God and evolution...?

Question

Basically evangelicals argue that life is to complex to happen by accident. Why does evolution have to be an accident? Maybe God created evolution as a tool for making life. To say that evolution cannot be is to call God a simpleton. I mean, let me try and give you an analogy. What would be harder to do, making a model airplane by hand, or engineering a machine to build the model airplane for you? Personally, I would think much more highly of God's intelligence if I found out he engineered something as complex as evolution. To just zap things in to place by hand is so much easier then designing something as complex as evolution to create life. But that’s just my opinion.

Answer 1

I agree.

The Catholic Church does not take the stories of creation in the Bible literally. Catholics believe the book of Genesis tells religious truth and not necessarily historical fact.

One of the religious truths is that God created everything and declared all was good.

Catholics can believe in the theory of evolution. Or not. The Church does not require belief in evolution.

On August 12, 1950 Pope Pius XII said in his encyclical Humani generis:

The Teaching Authority of the Church does not forbid that, in conformity with the present state of human sciences and sacred theology, research and discussions, on the part of men experienced in both fields, take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter - for the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God.

Here is the complete encyclical: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_12081950_humani-generis_en.html

The Church supports science in the discovery of God's creation. At this time, the theory of evolution is the most logical scientific explanation. However tomorrow someone may come up with a better idea.

As long as we believe that God started the whole thing, both the Bible and modern science can live in harmony.

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

"Creation" is one theory explaining the origin of life, while "evolution" is one theory explaining the origin of species. Thus, as you have correctly pointed out, you can believe in both theories simultaneously without logically contradicting yourself.

Many fundamentalist Christians believe the Earth was created only 5000-6000 years ago, treating the text of the Bible as "literal." Of course, it would take appreciably longer for evolution to take effect than merely 5000-6000 yrs. In other words, we could not likely have the variety we have in that short time period. It is only those specific ideas (evolution and the fundamentalist idea) that are irreconcilable.

Too many people fall into this trap :

If you are Christian, you believe everything in the Bible is true;
Thus, you must therefore believe the Earth was created 5000-6000 years ago, because that is in the Bible;
Since we have evidence of dinosaurs and other fossils dating back over 10000 years; we empirically know that this particular teaching in the Bible must be false, so the Bible can't all be true as the Christians profess; thus it likely that the whole book was fabricated.

However, not everything in the Bible was meant to be taken literally, as a history book. Anyway, reading the Bible to determine an exact date of creation -- this is so far on the periphery of the main teaching, it is almost as if the reader is entirely missing the point.

Answer 3

The Bible teaches that God created all things in 6 days.
Everything was good----there was no death or disease.............
until Adam sinned. So there could not have been dead animals before this. Animals did not exist millions of years before man.

God's creation is very complex and intelligently designed.
There is no such thing as a simple life form.
Consider the miracle of one cell.
There is adaptation within species but that is not the same as one organism evolving into a completely different organism.
The evidence fits the Biblical account of creation.

Answer 4

Excellently put. And as I often point out... I don't know about the limited-capabilities "god" of the RRR ("Religious" Radical Right) cultists, but MY God is intelligent, sensible, omniscient, and omnipotent enough to have created the evolutionary process, right along with the rest of the universe. And He probably did.

Answer 5

I see no reason why this logic can't be true. Doesn't it say in the bible that the Christan God created everything else, and then mankind was last. Perhaps this was done via evolution - interesting how both beliefs have man as being the more recent creation...hmmm...

Answer 6

No, God isn't evolution. God isn't area of His creation,no longer an section of the universe. do you think of the evolution of the image voltaic equipment or the molecules of the water are human-like? action picture star, planets,moons,gasoline giants, etc... human like? No. Water molecules human like? No. We have been given multiple molecules on water in our organism,yet being human is plenty extra beneficial than having water. a ten,000 gallon tank could incorporate multiple water in spite of the undeniable fact that it is plenty to be considered human. "god is this tension it is to blame for each thing interior the planet..." God is extra beneficial than a tension, power,or progression technique.

Answer 7

However, evolution leaves no place for God. There would be no purpose in God making things evolve when he can just make them just as easily (he is God).

Answer 8

Who is to say that god and evolution are one in the same and that the mother of all inventions is the "HAND"

Answer 9

If you are saying that god put in motion evolution it could be possible that your comment is true.

Answer 10

Yes,he could have done that;anything is possible for him.But he didn't,he used special creation.If you believe in God why can't you believe what his word says about creation.Who are you to second guess God?