What do fundamentalist Christians find threatening about evolution?

Question

Evolution does not imply atheism. There are many people who believe in God and accept evolution as a valid explanation of human origins.

Many have written that it cannot be accepted because that means God didn't create the earth or that the Bible is wrong. Well, obviously the Bible is a collection of accounts written by hundreds of fallible individuals. They may be inspired writers, but the Bible could never be accepted as the absolute Word of God. To do so is the ignore literary criticism and history entirely.

Despite this fact, how does evolution contradict the Bible? Evolution does not prove that the universe isn't created. It doesn't exclude the possibility that God made human beings. It only contradicts a literal biblical interpretation of HOW God created man.

The story of Adam and Eve can easily be understood in a symbolic sense. To take it literally is not rational. One symbolic interpretation of the story could be found at the following link: http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/ab/SAQ/saq-30.html

For evidence of evolution, see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidence_of_evolution

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVRsWAjvQSg

Answer 1

They're afraid of the truth.

Answer 2

Some members of the clergy fear that people will find about the lies they told their followers during centuries, while the religious leaders where the only ones who had knowledge of the alphabet and therefore of the religious scriptures. In turn, they make their followers believe that all alternative theories are devil-made and should be shunned.

You can consider this extract from the Writings of Baha'u'llah:

"O followers of all religions! We behold you wandering distraught in the wilderness of error. Ye are the fish of this Ocean; wherefore do ye withhold yourselves from that which sustaineth you? Lo, it surgeth before your faces. Hasten unto it from every clime. This is the day whereon the Rock [Peter] crieth out and shouteth, and celebrateth the praise of its Lord, the All-Possessing, the Most High, saying: "Lo! The Father is come, and that which ye were promised in the Kingdom is fulfilled!" This is the Word which was preserved behind the veils of grandeur, and which, when the Promise came to pass, shed its radiance from the horizon of the Divine Will with clear tokens."

Or medidate upon the words of Abdul-Baha:
"But as the clergy have neither understood the meaning of the Gospels nor comprehended the symbols, therefore, it has been said that religion is in contradiction to science, and science in opposition to religion, as, for example, this subject of the ascension of Christ with an elemental body to the visible heaven is contrary to the science of mathematics. But when the truth of this subject becomes clear, and the symbol is explained, science in no way contradicts it; but, on the contrary, science and the intelligence affirm it."

Answer 3

As the scientific proof of life and origin builds, the premise on which all religion is based erodes. Religions don't seek the truth. They seek to preserve the power they have wielded over humanity for thousands of years. They have a vested interested in maintaining the status quo. The more fundamental your beliefs- the deeper they are embedded in that power, and the more frightening the possible loss of that power becomes.

Religion is power- power over people, power over their wealth, and power to be god's self appointed deputy, authorized to tell others how to live. Man created god in his own image, for the purpose of acquiring such power. That's also a description of what we know as human greed and evil.

The truth of this is in the history of religion, which holds the record as the cause of more human death and misery than anything else by a wide margin. The tradition continues today. This would not be the mechanism of a sensient, caring, all powerful god; it's more that of a paranoid homicidal maniac. As any competent psychologist will tell you- regardless of what you say or claim, what you do is who you are.

Only a fool thinks there is no higher power than man. But if that power (lets call it mother nature) is indifferent to the future and well-being of mankind, if it is really up to us- then the role of religion as a medium between god and man is a hoax, and loses all it's clout and power. Therein is the threat, and that is why the church fears evolution as nothing else. As the proof of evolution grows, you will see religion trying to integrate evolution into the theory of creation as if it was always part of the big picture. It's not going to work, because what we know now about evolution is only the tip of the iceberg. A mountain of proof is coming, and it will build for thousands of years.

The refusal to fairly view evidence is a conscious choice to remain ignorarant. This is a personal choice, and there will always be some that choose it.

Answer 4

Somebody answered it very neatly and logically the other day, and I will put that here:

Without Adam and Eve, there was no fall from grace, no original sin.

Without original sin, it is possible that there could be no need for redemption, if someone lived a sinless life.

Interestingly, this same proposition by the church father Irenaeus is what caused the doctrine of original sin to be put into place, by Augustine, I believe. Evolution didn't play into it in the 300's, of course, but the mere idea of someone claiming a sinless life was enough to hammer in the doctrine.

Answer 5

Either the Word of God is true, or it is not true. I don't know if you have noticed, but the vast majority of those espousing evolution do not make any efforts to conceal their contempt for Christianity and the Word of God. Jesus Christ believed quite literally in Adam and Eve (see Matthew 19:4-6). I believe He was the Son of God and was in fact the Creator (see John 1:1-3).
The problem is, when you start watering down the Word of God and explaining it all as figurative or a metaphor, where do you stop? Did Jesus literally die on a cross? Was Jesus literally raised from the dead? Does God literally send those who reject Him to Hell?
I believe the answer is yes. And God has given me His Holy Spirit, who abides with me and testifies in my heart to the truth of these things.
One does not attain to the knowledge of God through human wisdom. The knowledge of God begins with faith; faith in the Truth. God's Word is Truth. Once received, we are then in a position to begin being taught by God.
For a new way of looking at these things, consider this website: http://www.reasons.org/

Answer 6

Because it's not in the Bible and we know that it can't be true if it's not in the Bible because the Bible says so. And we know if the Bible says so, it must be true because it's in the Bible and it is written and it's God's word and it must be true because the Bible said so and we must believe the Bible because it's true and it's in the Bible and the Bible said so.

Okay, now I'm getting really dizzy .... sorry.

Answer 7

Because its a lie. God made man in "our image" and the Bible says that. Science can't explain the miracle of God and what He did in 7 days. He made the earth, heavens and the animals, then he made man and women.

Answer 8

I don't personally find it threatening. I find that it is based on inaccurate evidence and does not have the evidence that its proponents say it does. Even if you could recreate it in a lab, which they can't do, it still would not prove that is the way it did happen.
When I look at something that is made, say a watch, to me that is evidence of a watch maker. It is absurd in my mind to look at that and say "that is evidence that there is no maker of it." Yet I look at creation and say that is evidence of a creator, but evolutionists look at the same universe and say that is evidence that there is no creator. Why would that reasoning threaten me?

Answer 9

You would be saying that GOD did not create the earth and that is a BIG part of believing.

Answer 10

I think that evolution is valid in a way that God controlled it so that eventially beings in his image were created... but I am not saying that it is definately correct

Answer 11

I don't fell threatened.
Dogs are dogs
Horses are horses
Apes are apes
Not one animal has ever become something else.
Apples are apples
Figs are figs
Grapes are grapes
No plant ever became something else (or even reported changing to something else after thousands of years of recorded history.)
Some people are "ape wannabees".