Evolution and the faith in God: is there any contradiction?

Question

I believe in Darwinian evolution, DO NOT believe in creationism AND believe in God. I don't see any contradiction. Where is the problem with evolution and the faith in God?

Darwinism did not show that God is an unnecessary hypothesis. It only showed that species evolve and that natural selection plays some role, and that SOME things can happen by chance (and there are a lot of things which happened by "chance" in my own life and nevertheless I believe they were pre-determined). But this is far from any proof of lack of Divine control and intervention. It would be unscientific to claim this.

Darwinism is light years away from proving that "after the first cell the system played out for the next several billion years". To tell people Darwinism has shown such things is not science. Put in these terms it is a "religious" belief too.

Answer 1

Evolution: "We have no need of that hypothesis (god)."

Creationism: "Wahhhh... that's too complicated. I can't understand it. Bedides... I don't WANT to be descended from a common ancestor, along with apes. That doesn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy. I want to have an invisible, magical sky-daddy that loves me, and cares for me and watches over me. Therefore... God did it."

Nope... no contradiction that I can see.
.

Answer 2

I assume you're using the word evolution correctly here (for a change), and referring to the origin of species by natural selection. Good for you!

No, there's no contradiction or clashes - it simply suggests that the deity had nothing to do with the process. And indeed there's no evidence that any intervention was necessary or occurred.

Strictly speaking, this would mean that God presumably created the first cell, and let the system play out for the next several billion years. This is fair enough, and in line with observation.

But if we're being so laissez faire, why stop there? The origin of the first cell, although the details are not yet known, also appears to be an event requiring no outside intervention. The fact that the earliest known cells - and in many ways the modern ones too - are composed of molecules that have a tendency to form spontaneously in certain situations is pretty significant.

And the additional fact is that the precise conditions required for mass-production of these molecules existed for hundreds of millions of years on the pre-biotic Earth. The Miller-Urey experiments first showed how this process might have worked. More recent repeats of these experiments using gas mixtures that more closely resembled the early Earth have produced much greater yields of biochemicals, with a wider range of types. (see http://www.pandasthumb.org/archives/2007/04/primordial_soup.html )

God, it seems is no more a requirement for the initial arising of life than for its diversification via evolution. Parsimony suggests that deities were not involved at all.

CD

Answer 3

From my perspective, it has several impacts on theology. Creation, in Genesis, not only describes creation, but it teaches that god didn't make man to be sinful in nature, that we choose knowledge of good and evil, that blood was spilled to "cover" that sin and thus becomes the method for animal sacrifice and the Crucifixion. If evolution is true then none of that is based in reality. By treating Creation as metaphorical, we're saying that god created man with a sinful nature or created to fail. Paying the price for sin by blood is also on a weaker ground. There is also the thought that god knew how the world was formed but chose a metaphor that science would find inaccurate and misleading - while not wrong, it does not paint a good picture of god. The terms "condescending" and "deliberately misleading" come to mind.

Then you have problems with what the bible actually is. If the creation is metaphorical, then other parts of the book can be metaphors, and logical extension, the entire bible could be considered metaphorical. In other words, it becomes stories about truth that are not true in themselves.

Granted, when I was a christian, I supported a literal interpretation of the bible, and accepting a metaphorically interpretation is about the same as saying that it is a story book and nothing more.

Edit:
Even poetically, saying that creation is similar to evolution is like saying astrology is like astronomy. The poem is too far off from the reality.

Answer 4

Like you, I don't see any contradiction. I believe in God and think Darwin was right.

I think, people have problems with the Bible if they cannot understand that the Bible is not a scientific book.

For instance, the Bible explains the birth of the world in poetic terms. For this reason, creationists and darwinians are both wrong, if the understand the 6 days of the creation as 6 days of 24 hours each and say "God created the world in 6 days", refusing to accept the evidence of millenniums of evolution, or "It is impossible to create the world in 6 days, so the Bible is wrong and God doesn't exist."

If we understand the word "days" as "steps", the description of the Bible is not far from the conclusions of Darwin. But basically the Bible wants to say, that God had an ordinated programm for the creation of the world.

