Why can't you be a Christian and still believe in evolution?

Answer 1

Concerning the debate going on about intelligent design and evolution: is it possible that the final answer about which of these two seemingly opposite ideas is correct could simply be yes?

With one position firmly held by the believers and the other just as fearlessly defended by the non-believers, if you happen to be in a position somewhere near the middle, it does not look all that complex. From this position, you wonder why either-or has to be the answer.

If you believe that some higher being created the universe by intelligent design, what more elegant and intelligent design could there have been than a self-regulating system that continually checks its own errors and makes its own corrections in mid-stream as an integral part of the process.

This all seems quite logical to me although it probably won’t satisfy the believers because they are afraid to see any truth other than the one they have been told to believe in. Inversely it certainly won’t satisfy the non-believers because it leaves them stuck with a god that they are so obviously terrified of.

To sum up this view from the center, it might be most easily be explained by saying perhaps the designer was intelligent. Problem is, the designer was likely so intelligent that those seeking to prove that it is intelligently designed may be incapable of ever understand it well enough to see it for the elegant self regulating design that it has always been.

The nonbelievers will be similarly handicapped due to the internal terror the have about the idea that there may be a God. Neither side being able to leave their entrenched position for fear they may have to admit they were wrong. While the rest of us stand by trying to figure out what all the fuss is about. Personally I don’t think anyone is wrong, I just feel both sides are about half right.

Love and blessings
don

Answer 2

The Question Man makes a good point, but as several other answerers stated, Evolution and Christianity don't have to be and aren't exclusive of one another.

People on either side of the issue saying the 2 belief systems are exclusive don't really know the facts about Christianity, Evolution, or both, and are just supporting the beliefs that are most comfortable or easily understood by them.

Like someone else above me said, the late Pope John Paul 2 believed in the coexistence of Evolution
and Christianity, as did his predecessor.

If the leader of the largest religion in the world supports both belief systems, why can't everyone else?

Answer 3

You can. You just have a hard time being a fundamentalist.

For most of the 20th century, fundamentalism was a fringe element of Christianity. With the rise of Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and the similar southern television ministers, there arose a more powerful, media-savvy form of Christianity that took root in more and more communities across the country. Because they had air-time, they got to define Christianity in the US almost without challenge.

However, when I was growing up in the Methodist Church, I was taught that there was no reason a Christian could not accept evolution as a part of science. I long for the days when the fundies were on the fringe, but just like kudzu, they've gotten a hold on Christianity here, and it's going to take some real work for the rest of the Christian community to carve a niche for themselves in the national psyche.

Answer 4

Evolution is a process of nature. It is actually the works of the unseen hands of God over the ages. What is wrong with evolution is that scientists do not accept the wisdom of God with His creations. It cannot accept the fact that all of creation were done by the intelligence of a superior Being with a superior mind. Without that Almighty power, nothing can be formed or could happen. All things created were by design and by a specific purpose.

Answer 5

Evolution can mean so many things. Maybe we evolved on another planet before we came here. Maybe we evolved on paper or on a computer program. Evolution can also be of the spirit or will. Just what is a Utopian society anyway? is it the right to choose and to learn on our own? Should we all be calculating robots or insects? Do people evolve into being christians or mutate into their own concept. The choice is yours.

Answer 6

There is no reason why the two have to be mutually exclusive. I am a Christian and while I believe God created all living things, I also think he left room for things to change or evolve as man migrated and took different species of animal with him and different skills became necessary for some. That is even more of a point in favor of God's perfection. He allows for things to evolve and become better suited or adapted to what man has done both to habitats and the environment as a whole.

Answer 7

Who said you can't?

The late Pope John Paul II believed in evolution. he wrote 10 years ago:

"In his encyclical Humani Generis (1950), my predecessor Pius XII has already affirmed that there is no conflict between evolution and the doctrine of the faith regarding man and his vocation, provided that we do not lose sight of certain fixed points....Today, more than a half-century after the appearance of that encyclical, some new findings lead us toward the recognition of evolution as more than an hypothesis. In fact it is remarkable that this theory has had progressively greater influence on the spirit of researchers, following a series of discoveries in different scholarly disciplines. The convergence in the results of these independent studies -- which was neither planned nor sought -- constitutes in itself a significant argument in favor of the theory."

Answer 8

Actually you can. It's like this, from a christian point of view, you see your God as almighty and all powerful and creator of all things. To refuse to believe in evolution, is to deny your God the power to alter what has been created or to make new from out of what He has made, for whatever purpose this would serve. In which case, God wouldn't be all powerful.
Maybe this is a little philosophical and fundamentalists would consider this mad but hey, this argument can stand.

Answer 9

You can be a Christian who believes in evolution. There are a lot of us. The issue under all this is whether or not you interpret the Bible literally as word-for-word timeless truth/fact/history.

For me it's pretty simple... you get back to the Big Bang and wonder what the catalyst was. I say, God.

Answer 10

Evolution is voodoo science that has never been proven. A theory is a guess, just look in the dictionary.

Life can't evolve from non-life, and since the very first life form couldn't evolve, it had to be created.