Do I have to choose between Creation or Evolution?

Question

This is a serious, honest problem for me. To me, there are so many problems with strict, godless evolution. For instance, how could the human eye have developed by chance? On the other hand, if there exists a God or creator, life seems like a cruel hoax. We are supposed to love, or at least respect Him, even though all mankind suffers so much and then has to die. What kind of Creator would inflict so much sorrow on his creatures? I just can't seem to accept either Evolution or Creation by some kind of God. Is there a middle ground? Does it have to be either one or the other? Is there another explanation that would make more sense? Please help me!

Answer 1

evolution does not give an explanation for how life started to begin with. so yes, you can believe both creation and evolution.

Answer 2

Have you ever thought, perhaps, that God did not intend for the world to be this way? Or that, perhaps, it is our own fault that the world is this way?

I am now a graduate student in biomedical engineering, studying bio/nanotechnology. Every day I become more and more a Creationist. Learning about the immense complexity of life, even stable, unchanging (not evolving) life, is so impossible by chance that evolution could not have caused it on its own. There -had- to be something guiding it, at least. And I see that as God.

This world is not what it was supposed to be. The choice was given to man to follow God or to go against God. And every man, woman, and child since the beginning of creation has been given this choice. And we have all chosen to follow our own path rather than to follow God for whatever reason. Whether refuting His existence or just doing what we want rather than what we know we should do, we have all gone against God. And that is why the world is the way it is. Even if a perfect person did walk among us, their life would be marred by our mistakes. And this is what will happen until the end comes and the mistakes are finally fixed. That is why we need a Savior.

And I realize by saying any/all of this, I bring flaming upon myself...but I don't care. This is my opinion, my belief, and he asked for it.

Answer 3

Read some good materials on evolution. The eye can only have developed through evolution. Scientists can explain exactly how the eye evolved. Scientific American did a feature on it.

There are creatures that have eyes that don't work at all (blind cave fish). There are creatures that can see things we can't (bees see ultraviolet), so the human eye is far from perfect. We can see colors some other animals can't. Evolution even explains why we have eyes in the front (tree-dwelling ancestors needed depth perception).

Creationism and evolution can't be reconciled.

http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CA/CA113_1.html

Answer 4

If you don't know how the eye evolved then you haven't studied evolution. Try reading Dawkin's "The Ancestor's Tale" and Gould's "The Structure of Evolutionary Theory". Those will answer many of your questions about evolution. The idea of some supernatural deity is an immature wish for something that there is no logical reason or proof to believe in. So, comparing evolution to the creation myth is like comparing computers to delusions.

Answer 5

Well, scientifically speaking, there is just evolution. There is no evidence that any God exists, let alone is helping evolution. The eye is actually explained pretty well by the science of evolution. But if you would rather believe that God does exist, and might influence evolution, there isn't anything wrong with that. But understand you are stepping outside the realm of science and adding faith. But to not believe in evolution at all is throwing out science, and only using faith.

Answer 6

No, there really isn't unless you believe in a creator who touched off the big bang and then let nature take its course--up too and including evolution. The human eye--didn't develop in it's present form overnight--it took several billion years for nature to arrive at the right design for that feature of us. Form and function are important for survival. Take the space rock that hit north america some 15,000 years ago or so--overnight--the giant mammals and giant predators disppeared along with the human population"clovis people". When the space rock hit north america--much vegitation was lost-burned--and the large animals like the woodland buffalo--much larger than todays bison--sabre tooth tiger--bear--these guys were huge--when there was nt enough for the predated to eat--the large herbivores died of starvation--and with them the large predators--leaving all the biological niches todays animals fill==open. Nature adapts animals to fit open biolgogical niches through mutations--those best equipped to survive will. Ability to process light at some point in the past was clearly a survival advantage. Mutations over hundreds of millions of years gave us the sophisticated eye we have today. We see for example webbing in the polar bear--an advantage to an animal returning to the sea. Look at australia--the strange land populated by marsupials instead of mammals. These marsupials fill every biolgocial niche one finds in the rest of the world--just that the marsupial anscestor was the critter that was dominant on australia --geographical isolation enforced it. With evolution --when stress in a biological niche occurs--it is not so much a matter of if a change will take place within a species--but when--how long.

Answer 7

you can go for theistic evolution. The "god created evolution" idea. Though you still are stuck that evolutiary principles do not always produce the kindest or friendliest results, so I don't think they are a very good argument for a loving god.
Eye evolution is absolutely no problem for evolution. Been long explained. Don't forget that while chance plays some role so does selection, and light sensitivity in any form is a big advantage (any kind of distant sensing is less dangerous than contact sensing).

Answer 8

You are trying to answer two different questions.

Evolution is a fact. It is observable, makes predictions that can be shown to be true.

Evolution does not have anything to do with the origins of life. Only the science of how life changes and adapts - and how these changes and adaptations can be passed down to the next generation.

Look up 'abiogenesis' for the science of the beginning of life. The main problem is that it is almost impossible to define what 'life' really is. We are finding new forms of life on this planet all the time.

'Creationism' and 'Intelligent Design' are not science. They are religious superstition and mythology.

'Young Earth Creationism' is an especially blatant superstition. None of these ideas are based on observable phenomena. The only 'proof' that Christians have for their 'theories' is a 2000 year old book of mythology.

It can be hard to throw off these irrational beliefs and superstitions, especially if you were fed them from before you were capable of comprehending what you were being told.

Answer 9

No - but the more you know about evolution, the more you recognize that a deity is superfluous. For example, once you learn enough biology, you'll learn how eyes developed in different species - some not that great (human eyes, for example, are not very good compared to many animal eyes.)

So keep studying evolution and you'll soon forget you ever thought a god was necessary - not that we don't have more to learn, but most creationist claims are easily answered.

Answer 10

You can believe a god is behind evolution if you want to.

Just don't deny the fact the evolution is real.

Mythological tales of Creation did not happen. But that doesn't mean you can't believe in a god.

But it does mean that the god described in those mythological stories is not real. That's the important thing to realize.

Answer 11

Why do science and faith have to be mutually exclusive? Why can't evolution be a part of creation? Why am I answering your question with questions? Sorry 'bout that but I personally have no problem with believing in both evolution and creationism. As an example of mixing my faith with science, when I read the creation story in Genesis it seems descriptive of the "big bang".