God vs. Evolution?

Question

What do you do when you have been raised a Baptist, but while becoming a teenager you lose touch with your beliefs and are taught theories of science that seem more plausible and you are able to accept them more as a reality than what religion has taught you? I am 18 years old, and I have lost touch with my faith in God and have become more convinced of theories of Evolution. Part of me wants to believe there is a higher power and that becoming involved in religion will somehow bring calmness and purify my life. On the other hand I am discouraged because I am able to accept theories of Evolution and do not believe many events which the bible cites.

Your input?

Answer 1

"Part of me wants to believe there is a higher power and that becoming involved in religion will somehow bring calmness and purify my life."

There is no "higher power". That's a fact. However, if you're capable of it, becoming involved in religion may still do what you want it to do. Your goals are quite respectable. Keep in mind though that you may well be able to achieve them without becoming involved in religion.

You sound quite thoughtful, and I have faith that you'll work this out in a way that works for you and for those around you.

Answer 2

Some kids were raised Hindu and believe the god Ram built a bridge to an island which is now in danger of destruction by the government. Solely based on Hindu belief, the natural bridge is being protected. A Hindu child, such as yourself, coming to believe a god did not build the bridge, would find themselves in the same quandary as you. Science says the land bridge was the result of natural processes like the way the Grand Canyon was formed and divinities were involved.

Science must work regardless of the belief system of the user. A Buddhist, Christian, or Atheist physicist must come out with the same calculations for escape velocity, the same calculations for half life of an atom and so forth. Science must, by its very nature, be religion free. It seeks the truth, but cannot provide certainty as to what that truth is. As long as new evidence is being found, a perfect knowledge of the truth is impossible, only closer and closer approximations.

Evolution correctly predicts events, the bible does not. Biblical science is wrong in heliocentrism too, but you do not let that worry you.

Go where the evidence points, go to truth.

Answer 3

You want to believe in a higher power, go right ahead and do so. That does not mean you have to stop believing what common sense tells you is the truth. Evolution happened, and continues to happen, that's certain. What you WILL have to give up is the notion of biblical literality. Obviously, if the bible were literally true, that would rule out evolution. But few, if any, serious students of the bible believe it is literally true. They believe it is allegorical, that its truths are revealed through parables, and this is how many religious folks are able to reconcile their religious faith with their faith in what science has revealed. There is nothing in evolutionary theory which rules out belief in god, and there is nothing about belief in god which rules out anything in science. And if you think about it, how could it be otherwise?

Answer 4

Look, the fact is that the vast majority of people who are raised to believe in a particular religion continue to live the rest of their lives believing the same stuff.

So a child born and raised to a Muslim family is likely to believe, with equal vehemence, that his religion is the norm, and that others are incorrect. Same for a Christian.

When I read answers here from Christians proclaiming that theirs is the only true faith, it comforts me to know that they would be equally devout Muslims had they been born somewhere else.

So what's more likely? That one religion knows the truth? Or that they are all equally wrong?

The state you are arriving at should be the default: no concept of a supreme being, interested in us or otherwise. As you learn about the world you can draw your own conlusions, and perhaps you will end up where you started.

But ending up a Christian through investigation has to be more comfortable than becoming one through indoctrination. So read the prominent Christian texts. And secular ones that show we have no need for a god when it comes to explaining our universe. And whatever else you can about other religions.

And then make up your own mind.

Answer 5

You dont have to keep faith to be a good person.
You can have a good life, and find wonders all around you, in people, the universe, science, maths, poems, or the life of any creature on earth.
You dont need faith for that. Plenty of people will tell you the bible is not to be taken literally. If you still like this book,
read it, must at its symbolic meaning,
but dont stress out trying to fit it to reality.
There might a god out there, you dont need the bible to tell you how he or she is.
Or you can use the bible in a symbolic way.

Answer 6

Evolution (creation of the world) occurred within the 6 days.
Creation (of Adam) occurred in the 7th day.

When God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness, he was referring to the type of man he would form in the 7th day!

Religion cannot seem to grasp the concept that these are two separate events...

the beastly type of man was created in the 6th day.
the spiritual type of man was created in the 7th day.

When Adam and Eve sinned (which is error in thinking) time (as we know it) began, which brought death.

Before this error/sin there was no time (at least not as we know time) so 6 days could have been 6 billion years.

It is so simple!

There is a higher power, it's within you!
And no religion that I know of teaches you how to connect with that higher power, but the Bible does, in detail!

