something i always wondered...?

Question

Christians don't believe in evolution right? If they don't believe in the theory of evolution, how do they explain it? (This is not meant to insult or start a fight, I am generally curious)

Some of you have very good points for both sides. That's my problem-I've researched both possibilities and both are believable. I feel like there are very good points to be argued for either issue, and am torn.

Answer 1

Christianity, Muslim, Atheist, all beliefs and religions aside if you observe the Theory of Evolution from a non-biased/open-minded stand point and without the purpose of supporting a predetermined idea or agenda. You will find that there are many severe problems with the theory. In fact, evolution is rarely taught beyond a four year college level, it is viewed as a lower science.

First off according to just a regular college Biology textbook (Biology Concepts, Simons) Most mutations result in death and almost no mutations have been found to be beneficial. This is the first and most important point of evolution. Since the time of written man the earth is losing more and more species and not one is showing any signs of adaptation.

If we focus in just on humans, according to the theory of evolution we have evolved from the monkey/ape species. While it is possible for “interspecies adaptation” it is not genetically possible for a new species to form out of another species. Chromosomes, which prevent us from being able to reproduce with other species, are set and cannot be genetically changed from parent to offspring even if mutations did occur. The other problem with the evolution of humans is the skeletal evidence (of usually fragments found usually several meters from each other) that is found is not strong enough to support or refute that they are indeed early evolutionary stages of humans. Also, there have been hundreds of complete dinosaur remains found, and these incredible creatures were said to have walked the earth hundreds of years before man kind even came on the scene, yet not one of the millions of transitional remains of humans or otherwise have been discovered. This has always seemed a bit unusual to me.

The other fact is that the estimated amount of time that it would have taken for one species to have completely evolved to another species would set the earth back to a point in which it’s conditions would have been completely uninhabitable for a one celled organism much less anything more complex (From my findings when I compared timeframes found in several biology textbooks in comparison to Astronomy textbooks).

The other thing I cannot understand is how we can support evolution which thrives on the concept of “the survival of the fittest” and expect to have human rights? Many people groups that strive for equal rights in our society could easily be dismissed as weaker within that society. In truth, the theory of evolution supports every man for him self and maybe that is why people cling onto the theory so tightly, as well as why many Christians (as well as other religions) disagree with it.


I have studied and have written three research papers just on evolution as a whole in the past 8 years. This is just a sliver of my findings, I wish I could be more through and provide all my sources. I think scientists are right in some areas of evolution (particularly interspecies adaptation); however, we need to remember there are lots of scientific theories that made sense but have proven to be false. We only continue to record findings that are proven or are yet to be proven, once they are disregarded as false they are forgotten. From my findings evolution just doesn’t quite hold enough water to convince me. As for adding faith/religion into the equation I wouldn’t discard anything just yet, there is just as much real scientific evidence supporting intelligent design as there is the theory of evolution. Don’t just follow/believe or form an opinion about something scientific, religious or otherise just because your parents, the media, or the majority of people believe something. Take the time to thoroughly (with an open mind) research it from every angle, often you will be surprised what you'll find.

Answer 2

I don't believe in evolution to the point of us coming from monkeys or anything but I look at it this way: Say a moth was in Paris around the time that factories became prevalent... It was a beautiful white moth. The moth started to die out because birds could see it well on the soot covered roof tops. So one day that moth lays eggs and one of its many caterpillars turns into a beautiful gray moth. Now that moth survives and lays many more eggs that produce gray moths. That is not like the true evolution that I hear of that is from one spices to another this is from one species to the same just a different color. So in time all species acquire different traits but they remain the same species. I am a Christian and this is what I believe. I hope this helps.. God Bless.

