God-Believers who believe in Evolution--how does Evolution enhance/weaken your belief in a Creator?

Question

Thanks all of you for your thoughts so far. I'll be back in a few days to think them all over.

SecretSauce -- your answers always make me think of more questions!

See I'm a fundy, too, but it isn't so much the 6 days thing that gets me hung up: it's my whole perception of the existence of Good and Evil in the Universe.

Sneak preview of my next question: a benevolent God's creation of a world in which all life dwelled in harmony, disruspted by Rival Intelligence who introduced death and disharmony into creation)
vs.
Evolution: a world in which death and competition for survival was part of life from the very beginning, e.g. races between plants evolving poisons and animals who ate them developing antibodies...

I'm not saying you CAN'T get these two worldviews to square, but I'd be interested in knowing how those who are convinced in God and evolution reconcile them.

Answer 1

Fascinating question.

When I was very young, and just learning about science in school, at first it made me question the existence of a Creator. But now, the more I learn about how evolution works, the more amazed I am at the sheer CREATIVITY of this Creator, to be using evolution to produce such complexity and beauty.

Let me explain:

When I was a kid, just learning about science, the conflict between faith and science seemed too great. It was forcing me to choose betwen the two ... the more I learned about science, the more conflict I experienced.

But then I realized that this conflict was created entirely by a minority of religious fundamentalists, NOT scientists at all! There is no conflict UNLESS the only way you can understand the Bible is with a child-like literal understanding ... complete with tales of a talking snake, a man being swallowed by a fish, and a 600-year-old man building a big boat to save all the animals in the world, and then personally begin repopulating the planet. People who insist that this all must be accepted *literally* are turning the Bible into a simple-minded children's fairy tale ... turning God into an overblown Gandalf-the-wizard. It is these fundamentalists who are are diminishing the real power of the Bible to answer the really DEEP questions, by twisting it to try and answer the relatively mundane questions that science deals with much much better.

Consider the need for God to "rest" on the seventh day. Why? Why would an all-powerful God require "rest"? And why would it take him six days? If He is all-powerful, why not just create it in microsecond ... or 14 billion years? Once you realize that the timelines and activities of God given in the Bible are intended to tell an unimaginable tale to people in a time when there was no word for a "microsecond" or a "billion" ... then it all falls into place, and the Bible is no longer a children's fairy tale, but a sourcebook for some really DEEP mysteries and Truths (with a capital 'T').

Now, back to evolution. I have studied biology evolution avidly for more years that I care to admit here. And the more I have studied it, the more convinced I am of two things: First, that the theory of evolution is absolutely rock-solid. And second, that it invokes processes that are unbelievably profound and mysterious. Natural selection WORKS. But why? What is it about matter that makes this process so relentless? Just how wonderful is this process of natural selection that it can produce both the wonders of life that I perceive every day, and my own ability to perceive them?

God could have created the world and the universe any way He wanted to ... and He didn't have to create it at all. If He had merely snapped his celestial fingers 6,000 years ago and said "there it is" ... how BORING is that? That would be a Creator with no imagination ... a truly uncreative Creator. If I were to create a universe of life, I cannot imagine a more imaginative way to do it than through evolution ... a process that is so wonderful that I am guessing it surprises even God Himself ... every single day. And that, ultimately, has to be the purpose of Life (i.e. the purpose of evolution, and every day that we live) ... to surprise God ... every single day.

Answer 2

I see no conflict whatsoever between my belief in a God, & Evolution. Actually, I think much of the difficulty people have with Evolution is Bible based, not Creator based. If God is so "almighty", then there's no reason why Evolution can't be a part of his "plan". I don't need a literal interpretation of how the world was created- to believe in a higher power.

Answer 3

I'm not a believer, but i have christian background, so i think i can give an informed opinion from the outside. I think evolution totally smashes the ideas of christianity, especially the episode of the creation. I have heard very often sentences like: "i'm a christian, but i don't believe in the Bible" or "I'm a christian but i believe in reincarnation". Being a christian means embracing the teachings of God through Jesus as a way of living, otherwise you're just a believer. Many people don't think about this seriously, they believe in evolution, the big bang, reincarnation, etc. and at the same time they consider themselves christian, and talk about Adam and Eve and Heaven as undeniable truth.
So my answer is, you can believe in evolution and have faith and believe in a higher being or even a creator at them same time without any problem, but definitely not the christian God.

Answer 4

The Catholic Church does no longer take the memories of creation contained in the Bible actually. Catholics have self belief the e book of Genesis tells non secular reality and not in any respect inevitably historic actuality. between the non secular truths is that God created each and every thing and declared all change into good. Catholics may have self belief contained in the idea of evolution. Or no longer. The Church does no longer require concept in evolution. The Church helps technological information contained in the discovery of God's creation. right this moment, the idea of evolution is the most rational medical clarification. notwithstanding tomorrow someone would arise with a much better idea. see you later as we've self belief that God began the finished element, both the Bible and cutting-edge technological information can stay in cohesion. With love in Christ.

Answer 5

Since I am a Spinozian pan theist, I have no reason to answer this question, save one. To refute Charles comment about the possibility of Neanderthals and human intermingling. You obviously are not a biologist Charles, as you would have known that biologist have seen this type of meld before. It is extant in the African swallowtail butterfly. The variance between the males and the females highly suggest that these were two species that melded. This did surprise biologists, but it does not overturn evolutionary theory, as you would hope, Charles. Next time be sure of your concepts before you attack something you do not understand.

PS We have barley begun to intimate the beauty of evolutionary complexity that arose from such simplicity.

Answer 6

Religion is for your soul, if you believe you have one. Science is facts. You don't believe in Evolution. Evolution is fact. Just like the sun coming up in the eastern sky every morning. It is proved science. Religion is not proven. Religion needs but one thing: faith. Science should never effect a persons religious beliefs.

Answer 7

There are most likely elements of both evolution and creation in life.

There is no doubt that there are some elements of natural selection in the process of life. For example, moths in certain environments can assume the same color as their surroundings to evade predators. Its of course the moths that "stick out" from their surroundings that get eaten by their predators and do not survive to reproduce. Thus survivors produce and continue the species. Having said this, I think its naive to think that given that species adapt to their environments, that there is not an overall design element to the moth life form to begin with.

Although there are proven natural selection processes that occur within evolution theory, there are a lot of problems with the overall theory. For example, there are no "in-between" species meaning that species went from one to a completely different one without gradually changing. Darwin even had problems with his own theory. Also, it is more probable that a tornado go through a junk yard and create a 747 than for evolution to have created life. In other words, there is an element of "design" in the existence of life. If there is "design," there must be a creator. But there are definitely natural selection processes that also occur within the overall creation and adapting of life.

I think that there are some natural selection processes in life but that the overall design came from our Creator

Here is also an interesting article on inbreeding that refutes evolution because one species of man did not evolve into another but breed together from separate species:

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2007-01-16T011350Z_01_N15450153_RTRUKOC_0_US-NEANDERTHAL-SKULL.xml&pageNumber=0&imageid=&cap=&sz=13&WTModLoc=NewsArt-C1-ArticlePage2

Answer 8

Irrelevant.

Answer 9

...and God said, let there be light -- BANG (the big bang). Just because evolution happened doesn't mean God didn't design it that way.