For Christians who agree with Evolution?

Question

I wrote a questiong asking if you have to be Christian to not believe Evolution. Someone wrote back and said that a Christian can still believe in Evolution. Fundamentalists say that the only way Jesus could be is if through the line that started back then. This really confused me. So, if you have a strong opinion on HOW you can believe that Evolution is true (which is what I was taught) and still be a strong Christian, PLEASE tell me. Thanks

I should probably save this for another question, but I wonder, too -- with so many Christians against evolution, why do they send their kids to school and not even talk with their kids about this issue? My neighbor claims to be strong Creationist and yet her kid had no idea what she was talking about!

PLEASE no slandering each other. This was a serious question. And I was referring to the child not understanding, while the mother claimed to believe strongly.

Answer 1

Evolution is simply a change. It is evident that we are evolving. We have gotten taller. We have as a whole gained in intelligence. I don't disagree with the concept of ongoing evolution. I simply disagree with how things started. God said he made man in his own image. He did not say that the devil put neanderthal man here to confuse us. If we truly believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God and that God would not give us more than we can handle then we can believe that he did not tell us more than we could understand at the time.

Answer 2

The big problem in understanding this trend is that Christians are not all lumped together in a homogenous group. There are many different denominations with different beliefs on the matter of evolution and creation, and it is only the most vocal, evangelical, fundamentalist, take-the-bible-literally types who have any problem with evolution. The vast majority either have little opinion about it, or simply see that, "oh, yeah, there's no conflict" and move on with their lives.
I happen to think the bible agrees quite well with the theory of the big band and the theory of creation, as long as you realize that the bible is allegorical, and don't take parts of it too literally, like the universe being created in 7 days being literally 7 of our normal days. It is quite amazing, actually how well it DOES agree with science - first was chaos, then came light, (the big bang) then the light was separated from the darkness, (matter creation) then the sun and the earth were created, the land was separated from the water, then the first life in the seas, the plants and fish, then the land animals, flying animals, and finally Man. All of this is agrees pretty closely in the Bible and in science. Considering that in pre-bilical times when the story was not written down yet and just being passed down from one generation to the next by word of mouth, the fact that they found an explanation and got it RIGHT is just about miraculous all by itself.
You don't have to be a Christian to disbelieve in Evolution either, there are Muslims, Hindu, Buddhists, Wicca and Animists who also reject Evolution, for various reasons.
I am not certain about this "Jesus had to be descended from Adam" business fits in, but Evolution theory does say that we are all descended from a common ancestor that I like to call Adam in my mind, even though the Adam in the Bible may not be exactly the same one.

Answer 3

I am a Catholic and firmly believe that life evolved via evolution. I do not take the Bible literally - It is a story that needs interpreting. God created the universe and the story of creation spans all of time (not just 7 days). It is a metaphor, not an account of events that occurred. I still feel that I lead a Christian life, I just like to base my beliefs on fact. That may seem hypocritical, seeing that I am Christian and there are no facts supporting God. I also don't see any facts disproving God though. In my world view, it just makes sense that there is something more besides science.

Answer 4

To respond to Leviathan:

I am Jewish and have grown up surrounded by other Jews, (North Side of Chicago). I have never met a Jewish creationist. I am not saying that there arent any, but the vast majority of Jews have no problem with the theory of evolution.

Furthermore ,if you were to have a discussion with most any rabbi at a Chabad house, they would tell you that the Christian translation of the Bible is was badly done, and that in the original Hebrew, the story of Genesis is such that it would allow for an acceptance of the process of evolution without being inconsistent with the teachings of the Bible.

Answer 5

Okay, I'm not a Christian, but the FH is and we've had long discussions on this. It basically goes as follows:

God created the Universe. God is God, therefore he could creat the Universe however he wanted, be it in a literal 7 days in the bible or over millions of years via Evoloution, while guiding it at the same time so that we arrived at our present day flora and fauna.

You still believe God created the universe, and this view has no bearing whatsoever on whether or not you accept Jesus as Saviour, which is THE requirement to be Christian.

So yes.

Answer 6

You do not need faith for evolution. Just like you do not need faith for gravity. Evolution is not something to believe in.

Evolution scientists do not debate if evolution happens. There is enough facts to indicate that it does. Evolution scientists debate HOW (the mechanism) evolution works. Darwin proposed natural selection, the theists proposes god.

The theists may not agree with Darwin, but that does not mean that evolution does not take place.

Fundamentalist theists have the fundamental belief (hence the name fundamentalist) that god created the world according to Genesis or Intelligent Design.

Answer 7

Its good that your friends are religious, they stand strong for what they believe in. However what most people lack is respect. People need to respect others' religions. They shouldn't have gotten mad because you were curious to know why they were offended. and im just like, "it is science, your beliefe was written about thousand years ago, so move on." I'm hoping you didn't actually tell them that, because that, is also disrespect. I can't really answer your question, but I'm just letting you know that if someone has a religion and they strongly believe in it, they should be able to respect others and have an open heart.

Answer 8

Well as far as sending the kids to school, we did take a stand. We got a book called from 'goo to you by way of the zoo' into the schools reading program. we started teaching ALL of the kids how to critically analyze what they are taught. that was enough. After hearing the terms, "maybe, probably, we think, perhaps, could have" a dozen times in a row on each point they realized what a sham the whole notion was. Now no one in our area leaves school believing the tripe. In fact now even the teachers deny the probability of the ideal.

Answer 9

" guess Jews and Muslims just don't count as people in your worldview?

Most of them reject evolution unlike a high number of intelligent, moderate christians who accept the fact of evolution and understand it"

How can anyone post such an inaccurate and ignorant thing is far beyond my understanding.

The interesting thing about evolution is not that Christians don't believe in evolution, but right wing Christians don't believe in evolution. The vast majority of people of all religions believe in evolution. In is only those on one side of the political spectrum that disbelieves in science and education.

Here are the results of a gallop poll http://www.religioustolerance.org/ev_publi.htm

Percentage of people disbelieving in evolution.
No high school diploma - 65 percent
College graduates - 25 percent
Scientists - 5 percent

I guess the more you know, the more you believe in evolution.

30 percent of Republicans believe in evolution
61 percent of independents believe in evolution
57 percent of Democrats believe in evolution

This isn't a religious thing. It is a political thing.

It is also a US thing.

A British survey of 103 Roman Catholic priests, Anglican bishops and Protestant ministers/pastors showed that:

97% do not believe the world was created in six days.
80% do not believe in the existence of Adam and Eve.

Answer 10

The realm of science doesn't belong to the Atheist alone. I don't agree with the Fundamentalist view on many things. evolution is one of them. They have a right to believe as they do. I have no issue with that. In a universe that science now says has 11 dimensions, and the possibility of a infinite number of universes, all with different laws of physics. How can you say there is no possibility of God!!!