Answer 3

I know I'm amazingly late, but I wanted to have an input. I'm a Christian, but, for all intents and purposes, I believe in the theory of evolution. Although to other responders I must say that humans did not descend from monkeys, we descended from a common ancestor we shared with the great apes. Even before that, it is thought that all organisms are derived from one common ancestor, which is supported by similarities in embryo development and shape along with our genetic material/DNA. Pope Francois also seems to agree with the Theory of Evolution- his school of thought may be similar to my own. I really don't understand why Christians can't believe in the Theory of Evolution- or any other scientific theory, really. What if the Bible was describing the first two Homo sapiens as Adam and Eve? What if, perhaps, the Bible was meant to be interpreted figuratively in some situations? Or what if the Apostles who wrote the Bible were just describing their understanding of how things went or their own interpretation of the teachings of Jesus? Mayhaps God wanted us to figure out how the world works on our own, instructing his Son to omit information that pertained to scientific mechanisms and natural phenomena from his teachings. So then when people questioned him about these subjects, Jesus responded figuratively or vaguely, deliberately leaving it up to interpretation so as not to drastically change our way of thinking all of a sudden, allowing us to figure out how to deal with problems independently so God can finally relax for once, haha.

Answer 4

All of the above. Once your saved then all of your sins are covered by Christs sacrifice on the cross. The sins you have committed and the sins you will commit. That is God's atonement. You also ask for forgiveness when you commit the sin. This is part of "working out your salvation" It shows that you realize your sinning and hopefully you go and sin no more. The Old testament model had an annual time of atonement when the sacrifice happened for the payment of sins. There is no "sin forgiveness plan. If your a Christian no amount of sinning will keep you out of heaven, but if you blatantly sin then you (and others) have to wonder if you really are a Christian because if your a follower of Christ, as "christian" implies, you should do the things that Christ commanded.

Answer 5

The Theory of Evolution is nothing more than a religion of secularism. It is just a big fairy tale. It takes more faith in it than all of the religions in the world combined.

Scientist need to stop preaching this 18th Century psuedo science, becasue it goes against modern scientific law.


ever heard of "Energy can niether be created nor destroyed."

So did energy just create itself one day from nothing?

THat is what Evolutionist believe.

Substance from nothing.... Life from non-life.... intelignece from an ameba.

Sure.... what perfect sense, but it contadicts that, "the universe is continuing towards more and more caos"

You get old and die... cars rust....things waste away...


And yet somehow... DNA magically forms better information for the advancement of the creature via mutations....

Do you know what mutations are?

Birth defects... they usually end up in death... not supperior capabilities.

What about the missing link?

Too bad they haven't discovered a single real link out of the thousands of "links" neccessary to proove Evolution since the begining of the Theory.


So right after the big bang... particles of the atoms, from nothing( which naturally pushing away from each other) somehow magically form the strong force that holds a stable nucleous- and at the same time forms a stable electron orbit traveling at insane speeds.

Oddless chance.... even if this occurred.... that would only be 1 atom. so much for the infinate sea of atoms required to make a universe, much less a rock.


Evoltionist also believe that laws, light, gravity, order, all came from nothing- from disorder...


Life from non-life?

Slowly atom by atom, a single living cell formed from primordial ooz... Which came first the DNA of the cell, or the cell to hold the DNA, - you can't have one without the other..... not only did this miracle occur... but it had no defects... it was fully functional and had the capibility to reproduce.


Wow.... amazing science [fiction]


So you supose that we just happen to be on the only living planet in the galaxy.... with not only inteligence, and self awareness, and the disire to discover [ not neccesary for Darwinial survival] but in a corner of the galaxy where we can see the universe and were we can attempt to concieve it....



Surly all of this must have formed from an explosion from nothing, with nothing to explode itself with, billions of years ago...


Alright, this leads anyone with a strong imagination to claim that Evolution is fact and is the only Scinece.



Some people will believe in anything short of insanity and beyond than in God.

So it is the facts as they are vs. Evolution, the truth as they see it...

Facts win every time


Believe what you will- just don't call your religion[ Evolution ] Science.