Answer 5

--THE PROBLEM is that Jesus never even suggested the idea of evolution, any form what-soever!

WHAT IS EVOLUTION?
One definition of “evolution” is: “A process of change in a certain direction.” However, the term is used in several ways. For example, it is used to describe big changes in inanimate things—the development of the universe. In addition, the term is used to describe small changes in living things—the way plants and animals adapt to their environment. The word is most commonly used, though, to describe the theory that life arose from inanimate chemicals, formed into self-replicating cells, and slowly developed into more and more complex creatures, with man being the most intelligent of its productions. This third notion is what is meant by the term “evolution” as used in this article."

**DARWIN HIMSELF had tremendous doubts that have advanced to absurdities:

Is It Proved?
19" How can the theory of evolution be tested? The most obvious way is to examine the fossil record to see if a gradual change from one kind to another really happened. Did it? No, as a number of scientists honestly admit. One, Francis Hitching, writes: “When you look for links between major groups of animals, they simply aren’t there.”7
--So one cannot HAVE faith in what Christ taught and have faith in a falsehood, THAT he did not teach, nor any of the Bible biographers!
--REFERRING directly to the Genesis account of God directly creating everything of the earth, Adam & Eve, note what he said:
(Matthew 19:4-6) “. . .In reply he said: “Did YOU not read that he who created them from [the] beginning made them male and female 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and will stick to his wife, and the two will be one flesh’? 6 So that they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has yoked together let no man put apart.””

--THERE IS no idea but direct creation, presented in the entire Bible!
--But if you feel you do not need the Bibles presentation , then you have a different faith, that is not the Bibles presentation of such belief!

--CREATIONISM does not represent the true
idea of the days of creation by saying that God did such in 7/24 hour days!
--THE Bible shows that this 7th day is still running for some 6,000 years and has not been pronounced as "very good" and concluded as he did with each of the other 6 days! The Bible at Hebrews 4, shows we are still in the 7th day referred as his "rest day"

--THE PROBLEM is yours not the Bibles, you either believe it or not!

Answer 6

There is no conflict between evolution and Christian faith. But some enemies of Christ (Young Earth Creationists, YECs) like to say that there is. There are three main reasons for this.

a) They like to provide an excuse for people to reject Christ.

b) For those who do not reject Christ, they like to make Christianity a matter of head belief rather than personal trust. All that matters is that we trust in Christ for our salvation, and live accordingly, and it does not matter what we believe about how God created. But YECs want to imply that salvation is through believing in literal Genesis. They are legalists, like the Jews who wanted to circumcise the Galatians. The result is that some people go around thinking they are Christians when they are not, a very dangerous condition.

c) A literal Genesis 1 supports sabbatarianism, the religion of 'one hour a week 'Christians'', who are not Christians at all.

YECs should be shunned from Christian fellowship and association.
.

Answer 7

Hey free-spirit this Question gets allot of play, there's only contradiction among religious people. I find it fascinating when I hear them quibble the facts of evolution and the lack of reference in the GOOD book. Serious sheeple say they believe in the literal word, and It DOES say about 7000 years. Other more enlightened sheeple think science is correct, but they still have to keep there faith. I don't know who is more scary.

Answer 8

"Scientific Creationism" is a defense of the Doctrine of Biblical Literalism. As such it is formalized ignorance.

Nothing intrinsic to evolution discusses or dismisses God. No contradiction.

Answer 9

Yes, because you are sane. Of course there's no contradiction, unless you're a fundamentalist.
There's this notion among some people that the world is just a few thousand years old...even though that's not actually said in the Bible - it's been dubiously calculated by some religious scholars.

Thank you for your voice of reason, it's needed here sometimes.

Answer 10

Belief in creation is not necessary for salvation, however, I trust God and I trust that His word is truth, if evolution were true surely he would have just said so. I can't believe he would tell us clearly how he made the world, to deceive us! Have another look at the evidence.

Answer 11

Well, there doesn't necessarily have to be a contradiction. You can believe that God set things in motion and let natural evolutionary forces take it from there. This is pretty much what the Catholic church teaches today.