A Christian explains evolution?

Question

I have been reading so many questions/comments here by Christians who absolutely refuse to acknowledge anything having to do with evolution. But here is an essay I read by a Christian man who teaches evolution at a Christian college.

http://community.berea.edu/scienceandfaith/essay05.asp

He is a scientist and he is explaining the basic concepts of evolution to his classes because most kids that go to school there were never allowed to be taught any of it growing up. One boy actually vomited when told he was going to have to learn these facts!

Do the Christians here think this man will go to hell for this? Does reading his information give you a better understanding of how things work? Or will you flatly refuse to even click the link because it might damage your faith?

Answer 1

Love that first answer. Am I the only one that read the thing?

He makes a few good points. It is absolutely amazing to me how people get through high school without even a basic understanding of evolution. They end up on here showing that they haven't got the slightest idea what they are even arguing against.

I especially liked how it thought it odd that many of us atheists had a basic agreement with the fundies on the effect of saying that evolution is right. I personally don't think it actually disproves god, but it sure does say that the Bible is wrong. I have gotten several best answers from Christians for saying just that.

Answer 2

What do you want explained? Sort of a vague question I must say. If you want evolution explained, there are many references in your local library and even on the internet. Wikipedia has some good articles about evolution. I would assume you would already know about evolution if you went to school.

Answer 3

I've read, studied, and attempted to rationalize evolution to its fullest. Inevitably, there just isn't enough evidence for evolution to be logically true to me. I have no problem studying evolution or anything that questions my faith. In fact, I encourage it. I think all Christians should be well-studied in evolution so they're not all saying "it's stupid to think we came from apes". It's because of ignorant people that Christians get their bad rep.
It's just as easy to say that many scientists only want to believe in evolution because it can disprove the need for a god. (Yes, I read the essay and know it says it doesn't go for or against God or a created universe.) I'm not saying this. I'm saying the facts to support the Bible weigh much more truth on me than scientific speculation, supposed patterns, statistical analysis, and many other man-made facts. Evolution, in my eyes, from all the evidence I've seen, doesn't hold up. Scientists just overlook the parts where it totally breaks down and say "well, that's a minor thing". When scientists start looking at the cracks, that's when breakthroughs will occur. It won't happen by shoving puzzle pieces together and saying they fit.

Answer 4

Decent assay, but one part was shocking, "I asked the twenty students in the seminar if they had learned about evolution in any of their high school science classes. Only four had, one in a Catholic high school. One by one, most of the students who attended public high schools stated, "The teacher skipped that chapter."" Why the heck would public schools be omitting fundamental biology. The other point I found salient, and corroborates what I see on Y!A, is that many people use "evolution" as an extremely broad term and because they get challenged on one part of it refuse to learn anything.

Answer 5

lol, i cant believe there is any argument about it lol. i mean, have they been out side before? if you just look at animals and how they have changed to suit there environment its just obvious that evolution is right in-front of them.

i seriously cant understand how their brains cant put all the pieces together. and iv hear some of them say how there are gaps in evolution that we cant account for, which is so stupid. i mean this has happened over like millions of years, of course we don't have all the pieces. allot can get lost in that time. its amazing how much we have found to be honest. but we do have like 80% of the rest of evidence wich proves it realy.

like just because we cant find the link between the paleozolic period and the permian period means all the rest of what we know is obsolite. those people need to move on and get back to school, read some books, look infront of them, see the world and stuff, seriously.

i still cant believe it hahaha.

Answer 6

"Do the Christians here think this man will go to hell for this? Does reading his information give you a better understanding of how things work? Or will you flatly refuse to even click the link because it might damage your faith?"

No - the essay says nothing of his acceptance or rejection of Christ from the brief glance I gave it
No - I already know what evolution teaching claims
No - clicked it, glanced through it, and bookmarked it for later in-depth reading

:)

Answer 7

I read quite a bit of it and he has many facts that Ive been exposed to before. They sound very convincing but there are a few problems Im afraid.

I dont think hes Christian anymore. He begins by telling us how dumb believers are in a very polite manner. He said he USED to teach at a Christian college and God knows how liberal it was. There are schools and churches liberally like-minded teaching that things like homosexuality and abortion are really great and God likes them. These people as common practice routinely incorporate the world into their beliefs.

He didnt footnote his sources so we cant check on them. In a paragraph he magically tries to wisk away any doubt about the lack of transitional models that has been an embarressment to evolutionists and he offers nothing but his personal assurance that its ok. Sorry but I can get that from any atheist on here if I wanted.

Obviously he comes from a different era where evolution WAS taught as a science. But nowadays, textbooks dont teach it as a theory, its assumed it and goes on to explain science through that lens. That isnt science, that is indeed philosophy. Hes living under an outdated premise.

He also refuses to acknowledge that evolution is atheistic philosophy. He doesnt speak as though there is any possibility he could be wrong and that is confidence I would expect from someone faithfully or spiritually motivated and NOT by science. If science is science, then anything is possible and you dont rule out possibilities because it doesnt fit your worldview.

There are alternative explanations for everything. I see he made a token effort to understand his critics and thats great. But everything can be explained in alternative means. God for instance couldve created the concept for all creatures and humans in Heaven before creating them on earth using templates and making changes as he went in creating them. Therefore after creation, many things WOULD appear to have an evolutionary ancestry.

Bottom line is this, once you start taking the Bible very lightly, you start taking Biblical principle lightly. If you start taking Biblical principle lightly, youre not going to listen to God. Youll be like a child that heres what their Father says and doesnt do it.

Answer 8

A very good set of articles, covering an exposition both of the science in this area, and the range of theological positions that have been taken in respect of it. He appears very fair to all parties while stating clearly his own belief.
That's going in my "favourites" collection.

But I don't agree with his own position. The accommodations and concepts required to include a benevolent deity in the history of evolution appear strained in the extreme, to me. (read the articles, if you have not.)
and it requires a handling of biblical text and thought which was just not available to the time of Moses, or even Paul.
Surely Paul hung his case on a historical not an allegorical Adam and Eve?
I spent years trying to see this differently. I can't manage it, and stay true to my conscience.

Answer 9

I learned plenty about evolution at school. I understand how things work. I read your link. There is no fossil data that conclusively supports evolution.

Will this man go to hell? None of us can answer that. That's between him and God.

Answer 10

I think for most of these people, they have simply refused to even look at the facts. They desperately want to believe the information that they've been brainwashed with all their lives is true. They don't even have the most basic understanding of evolution but choose to listen only to the lies told to them about evolution by other religious people. That's why most Americans still believe that evolution is just a "theory", because they use the non-scientific definition of "theory" to attempt to discredit it. I'm surprised they choose to believe gravitational "theory".