So don't throw the baby out with the bathwater... keep the Bible, throw out the religion!

Calmness and purity will come from you making the connection within your heart and doing the spiritual works!

Answer 7

You can still believe in the existence of God, and understand and accept scientific facts as they are presented.
As for "believing" events the Bible cites...the Bible was *never* meant to be taken entirely literally. It was written as a Book of rules, and parables to be used as lessons. Even the Jews, who were the writers of the original Old Testament, know enough to not take every story literally. The only people left in the world that attempt to take it literally are a small group of fundamentalist Christians, and the majority of them live here in the U.S. For some reason that the rest of us can't understand, they think of knowledge and education as a bad thing, and presume accepting scientific facts that go against their current understanding is somehow insulting to God.
Don't you think that if God used evolution as a tool in his "creation", he would want you to know the truth about it, and not live based on lies, superstition, and stubborn denial of the truth? How would that benefit him?
If there is a God, then maybe what's going on here is he's giving you the tools to see how he "created" us, and there are those who are so superstitious and paranoid that they can't see that it's him offering them this ability.

Answer 8

Go back and study the so-called science behind the theory of evolution.

Let me start by quoting Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle): "When you have eliminated the impossible, then whatever is left, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."

Start with Darwin, since he started it all.

Here are a few hints:
Darwin thought that the cell was the smallest divisible part of a living thing.

He decided that the cells within the foetus could be manipulated by external stimulii.

He didn't know the first thing about the cell, so his theory was based on bad science and weak logic.

Anybody who knows anything about logic will tell you that if you start with a false premise, the conclusion will also be false.

Next, look at the internal workings of the living cell. I'll keep this short and simple, but you can do your own research to verify what I'm presenting here.

We'll start with the mitochondria. This little machine converts raw materials into usable energy for the cell. The first step of this "energy cycle" is to lose 1 or 2 units of energy, which violates the laws of entropy and thermodynamics.

We'll go on to look at DNA. This double-strand of complex molecules coiled up in a double-helix is, in reality, a highly complex data information storage and retrieval system that makes the Cray supercomputer look like a toy by comparison!

Of course, anybody who knows anything about information technologies will tell you that random bits of data can NEVER become usable and intelligable information without an intelligent source behind it, and yet the DNA is like a computer that is pre-programmed right out of the box.

You know that the computer you're using right now was designed, built, and programmed by intelligent scientists, or at least the prototypes were. And yet you think that the DNA was the results of a myriad of accidents! Totally unscientific, and totally illogical!

When the DNA is ready to go to work, it first uncoils itself, then it splits into two strands, then, like a magnet, it attracts molecules to itself that forms a second chain that is an exact mirror image of itself. This strand of RNA splits off and goes off to do its own thing (protein synthesis, cell replication, etc). In the meantime, these two strands of DNA find each other, reconnect, then coil itself back up into the helix.

This can NEVER be the results of an accident!

I can continue with so many other facets of Life, but let me conclude by bringing to your attention Dr. Flue.

As an atheist (or at least an agnostic) who believed firmly in evolution, he had been working on the internal structure of the DNA, studying it's workings, etc. He finally had to conclude that evolution was just not possible. Even though he received a lot of flack from his colleagues, he had to renounce evolution. In an interview, he stated that it would be "intellectual suicide" to continue to believe in evolution with all the facts he had uncovered. He now believes in intelligent designer by some kind of God.

Going back to my original quote, let me rephrase that: "When you have eliminated the impossible (evolution), then whatever is left (intelligent design and God), no matter how improbable, must be the truth."

Now, will you continue to commit intellectual suicide by holding on to evolution?

I have said it before, and I will say it again, that the only reason people don't believe in God is because they don't WANT to believe in God. This is not an intellectual issue, but a moral issue. In fact, Jesus put it like this, "People refuse to come to me because their deeds are evil!" (I didn't say it!)

Answer 9

Well, it's basically reality vs. fairy tales, but many christians believe in both. God did it through evolution; of course, then the bible can't be literal with the 6 day creation, but so much of the rest of the book can be read as allegorical, so why not this story?

Answer 10

Hi....

If there is a higher power, what makes you think that it is the 'god' of the bible!!??

Christianity, Judaism or Islam, does NOT have the monopoly on 'god'!!

In my opinion, it is an extremely good thing, that you are breaking those chains, that is religion!!!