Is it possible to believe in the theory of evolution, and that god created the earth?

Question

I know with out a doubt that evolution happend there is no question in my mind, I even wanted to be an archeologist/paleontologist when I was a child, but when I see questions like what came first the chicken or the egg, I almost automatically think, the chicken because of the way god created all animals. I realize that,there are many conflicting things along these lines but is is possible to believe in both, even a little?

Answer 1

Yes it is. He did not create it in seven days (24 hour days) but then in ancient Hebrew the word used for days meant either a 24 hour day or a period of time. The US is the only country that seems to have problems with this. In Europe evolution is widely accepted and it is simply not an issue with the church. The pope accepts it as does the protestant religions there. Only a minority in the US have any real trouble with this concept. Faith is something that you just have to have.

A few funny things to note.

1. As long as you do not try and take the bible as a literal interpretation nothing that science has discovered has ever suggested that god or the events of the bible (noticed I said you can not take them literally) does not exist.

2. Most universities have more atheists in their English Dept. than in their science dept.

3. A weird fact is that if you alter any of the four forces of the universe, you will alter the universe enough that life as we know it can not exist. Just as importantly, there is no reason for them to exist as they do. This alone is making some physicist suggest that this is at least circumstantial evidence that God does exist. The reason it is circumstantial is that we discovered it after the fact. In other words we are here to observe it so for us to be here the four forces HAD to be set up as possible.

4 The book of genesis' mention of the sun coming after the earth is in affect somewhat acceptable coming from a point of view. When the earth first formed its atmosphere was so thick with water vapor that you could not have seen the sun or stars. It was only after events allowed cooling enough that oceans could form that the clouds reduced enough that you would have been able to see the sun (of course no one lived here at the time)

Answer 2

I like Yutgoyun's analogy. I was gong to suggest another one.

Suppose there are two clocktowers in a city. Both are completely accurate all the time. One clocktower, the clockmaker lives in the tower and keeps the clock in perfect condition so it keeps perfect time. The other clocktower, the clockmaker left long ago, the tower is locked and the clock needs no maintenance at all.

Which would you think was a better clockmaker? Obviously the one who created a clock that could run all by itself with no tending.

So if God is perfect, I mean completely perfect, he might have created the world and then stepped back. The further development of the world would be 'programmed' into it.

It's a very innocent and simplistic view to think that God just created all the species, all at once. We know, for instance, that some 90% of all species that ever lived are now extinct. So it stands to reason that God created a mechanism for further 'speciation'. Why couldn't that be evolution? Why couldn't evolution be part of God's plan?

Even if you consider Genesis to be a 'creation myth', compared to other primitive creation myths it is the most accurate by -far- in terms of the chronology of how the universe developed. First there was earth, then water, then plants, then fish, then animals, then man. There are a few problems--like the sun coming after the earth--but considering how old Genesis is, among the oldest written documents that exist on earth, it's amazing!

Answer 3

Ok, maybe this satisfies you. I'm not religious at all, but I love this thing I read:
A designer who creates a plane that travels from London to New York without a pilot is more intelligent than a designer whose plane needs a human pilot. Yet passengers may feel better in the second type of plane.

Similarly a God who creates a system of evolution, which needs no further intervention, is more intelligent than a God whose creation needs constant supervision and directives. Perhaps some people feel better and more cared for by the second type of God, and then out of gratitude declare this to be the more intelligent.

Answer 4

For what it's worth, the Pope does. You might be interested in the work of Jaroslav Pelikan, S.J. He presented a rather good paper at the Darwin Centennial (Chicago, 1958) on the subject.
As far as the chicken and egg, the mutation that made an almost-chicken into a chicken occurred in the germplasm so that the egg would have had to have come first.

Answer 5

Several of the other answers point out that it is easy to accept that God created evolution as the natural way that speciation and extinction works and that shouldn't be in conflict with the bible. I would start a tad further back than "inventing the earth"...how about "invented all of time and space at the moment of the singularity [big bang]).
But challenge yourself a little! Why would the folks that wrote the bible (sorry, yes, people wrote those lovely, ancient myths...) have known anything about modern science? They would have no way to know about modern cosmology or the age of the earth or modern views of genetics or evolution.....why would they? Why not accept the bible and all other, similar ancient writings as some of the older surviving writings of ancient mythology? There were many, many supernatural things written about in those stories but that doesn't make them any more real than if someone told those same stories today (and trust me, virgin births and partings of oceans just don't hold up as well as they once did before people knew any better).
There is the miraculous in every day life and the world around you! The more you learn about our universe through the study of science the more "spiritual" your love of the real world will become....without any need for embracing ancient stories of the supernatural (or modern stories of the supernatural, for crying out loud...what's up with all the people believing in ghosts and angels????).

Answer 6

To know the Mind of God is as impossible for us
as it is for a single brush stroke within a painting
to give a full accounting of the mind of the artist that
painted the full work of art !!
HOW God created Man is within HIS doing
and an "evolutionary process" is as possible by His
Hand as any other that could have been accomplished !!

Answer 7

If you believe in evolution, the only thing you can really believe is that God set in motion the big bang theory, and assisted evolution along, but much of the two 'theories' conflicts with another.

Answer 8

Yes, some people compartmentalize. Others believe in what I think is called intelligent design, where, if I'm not mistaken, evolution was guided by the hand of God.

Answer 9

there is a starting for every ending, but not everything in our knowledge's. there is something that we have to agree without prejudice. something that is out of our mind. impossible to believe but we have to. before you go too far, just imagine, how to make a soul? if you can explain details than you can start thinking about the teory of revolution.

Answer 10

Yes, micro-evolution is accepted by Christians..there is nothing in the bible that contridicts this theroy.