by Myself And spreading out the earth all alone, ..., Causing wise men to draw back And turning their knowledge into foolishness," Isaiah 44: 24, 25.

Answer 5

DAH !

It would only be common sense to realize that "if" God exists, then he would use 'evolution' as the process of making things happen. Just as he would use 'weather' (i.e., a storm) to cause the parting of the sea. Science does not take away from God and God does not take away from science - they are both a part of the whole, it would be nice if people realized that.

Answer 6

Creation and evolution are not mutually exclusive. One is a religious answer to the origin of things and the other is the scientific theory on the same.

Answer 7

Yes it is obviouse from sceince that this was the process he used. It is also obviouse from science and logical observation that a system as complex as the universe doesnt start by accident. I have never observed a cake baking itself.

Answer 8

Call me crazy, but that's what I believe. Science is a testament to the greatness of God.

Answer 9

Creationism is a philosophy not a science. Anyone can frame their philosophy anyway they want. I just don't appeciate those who try to pass it off as some element of science. .

Answer 10

That's what I believe. Thank you SenorUnderpants!