Can Evolution Salvage Belief In God?

Question

It is hard to imagine any scientific theory that is more helpful to religious belief than evolution. Given what we now know about the natural world, if we believe God created everything directly, we would have to believe that God intentionally created our breathing and eating apparatus with the serious potential for choking; that God created parasites to devour their prey alive; that God created insects to digest their mates during the sex act; that God tried making eyes on humans and other organisms, then had a flash of insight and realized that if he wired them the other way around it would make more sense and there would be no blind spot, and so he went on to make squid and octopus eyes the "right way around".

Without evolution, we could only believe in an inept and sadistic creator. So why are so many people who claim to believe in a benevolent, omnipotent and wise creator opposed to the one explanation of these facets of biology that can preserve these beliefs?

Answer 1

That is a lot to think about.

I will return if I have a valid response that is conducive of positive constructs to answer, your thesis material, with.

Answer 2

Edit:
Let me answer you point by point:

God intentionally created our breathing and eating apparatus with the serious potential for choking

So what? Who said that God has to create something flawless in order to be God? What if His intent was merely to create something adequate?

God created parasites to devour their prey alive;

Who knows what this was like before the fall, so again, so what?

that God created insects to digest their mates during the sex act;

Consequences of the fall, so again, so what?

that God tried making eyes on humans and other organisms, then had a flash of insight and realized that if he wired them the other way around it would make more sense and there would be no blind spot, and so he went on to make squid and octopus eyes the "right way around".

The "wiring" of the vertebrate has never been demonstrated to be suboptimal, and in fact any attempt to wire it differently would impare its design. Furthermore, squid and octopus eyes have not been shown to be superior. Here's a serious article debunking this: http://www.arn.org/docs/odesign/od171/retina171.htm

Without evolution, we could only believe in an inept and sadistic creator.

Not true! You can only believe this if you ignore what the scripture teaches about the fall of man, the nature of God and if your knowlege of biology is limited.


So why are so many people who claim to believe in a benevolent, omnipotent and wise creator opposed to the one explanation of these facets of biology that can preserve these beliefs?

Quite simply because evolution is not a sufficient explanation for either speciation nor yet the nature of God.

Incidentally, there are plenty of scientists, some of whom are irreligious, who dissent from Darwinian evolution. http://www.dissentfromdarwin.org

Answer 3

Because if one believes the literal biblical telling of Genesis then, that clashes with the theory of evolution. If that is the case the "word of God" in the bible is fallable. Darwin knew that his findings would cause a major rift in belief, which is why he waited so long to have his theories actually published.

Answer 4

Yes, they might one day find out that although god does not exist, it might be psychologically helpful and healthy to believe in god because that's the way our ancestors evolved to deal with the existential dilemma of inevitable death.

Answer 5

Even the most recognized scientist of the 20th century, Einstein, wrote that the hand of the higher power was behind all things.