evolving from apes?

Question

If someone believes in God why do they not believe in evolution too. I probably will get loads of thumbs down because I haven't read my bible properly. But who says that God just didn't want it that way? Maybe God just made all the stuff that went into the big bang then watched as the world evolved, why can't you have both? People who are religious do not believe in dinosairs sometimes, which is hard to believe as there is scientific evidence. Why can't it just be that God also created Dinosaurs?

DinosaUrs sorry! DOH!

Rage don't worry about giving me something! maybe you could give me some points in the future?? ; ) Why did they remove it though?

Yes I should of said we didn't evolve from apes, we share a common ancestor. The problem with not believing in God is that who put all this stuff here in the first place, something must of created the first atoms or whatever that went into the big bang. That's another thing Iwould like to ask atheists.

People who say evolution is just a theory, explain to me why we have an appendix, it has no function what so ever. Meaning we evolved and we didn't need an appendix anymore. Go to any tudor house in Britain and you will se that the doorways are not very big, you have to be careful not to bang your head. We are all much taller than centuries ago, meaning as we evolved we got taller. We can prove this by looking at the doorways on old houses, looking at skeletons from that time. The Bible is not proof of anything, somebody wrote that. Who can hear God speak, nobody can. In my opinion the Bible is there as an example of how people should live, how to be a good person, not what God told someone.

It also takes years to evolve, not over a set time in a lab setting. You can't make an apple into an orange, but you can make different species of plant life by cross pollination. As with breeding dogs, you pick a good pup with good attributes to breed with another good pup. This is how breeds came about, whippets are a cross between a greyhound and different varieties of terrier. All chosen to make a dog that was fast and good at hunting.

Plus evolution doesn't need to happen every single year or decade. It is a gradual process and we can see differences in the human body over the past few centuries, such as becoming taller. You can't see different examples of evolution in nature as a day to day thing, it doesn't just happen that quickly. We should study nature over generations, not days, as the environment and habitats change. We adapt to our environment, you adapt for a reason, to be better suited to your surroundings. I think we became talller because of different foods we discovered and nutrition.

I am no expert at all on evolution here. I was just reading some questions and then started wondering about things. I haven't studied it at all but I think it's obvious that we have evolved. If us getting taller is not evolution, then what is evolution? Genuine question. I thought we evolved from being apes, or something like an ape, because or diet changed, I thought that was what evolution was??? Wouldn't us gaining a few inches be evolution? Remember I'm not an expert, I am asking a question.

Answer 1

people can believe in both, it is only people who believe in creation that refuse to accept evolution because evolution contradicts the story of creation in the Bible and to many people, the Bible is the word of God and therefore infallible.

Answer 2

There are people of faith that hold differing positions about evolution. I have no problem looking at the human race and saying hey look they are different colours with a few different features. What I do have a problem with is the manner in which some in the scientific community have tried to sell allot more than the theory can explain. If you are open minded I would like to suggest a few books. One is called the icons of evolution by Jonathan Wells and the other is Darwin strikes back by Thomas Woodward The first book will suprise ayone who reads it and it is Scholarly work. Although it was criticized by Eugenie Scott she admitted that it was technically correct. The second book chronicles the rise of the Intelligent Design movement and its adversaries. Some of this will shock you as you begin to see the tactics thats some in the anti Inteligent design movement hve used in order to try thwart their message. he second book has some unlikely contributers including agnositics and atheists who although they may not agree with the message they think it is a valid view point. Also there is a misunderstanding about dog breeding. This is the result of intelligence. The intelligence of breeders. This isn't an example of random mutation as presented in some text books. What happens when dogs are left to their own devices they revert back into mongrel breeds. And there have been experiments with some species that grow quickly are have huge populations. There is no evidence of change. I just read this the other day, and if you want I can look it p at some conveniant time. To Gbiaki There are numerous experts in the in telligent design movement who hold impresive credentials. Richard Dawkins and others are good reads, but if you want to better understand what the ID movement is actually saying you need to read it first hand.

Answer 3

There are plenty of religious people that do accept evolution - and not just "microevolution" as they call it... those I speak of accept the theory in its entirety.

Ken Miller, for example, is a biologist and a Catholic believer who argued against the teaching of intelligent design in the Penn courts.

Evolution is not, however, in line with the Bible really. There is a lineage in the Bible from Adam all the way through to Jesus. If you say that the creation story of Genesis is symbolic, or allegorical, then you have a problem... when does that lineage stop being symbolic and start being literal? The lineage is important, because the Messianic Prophecies require that Jesus be a descendent of David.

If the lineage is true and complete, then evolution is false. But we know that science says evolution is not false. Therefore, a glaring contradiction.

Many people get around the age of the earth issue by saying that we don't know how long a day would be to god... but, with that lineage, you have to either say that the lineage is false, and that Jesus's claims as Messiah are in question... or, that man has been around only 6,000 years. We know that man has been around far longer than that.

