Do you believe that teaching of evolution has "undermined the authority of the Bible.."?

Question

"...and brought about the rise of secularization and moral chaos"?
I read the following article in the paper today about a new creation museum being built in Ohio.
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060806/NEWS10/608060348
For those of you that don't feel like reading the article, it basically states that this museum was built to further the creationist view (ok with me, to each his own). I was kind of irritated, however, at the fact that the founder tried to equate a belief in evolution with, ostensibly, and abject lack of morals. I might concede that evolution may have slightly undermined the authority of the bible. OK, maybe it's brought about a rise in secularization. Even so, why is that then equated with MORAL CHAOS?! As if a person that is not a creationist has no ability to distinguish between right and wrong, and thus perpetrates society's ills with abandon?
What eveidence supports that conclusion?

Answer 1

I think that the question is based on an artificial controversy.

Answer 2

Yes, I agree with the statement. Actually I believe you made an understatement by saying that evolution "may have slightly undermined the authority of the Bible". Jesus said, "But if you do not believe what Moses wrote, how will you believe my words?” Doubting the very first chapter of the Bible is hitting at the very foundation of the Bible and opens the door to more rejection of what the Bible clearly teaches. Also, by moral chaos I believe Ken is referring to the loss of absolutes as a result of moral relativism since if there is no God, it is up to man to make up his own moral rules. What used to be held as morally wrong is now held up for debate, e.g. homosexuality, amongst others. And it is not the inability to distinguish right from wrong, but the lack of authority in determining what is right from wrong. Two persons can argue about same sex marriages. But it would simply be a battle of opinions if it is not rooted in God's Word which categorically condemns homosexuality.

Answer 3

Evolution is just one advancement of knowledge that shows the Bible is a collection of naive myths, folk tales, etc. that have no basis in Reality. Only incredible ignorance of Science leads anyone to believe the Universe was created in six days or that there was a world flood. Someone sees no evidence for Evolution, but there is much. There is no evidence of a world flood, and the Earth is 4,700,000,000 years old, not 6010 as Bisop Ussher determined by studying the Bible. The Bible says pi is 3, but it's 3.14159...so I cannot use the Bible in engineering work. Revelation speaks of stars falling unto earth and the sky rolling up like a scroll. The sky is space, not a dome 7 to15 miles above us as many ancients believed. Stars are too distant and too huge to fall to earth. One would vaporize our planet if it came within a few million miles. Some Greek savants knew much more astronomy than whoever wrote Revelation. Erastothenes, Hipparchus and Aristarchus measured the girth of the Earth, the distance to the Moon, etc. so they knew the sky won't roll up and that stars are too far away to fall upon our planet. I can write a book about scientific inaccuracies and contradictions in the Bible. A book Billy Graham gave me lists many such things. It tries to explain them...poorly. My textbook for Bible History in college lists many more. It doesn't offer silly pretenses of explanations.

Answer 4

No evidence to support this conclusion. It is a haughty statement of intimidation and righteousness.

There are plenty of people out there who believe in creation and/or refuse to believe in evolution who are immoral. Though I can't be for sure, as there are more people out there who follow one of the God religions than who do not (around 60% of the earth's population), I would guess that more of the people who commit crimes also claim to follow one of the God religions and do not believe in evolution.

This statement could be flawed, however, as not all who follow a God religion disbelieve in evolution and those who claim to be religious may not actually be all that religious and so would not really count, but the creationists still make up their fair share of the immorality and chaos makers of the world.

One could also certainly say that it is religion that is creating the most chaos right now.

It's all just a poorly employed tactic to discredit evolution and such statements simply add to the immorality and chaos.

Answer 5

Yes, yes I do. The Bible, being false on several key points (that whole GOD thing, for one), should not have had authority, and we've finally found something that can physically and through repeated tests prove the bible wrong. And so, yes, it has undermined the authority of the Bible. But that's a very good thing.

Answer 6

For one, Evolution and just about all of it's thoughts are about Circular thinking. Can you prove to me one thing in Evolution? No. Will evolution one day kill religion? Never. Will it ever undermine the Bible, the written Word of God? Of course not,why? The Bible has evidence to support it's claims, evolution has no fact base whatsoever.

Answer 7

Evolution (particularly Macro*Evolution) is a Trojan Horse for Atheism.

Atheism then can lead to some of the other items you mention -- because ultimately atheism has no rational grounds for insisting that there is good and evil, right and wrong.

See: http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/docs/meta-eth.html

Abstract: The Indispensability of Theological Meta-Ethical Foundations for Morality: Theism and naturalism are contrasted with respect to furnishing an adequate foundation for the moral life. It is shown that on a theistic worldview an adequate foundation exists for the affirmation of objective moral values, moral duties, and moral accountability. By contrast, naturalism fails in all three respects. Insofar as we believe that moral values and duties do exist, we therefore have good grounds for believing that God exists. Moreover, a practical argument for believing in God is offered on the basis of moral accountability.

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Back to Evolution...

There is no evidence that proves Atheistic MacroEvolution (without Intelligent Design)...

I used to believe in Evolution. However, over a period of time I have grown skeptical of the claims of Macro*Evolution... this is largely due to the weakness of the evidence for Macro*Evolution, and the fact that the evidence, rationally interpreted does not support the overarching claims made by Macro*Evolutionists...

For scientific and intellectual critiques of evolution, see http://www.godsci.org/gsi/apol/evo/00.html .

Is Evolution a FACT? Not really -- not in the macro*evolutionary sense. See http://www.godsci.org/gsi/apol/evo/evofaq2.html for relevant discussion.

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I find that the vast majority of people who believe in evolution, do so by faith and authority

(faith -- because atheistic macro*evolution is a faith; and authority -- because they believe in the word of "experts" in the field, rather than truly understanding the evidence themselves).

Cordially,
John

Answer 8

Jonah in the whale, Noah's Ark (did they had two of every insect?!), the parting of the Red Sea, etc. don't work too well scientifically, but nobody says that's leading to a breakdown in society. Why should evolution be so different?

Answer 9

No more than the teaching of geography or physics.
We now know the world is not flat and does not just consist of a few areas of the middle east. It just another aspect of human learning after the dark ages of religious ignorance.

Answer 10

Um, No, it has only undermined the authority of a wooden fundamentalist literalist view.

This has been brought about so that Christians might think deeper, concerning things of the Word.

Maybe when we do, people would think of us other than total "freaks".

Answer 11

oh well ,see how all the schools have fallen apart,when the Bible was not allowed in school ,the drug,killing,teachers being attack,moral decay,was not going on, until then they have no respect for anything,especially God,thanks to the teaching of evolution