How do you reconcile the theory of evolution, and other scientific theories with your religious beliefs?

Question

I'm just curious, these things usually don't mesh. I'm a mix of agnostic, humanist, and atheist, and I have very little trouble dealing with evolution. Try to give logical and interesting answers please.

Answer 1

I don't. I don't try to understand how God created the universe. I just try to enjoy and be thankful of the beauty around me. I have a very hard time taking in the thought that any living thing in this world was created by a bunch of mutations in DNA (evolution). I find it harder to believe that hundreds of thousands of years ago my closest ancestor was an ameoba, than there is a loving God who created me in his image for His pleasure.

I find it hard to believe that the perfection of this planet (aside from what the human race has made of it with pollution and abuse) just happened by chance. It's funny how our planet ended up in the perfect spot to sustain life in our solar system...not too close to the sun, not too far away. The mechanics of the world are too precise to have happened by accident.

I agree with the first poster. I don't know how God did it, or why, but I am glad that he did.

Answer 2

Evolution is challenged mainly by fundamentalists who say it conflicts with a literal reading of Genesis, which claims that everything was "created" in six days. Genesis and the rest of the Bible were written between two and three thousand years ago, however, when most people still thought the earth was flat and at the center of the universe. Believers have accepted the undeniable roundness of the earth and its position in the solar system, however biological evolution proves that even ourselves are the product of natural forces operating over enormous stretches of time, and this frightens them. They are willing to destroy science for the sake of their "feelings"! Creationism and its clone , "Intelligent" Design, make the claim that everything was created by God in only six days and that nothing has changed since then. Irreducible complexity declares that some biological functions (such as eyes) are so complex that they couldn't possibly have evolved naturally since any intermediate stages wouldn't work: they assume that eyes would have to evolve by accident all at once. That is not how evolution works, though. Along the way to eyes and other complicated things the intermediate stages can be shown to have had *other* functions besides those they have presently. And all this talk about complexity that must require an intelligent creator always ignores the "elephant in the room," namely the question of why this intelligent creator itself did not require an even more intelligent creator, which would have required its own creator, and so on! The Big Bang has left undeniable evidence of itself in the form of the "cosmic background radiation" first detected in 1965. This is the remaining heat from the Bang which has cooled over time as the Universe expanded from its original microscopic origin. We have very good theoretical explanations going back to a tiny fraction of a second after the Bang which are consistent with all our other observations of the universe as a whole. What caused the Bang itself is even being thought of as just another quantum fluctuation of "nothing" - but no one knows this for sure, at least not yet.

Answer 3

The definition of a theory includes that the theory is not fact. So I can allow the theory of evolution to coincide with the creation story of the Bible by believing that the theory of evolution is just that, a theory. They cannot be reconciled, they will never be reconciled. To believe the Bible is to completely shun the theory of evolution. These other scientific theories you make mention of are very various. The creation theory is scientific and that seems to mesh perfectly with Christianity. Their are theories of light, mass and matter different theories from different points of view. Christians are not against science; because the theory of evolution does not mean science. The theory of evolution is just as unproven as the theory of creation. Neither side can prove either happened; one just uses the "brilliance" of man becoming their own god; while the other uses the "brilliance" of God becoming answerable to that God.

Answer 4

It's not an issue, really. Scientific theories are, for the most part, completely non-compelling. Perhaps you are aware of a belief, held by nearly all well-regarded scientists for centuries, that the earth is flat? What about ether, or the steady-state theory of the universe (held to be true by Einstein)?

In other words, for a scientist, discounting a theory that conflicts with religion is very simple. Only those who put their faith in scientific theories have a conflict with faith in other areas.

Jim, B.S. in Physics, Christian

Answer 5

Yeah, what Grandpa said. Science and religion operate on completely different levels. You might as well try to compare apples and Volkswagens.

Or you can look at it this way - God created the world and all that is in it, including evolution.

Answer 6

Consider that according to religious teachings God is all powerful. Then God created evolution, that's my answer. Nothing precludes him from doing this or that in whatever way he pleases, and so while the bible tells us one way that God made people, perhaps the real truth is a lot different. The bible is very allegorical too, any theist worth their salt knows this. To take it literally is a mistake.

Answer 7

i have no conflict

neither do the majority of Christians world-wide, that accept, for example, evolution and a 4.55 billion year old Earth

it's a very distinct, very small, very American, but unfortunately very vocal minority that sees modern science* as conflicting with their dogma


* or much of it. sometimes i wish they'd deny computers, too

Answer 8

I come in not to attempt to answer your Q....BUT JUST TO CLAP MY HANDS SO LOUD AND LONG ENOUGH FOR THE WORLD TO HEAR AND KNOW HOW WONDERFUL THE STATEMENTS OF ERIN C AND ICISS.....VERY GOOD KNOWING AND REALISTIC PEOPLE MUST BE EMULATED LIVING ON THIS EARTH...LOVES YOU LADY AND GENTLEMAN....MAY THEY FIND SO MEANINGFUL YOUR WAYS OF LIVING YOURS AND FAMILY LIFE....GOD BLESS YOU PEOPLE OF GOD!

THE Q'er....hope you find more of your time searching and finally work hard to possibly see face to face the maker of this earth where you live now, and thank Him for losing not your mind of confusing yourself on a theory for theory sake and the theorist died not proving to know nor counter the idiocy of his confusing theory that wasted his time and others now he victimized for nonsense sake, not knowing nor realizing that the theory is same as theorem in math that remains and will never be at such time at all to stand as proof of a question to answer that most of the time made under dilemma. gud bye!

Answer 9

The big bang theory makes more sense. it both acknowledges science and religion. A source of energy was needed to make the big bang possible, that source could be God.

Answer 10

I don't. Science is a really bad tool to explain a one time historical event that was caused supernaturally.

Science is a great tool to study many things, but it has limits.