Why are belief in evolution and belief in God mutually exclusive?

Question

Arguers on both sides of the issue seem to assume that one cannot believe in evolution and a creator at the same time. Has anyone read the play "Inherit the Wind"? The play points out that animals were created BEFORE there was a sun in the sky and therefor the "days" described in Genesis could have been much longer periods of time. Would not God, realizing that he had created a changing world, made his creatures adaptable? I ask this respectfully, not to bait either side. Please be respectful in your answers as well. Thank you.

Dan C - That's a good answer! I hadn't thought of that. Ivan - you go boyee! Very smart.

ibn adam - Wow, that is quite an answer. I am not sure I agree with all your logical steps, but it certainly gave me a lot to think about. I am glad to see that there are still people who respond to questions on here with more than ignorance and insulting rants. Thanks to everyone who made the effort.

Answer 1

Why should they be mutually exclusive? The concept of God is in many religions, not just Judeo-Christian ones. He/She/It is believed in in Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, by the ancient Hermetics and by Hindus just to name a few. So, if there is a God, it's certainly possible that He/She/It DID indeed cause evolution to take place. In fact, there are many Christians, Jews and probably a large number of Muslims who believe that.

Belief in God is separate from the literal belief in a holy book. First of all, a holy book can be interpretted metaphorically. I think the concept that the six "days" of creation in Genesis may be longer than days now is a perfectly good one.

Also, many believe that God is ineffable and mysterious and therefore that no words and no book can accurately express who He/She/It is, but only provide us with metaphors that approach but never really get to that understanding. If that's true, than it's meaningless to say that some holy book rules out evolution. Science has proven evolution (the only reason we say "Darwin's Theory of Evolution" is that Darwin explained the fact of evolution by the notion of natural selection and it's only that explanation, not the fact of evolution itself, that scientists ever dispute - and even then they only point out that mutation plays a role AS WELL AS natural selection - but I digress). So, it seems to me that it makes more sense for anyone who believes in God to believe that God caused evolution to take place.

Moreover, there are other ways to look at God besides purely literal ones. The mythologist Joseph Cambell believed that all myth is metaphor and saw God as a metaphor for whatever is best for humanity. One can look at God in terms of gnosis, too, rather than knowledge. Knowledge is the objective truth of science. Gnosis is how we experience our universe, which is different from objective truth, because of psychology and also because of our own perspectives as living beings trying to make the most out of life. Many people of many religions have had experiences of the Divine (some of various Deities or and others of a One God). That doesn't mean that the Divine is literally true, only that they had powerful experiences. But, if those experiences make us better people, maybe this gnosis of the Divine is still worthwhile even if it's NOT literal truth.

So, in summary, I think you need to figure out what you mean by "God" and what exactly you believe about God before you can know whether or not evolution is mutually exclusive with that concept.

Answer 2

why indeed

at the time of the 1st debate, creationism against evolution - which we seem to be reliving, at lest in the US, because schools have become so poor -, this was resolved.

i don't mean resolved in the sense that scientists could believe in the very letter of the Book of Genesis. But still, there has got to have been a beginning, and I know many scientists who believe that God was at the beginning.

i mean what happened before the Big Bang (even if asking "before" has no meaning here, because what we call "time" didn't exist before the universe started to exist)?

and why did the Big Bang produce the particles it did produce. And why did those particles first create atoms of H and a bit of He and Li? And why was there gravity, that allowed H to concentrate into stars, and why did fusion begin in those stars, creating many elements in the periodic table?

and once rocky planets were around, why is it that some atoms easily bonded together, and made so-called organic molecules?

then, why and how did life appear?


these are "a few" of the things that science cannot answer today. And many scientists decide that these things are explained by God.

Answer 3

Once you reject Biblical literalism, there are numerous forms of Creationism that are completely compatible with evolutionary theory.

In its simplest form, the doctrine of Creationism states, "God created the universe." Skipping to before the start of evolution, and even before the Big Bang, God is the spark of creation.

As the advent of life forever alterered the prebiotic environment, so barring the discovery of a sequestum of the primordial soup, all discussion of the origin of life is scientific speculation. God could be the spark of life.

The evolutionary record is fairly contiguous, but there is nothing to exclude an "invisible hand" tweaking and steering evolution, but there is no evidence for it, essentially by definition. The same argument can be made for God and a 1:4:9 black slab (2001: A Space Odyssey), and it is doubtful God left fingerprints.

Lastly, if you look at the Bible in terms of parables, the Tree of Life is the spark of conciousness. There is no exclusivity so long as belief and science aren't muddled.

Answer 4

It's actually not exclusive. I wish more people understood science. Seriously, China will be at the forefront of technology if we continue to let education slide... While I don't think the process of evolution implies any kind of intelligent design if you believe in something supernatural with omnipotent powers then it can really do whatever it wants, even not leaving evidence of the process. I think that's a bit like denial but hey, whatever floats your boat.... I'm just happy that there are some people who don't allow strict interpretations to cloud facts or hold back knowledge! Thanks. P.S. The "official" Christian church really only began when Constantine put the Bible together from many texts to create one theological message during the Late Roman Empire.

Answer 5

Very, very few people argue that evolution and God are mutually exclusive. However, Creationists have argued that the scientific model of the creation of the universe and Earth in its present state is contradictory to the creation story (in truth, stories) of the Bible. Meanwhile, Evolutionists have argued that evolution cannot be confined to a 7 day creation story, not even one where days do not literally mean 24-hour periods.

Answer 6

They are NOT mutually exclusive, as shown by two facts: (1) Virtually all scientists accept the plain scientific evidence for evolution, and most scientists also believe in God; (2) Most believers in God have no problem with the scientific evidence for evolution. It is only a small percentage of believers in God whose wierd scriptural interpretations are contrary to the plain evidence of science on this matter.

Answer 7

The human mind sees duality in everything. God did not create all things millions of years ago and disappear. God visualized all of his creation to the smallest of detail in 6 days, then released it to begin manifesting through the "big bang",where the process of expanding & creating his vision of himself is still going on. Some call this process evolution,the facts of evolution prove that God not only exist but is still hard at work on his creation.

Answer 8

The thing is man....is that Evolution cannot exist with God...the reason is that, If it could..it doesn't mean that the God who created the earth was the god of the bible...you know? The bible doesn't at all indicate that god and evolution go hand in hand...it clearly states that we were created from Dust and ribs...nothing about evolving from lesser life forms. Do you understand that?

Answer 9

Technically, they're really NOT mutually exclusive - evolution doesn't really disprove anything about a magical guy watching us all, or anything like that.

I think it has more to do with the fact that many people who understand evolution are somewhat highly educated and realize that you don't NEED a God to explain our world.

Answer 10

For the creationists, each bite of "miracle" that is shown to be based on chemistry/physics/science is a bite out of proof of divine presence, which is unacceptable to them. Same reason Galileo et al was suppressed by the church.

For evolutionists, each time a condition is written off as a divine miracle instead of a scientific cause, it hampers scientific investigation, which is unaceptable to them.

So the two are mutually exclusive, since by definition, one diminishes the other.