Does the view of evolution contradict your personal views of creation?

Question

Based on your religious/non-religious background what is you opinion about evolution?

Answer 1

I do not have an " opinion " on evolution, but have been convinced by the evidence!

Answer 2

I'm not religious. I define myself as an ignostic atheist (describe in thrilling clarity on, of all places, Wikipedia) so I don't have a religious qualm or component in regards to anything at all.

I see evolution as a theory explaining the facts observed about the diversity and mutability of life, distinct from questions of life's origins, that is continually growing and improving as new discoveries are made and discredited aspects are pruned. It is certainly the best explanation available, and I look forward to perhaps one day contributing to it, or a better successor.

It is my view that it and any other aspect of science can be reconciled with any faith. But it helps if the person in question is well educated in both their faith and in science.

Answer 3

Discoveries in Cosmology suggest that our universe was highly tuned, and/or highly evolved prior to its conception and the "Big Bang"; Thus it is likely, more than pure chance caused the miriad of coincidences which occured to make our planet thrive with intelligent life.

Free-will or agency leads to conflict which feeds evolutionary development as weaker forms or ideas get devoured. Such violence goes against our ideas of a loving god. Curiously, if violent evolutionary process are inevitable, they would almost invariably lead to the evolution of a benevolent godlike creator.

Thus a creative god and evolution are both as inevitable as death and taxes.

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Further Comments:

I believe that each individual mind is an aspect or creation of an ultimate creative force. I believe that the decision making process involves seperate ideas or persons that compete in a warlike manner. Thus the unfolding nature of God or God's creations is somewhat evolutionary.

I believe that what we see as our physical and social universe is merely reflections of the thoughts of God, and our individual minds are subsets (or creations) of God' mind.

One way of looking at the problem is to assume that creative accounts assume that our universe is the way it is because of intelligent choice (or "agency") and not merely the result of a mindless mechanistic process. E.g. God chose to make the world nice and we chose to polute it.

I wouldn't be too surprised if I awoke one day to find that everything is just a dream and upon waking became aware of my greatyer self and realised that I was God. But then again the world I awoke to would also be a dream.

In a nutsshell:

The creative thoughts of God which make up our universe are constantly evolving. Creation and evolution thus go hand-in-hand.

The moral dilema is that evolution tends to get messy and violent and this goes against most ideas of an all controlling loving creator.

For more info:
Graham Partis
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benjibear.com

Answer 4

I am a Christian. My belief is that if you agree with current evolutionary theory, you do not believe in Biblical creationism. I agree with current evolutionary theory. I still believe, however, in the rest of the Bible. My judgment is that since humans and all primates are thought to have a common ancestor, Biblical creationism must be false.

How strong is my faith then? If you think about it, the writers of the different books of the Bible were not there to witness the Earth's creation. Many were, however, present during Jesus' time and bore witness to different events. That is why I still believe in Jesus and salvation and MOST of what the Bible says. After all, the Bible is a collection of writings, and one is free to disagree with or reject the beliefs expressed in different parts of it. That is my opinion, and in no way am I trying to convince anyone or anything - I'm just defending my beliefs. I have the right to believe what I want, do i not?

Am I being blasphemous? Am I a heretic? I don't think so. I think that I am just inclined to doubt things that have no scientific proof, and reject things that are opposed by what is considered scientific evidence. After all, I am not preaching what I believe. I'm just telling it to you because you asked me to.

Answer 5

Here's what I have to say about this: I believe in God, Not Creation, I believe in Evolution and think Creation is a load of crap. In Genesis, it says that God created Man and all that lovely stuff. Why can't we have a God that watches over us, and just puts things in motion, such as evolution, the Big Bang or the Gnab Gib (the opposite of the Big Bang, i.e. the end of time, the Big Crunch), and the end of dinosaurs? Idk how else to articulate my thoughts and reasonings that have been forming over the past 15 or so years since I stopped going to church (although I still believe in God, just not the church as they are all different in so many ways)

Answer 6

Lost, posing questions like this is an exercise in non-useful opinions. I would just like to note that, like it or not, the Jews and not the Christians wrote the book of Genesis. Yet it is the Christians and not the Jews who seem to get heartache over evolution and creation as a black and white position. Evolution as a MECHANISM for life-creation and progression doesn't faze me in the least.

Answer 7

Religion has nothing to do with evolution any more than it has anything to do with gravity or the existence of tea.

Evolution is an established fact. The Theory of evolution has withstood over 100 years of scientific investigation, aggressive attacks from religion. The only attacks on it know come from lies and appeals to incredulity.

Answer 8

Talk about stubborn. At least five times a day, I type "I am a Cristian, I accept evolution, and love science. I don't understand why atheists are too stuck in their preconceptions of Christianity to realize we are individuals.

Answer 9

Im not sure about your question. Evolution is a fact (so there can be no other view or personal opinions whether it is "contradicting" or wrong or right) , but the THEORY OF EVOLUTION is not.

Evolution is a fact. It is proven that we have developed from primates and science has even proven that we come from tiny bacteria and have simply developed over billions of years. This is 100% proven. IT is stupid to argue against THIS.

BUT that is not the argument. The fact that we have come from primates and bacteria is not being argued that is a FACT. What people ARE arguing about is whether we "evolved" without HELP from a higher source (god).

Darwin (the Theory of Evolution) argues that we evolved without any help. HOWEVER, most scientists agree that the human body is far too complex to have developed through a bunch of "accidents" or simply by chance as some Darwinists argue.

So to answer your question, evolution does not contradict with anything. It is true and it is a fact. However, the THEORY OF EVOLUTION in which mankind has evolved without help from a higher power is wrong in my opinion (as many others) and it does infact contradict with my personal views of creation. Yes, we are the descendants of Apes, but GOD helped us reach there, we arent the product of an accident.

- Atleast thats what I thought.

Although i am not a Christian, i think i know a bit about the Bible. From scientific research and an overwhelming amount of evidence, it is HIGHLY unlikely that the early creation stories in the Bible are true (for example Adam and Eve). Since hundreds of years ago, the Bible has gone through many revisions and ALOT of the Biblical accounts are scientifically proven to be FALSE. From this overwhelming amount of evidence and the fact that the early Christian church tried to cover up many of the falts in the Bible, my view of Christianity (and religion as a whole) has dramatically changed. Although i consider myself as "part" of a religion, I am beginning to doubt the validity of religion as a whole. As more and more scientific research unveils itself and disproves old and traditional religious-based theories, I find myself leaning towards the side of atheism.

So i have just given you two contradicting opinions. Yes i am confused. Sometimes i think god does exist, and other times i dont. Science has neither disproved or proved the existance of a "higher power" and it never will. Whether god exists or not is a matter of personal opinion.



Who knows.