God bless you and yours

Answer 6

There is a gap in the so called evolution theory. My question is if we came from monkeys why can't we reproduce with one? Evolution is supposedly an adaptation of a species because they can no longer survive in the environment right? Then how come all monkeys didn't evolve and adapt only some? Only humans species and monkeys separate like this. How come we don't see people in the middle of evoluting?

Answer 7

That is a pretty inacurate generalization. I think the majority of Christians are fairly moderate and do accept science and evolution, and it is quite easy for any person believing in a higher power to unite the two concepts. There are just a few bent nails in every bucket, thus a few extreme Christians will take their faith so literally that they can't accept evolution. Those are generally the most insecure about their faith to begin with.

Science isn't anti-religion, nor is religion meant to be anti-science. The two are best supported when used side by side.

Answer 8

Creationism...The world was formed in 7 days like the bible say, or so they say. That's what my boyfriend believed until I explained what evolution actually is. Most people just think is us evolving from monkeys and that is not really it. There is a really great book about evolution called "The Beak of the Finch."

Answer 9

Sadly it is clear from all the anti-evolution arguments above that no-one here that doesn't 'believe' in evolution actually understands it. Convincing sounding arguments circle in the Creationist camp and keep them propped up in their 'faith'. Unfortunately they are all lies, clearly so to people who understands evolution. I urge you to research deeper in to what evolution science actually says if you feel yourself being swayed (and evolution only refers to changes in species, it does NOT refer to how life or the universe started!).

Science is based on evidence. And all the overwhelming abundance of evidence supports evolution. Re. the answer above me. The first paragraph is complete wishful thinking. Secondly, most mutations are neutral and do nothing. About 1-2% are harmful (eg. Nachman & Crowell, Genetics 156, 2000) and are rapidly selected against by Natural Selection (eg. by death as she correctly says). Far fewer mutations are beneficial but are selected FOR. That is how evolution works!! And sure we are in a man made, mass-extinction right now - if you mess up the complex ecosystems of course there will be a lot of extinctions. It will take a long time to rebalance.

It is completely "genetically possible for a new species to form out of another species". It is just wishful flat-out lies again to say that this isn't true. Chromosomes are NOT set - they have been observed to change and by no means at all are they the only barrier to reproduction by the way. Speciation has been OBSERVED (eg. in mosquitos, plants, fish) so I don't know how Creationists can lie like that.

The fossil evidence (of 250,000 species) shows nothing but systematic change (of geographical overlapping forms) up through the geological column! It's just abundantly clear. I'm a paleontologist but anyone can see it at a glance. The dinosaurs consisted of numerous numerous species that existed for over 150 million years. Hominids were very few and around for a few million years. So of course there will be far more dinosaur fossils! And the skeletal evidence is supportive of human evolution (oh and be careful of the deliberately vagely defined meaning of a "transitional fossil" by Creationists - all species that don't go extinct are transitional fossils). A very clear "transitional fossil" is the recently discovered Homo sapiens idaltu, transitional between us (Homo sapiens sapiens) and Homo erectus ergaster, itself transitional to Homo erectus. Look up human evolution on wikipedia or somewhere if you're interested.

The time-frame argument is complete bunk. But the next paragraph gets to the crux of the issue, people don't 'believe' in evolution because they don't want to. But fortunately, this "social darwinism" argument reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of what evolution (and genetics) says. Evolutionary theory shows us that the long-term survival and evolution of a species is strongly linked with its genetic variability. Therefore any "social darwinism" would be immensely harmful to our species.

But the real reason that people don't want to believe in evolution is 1) they don't want to be descended from 'lower' animals (but we must face this as it is the source of our dark side), and 2) it contradicts the literal reading of some parts of the bible, which threatens them.

Most Christians world-wide accept evolution as there is nothing in evolution that is incompatible with God.

Answer 10

Actually a lot of Christians do believe in evolution. The main points of Christianity have to do with Jesus and salvation.