It takes somersaults in logic and major rationalizations to accept both evolution and the Bible.

Answer 4

There is no evidence that a god created anything. No 'god was ere' on a single thing. However plenty of people are happy to swallow the genesis myth, hook line and sinker, despite the fact that there is an enormous amount of evidence to suggest that it is complete nonsense. I guess some people just need to believe in childish ideas. They just can’t let Santa go.

If you believe what you have just said, then you are close to being a deist.

I am amazed by some of the answers, especially the one about dog breeding. What ill-informed rubbish. Look at miniature breeds. They are achieved by taking the runt of the litter ( a mutation ) and breeding it further ( selection ). The only difference between that and evolution in nature is that in nature, environmental conditions provide the selection process.

Every single anti-evolution idea that I have ever seen has been non-scientific anti-evolution myths eagerly propagated by the religious so that they can maintain their religious beliefs. Even the probability models are built on falsehoods and poor assumptions.

The scientific method, put simplistically, uses observation, theory, testing and critique in order to understand the natural world. Some people seem to believe that faith is a more reliable means to acquire knowledge. Ever played Chinese whisper?

I could go on but I'm fairly sure you are bored already.

Your descriptions of evolution are heartfelt but desperately inaccurate. You really ought to get some decent material on the subject, and I don't mean the ill informed rubbish that creationists would have you read, I mean from an expert on the subject like Prof. Richard Dawkins the biologist. 'River out of Eden' is a fine piece of work, and very accessible to the lay person.

Answer 5

Hi,
I think that where many folks get confused is that they treat the Bible as a scientific text book. The reason that Christians sometimes don't believe we have a common ancestry with apes is that for Jesus to be the "second Adam" (that is to say that Adam was the first to bring sin into the world - Jesus is the second Adam because he paid the price for all of our sin). This means that there would have had to believe there was a literal Adam not a metaphorical one.

As a science student I try to remember that the Bible is more of a "why" than a "how". I have no problem with micro evolution and we are taught to think in an evolutionary model way of thinking; but I certainly believe in Intelligent design - the how, science has yet to be 100% discover.

Answer 6

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 7

If Man evolved from Apes then that means that the transition took 100's of thousands of years. Common sense tells us that this is a long time. So you would think that the Earth would be littered with the remains of all sorts of Hominid (Man/Ape) species. Yet not a single piece of evidence has surfaced to prove that these Hominids ever existed.

Many people thought that the famous "Lucy" was the "missing link". But upon closer inspection "Lucy" ended up being just a chimpanzee with a skeletal disorder.

Answer 8

I will only list a couple of problems with evolution and God.

First, a lot of scientist say that dinosaurs lived before man and died off before we ever got on the scene.

The problem with that is that nothing died until sin entered in the world. Refer to Genesis for this. That teaching goes against God's word.

The second one I will list is in Psalms it says we are fearfully and wonderfully made. It also says God made man in His image. He made Adam and Eve and they were the first male and female.

The problem with evolving from monkeys is that it also goes against God's word because God created man in the beginning. He didn't need to use monkey to evolve us.

There is more, but I don't have the time nor the space to put everything.

Answer 9

honey you don't even have to thump anyone with the bible to prove that evolution makes no sense. The next person at temps to present evolution to you as fact, as them duplicate it in a lab setting. evolution is a theory and always will be. i mean we have lab created gemstones.if evolution is such a fact why is it that no one has turned an orange into an apple "over time" in a lab. if they can simulate a diamond these wonderful evolutionist should be able to simulate a life form.

Answer 10

Hi, Good question...it's good to question God's word (the bible) God is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent...
oh boy ! i hope i got that right !! lol...

We, and by that i mean we humans...will never understand all things while on earth, but one day all our questions will be answered..how awesome is the God who created the universe...it's not a sin to wonder or be wrong about something...who can say for sure who is right...
The amazing thing about the bible is, sometimes God lets us in on His magnificence and splendour..It says one day to us is like a thousand to God. He also talks about giants. So a lot of years ago there were huge creatures and giants, where are they now? i agree with Huey, about changes within the species but not from one species to another....

Why do you think you'll get thumbs down for your question? a lot of Christians are open minded, we don't put God in a box....He is creating even now....He loves when we ask Him questions...He says in Jeremiah ch 33: 3, call to me and i will show you great and unsearchable things you do not know.

Well done for asking, it's how we all learn....

Answer 11

I"m no expert but i believe that the world and history as we know it can be broken into 7 distinct time eras... these get shorter in each successive era... putting us in the day of rest....

Saint Thomas Aquinas blended Greek philosphy and Christian doctrine by suggesting that rational thinking and the study of nature, like revelation, were valid ways to understand God. According to Aquinas, God reveals himself through nature, so to study nature is to study God.