A question about Christians and Evolution.?

Question

Many Christians don't believe the theory of evolution is possible. They say things like "Evolution is just a theory! Think about it, a tornado going through a scarp yard made a jet. That wouldn't make any sence. The "Big-Bang", putting us 93 million miles away from the sun. No that would make sence either. First how are we learning math and all these weird numbers. And Nothing comes from Nothing..." <-----unedited

This, to me, either suggests a lack of effective intelligence, a lack of creative ability, an unwillingness to think for themselves or more likely all of the above.

Is the same mental mechanism that allows Christians to believe that evolution is impossible the same mechanism that allows them to be unabashedly Christian in the first place?

In case there's any confusion...I'm only drawing a correlation for the Christians that DON'T believe that evolution is possible... :)

Answer 1

I think you may be on to something. Honestly, I find it difficult at times to have a rational, logical conversation with some of the Christians I know in real life. When I discuss things with them, they tend not to understand the "why" of most things they hold to be true. They cannot tell me why they believe as they do. I am not just talking about their religious beliefs. Just in general, it seems, that the very heart of most of their contentions is regurgitation.

Just my personal observations.

Answer 2

I love the scrap yard - 747 thing. I've read that one before. I propose that if all the parts are available in the scrap yard and the weather conditions are right for the next several billion years that it is possible, however improbably, that the 747 could be built. But, to be more accurate it would probably just be a 172 Censna since evolution started really small and simple and didn't just straight to the big stuff.

Answer 3

There's a book that was recently published, I forget the name, that describes how fundamentalism started when the Bible was first translated into English. Since the common (literate) man was able to read the Bible for himself, he no longer required priests to tell him what God's word was and how he should live his life. However, that also created a movement to strictly interpret the Bible, as people feared eternal damnation if they did not interpret the Bible in precisely the way God intended (and other people told them they should).

Which brings us to today, where I believe the phenomenon continues. Some religious folk feel the need to interpret the Bible literally, largely out of fear of Godly retribution after death. However, in order to believe that the Bible is literal truth, one has to ignore a very large amount of evidence to the contrary. Therefore, those people who insist on refuting evolution, to the extent that it contradicts anything written in the Bible, they have to come up with some wild reasoning and confusing comparisons, which all come off very strange and illogical to the rest of us.

Answer 4

Since I don't feel that the Bible is lnfallable I have no issues with evolution. And yes, I think that those who are unable to accept the "how" of evolution and rather get baged down into trying to turn the first two chapters of Genesis into a geology text book are lacking in both intelectual ability and spiritual depth.

Answer 5

i have been doing a lot of studying on the difference of each and so far i have found no good hard facts that support evaluation it all boils down to how can space and time come into existence if you don,t have some thing out of space and time to make it according to evolution space and time is infinite yet they are still trying to fined the begging of it. so if space and time had a begging it would have to have come from beyond (or god ) and if god made space and time then i believe that he made it all.If science can make time and space then they have a argument until then i ll believe

Answer 6

Intelligent Christians can also not believe in evolutionary theory. I currently am ambiguous toward it. I find the popular argumentation on both sides to be ineffective to convince me. I hope to bone up (pardon the pun) on my scientific jargon to read some of the more critical positions on both sides.

We are Christians by faith, not intellectual assent. The very ignorance you accuse us of we see from a spiritual side and ask ourselves, why cannot they see what is so plainly before them.

Ah, the dichotomy between us.

Ath

Answer 7

We.. as a "speicies"are so miniscule...so very insignificant in the context of "multi"versus...NOt 1 (universe) but many...in fact it may well be that ::Just as we see worlds under a microscope we can see them with a telescope! ..INFACT it is this way!!..likewise!..whatever "source" was the cause of having this "smaller then a pin head sized tiny ball" full of what WE know as "life"... with its own biological survival system...That same source must have been responsible for creating everything else that we can "detect"...which is said to be barely 4% of all actual matter that exsists out there.
SOO....!...I personaly feel that .what we tend to think of as "inteligence" has very little bearing on ...what OUR source really is..we are but a flicker of dust in an endless ocean of trillions of of light years in space and what we know as "time".!!! .To end this short...just imagine our brains capacity..NOW!!...mulitply that capacity by 1000X at least !!
that may give you a better idea as to the so called "inteligence" of what is really the "SOURCE" responsible foe us being here!!..call it "God".AlaH"..the great creator or what ever you wish...but "WE" will never ever..come to know its true NATURE..if we can call it that!..
thank you.

Answer 8

I'm not sure what you were trying to do there. What you did point out is that it seems ridiculous to think these things happened spontaneously and of their own volition. I think your intention, however, was to make the Christian viewpoint seem absurd and improbable, not the evolutionary one. There is one simple thing that quite suddenly got my attention and made me ponder the idea of a creator-the spicebush swallowtail caterpillar. Strange but true.

Answer 9

Although I do accept the theory of Evolution, I can completely sympathize with those who don't. it is a very difficult theory to grasp completely (survival of the fittest hardly does it justice), and I can understand there hesitation. We cannot expect every person to be as smart as Darwin was.

Answer 10

It's really more a lack of understanding for basic science; and an inability to appreciate the parameters of the universe.

Let's face it -- it's HARD to truly comprehend what 13.5 BILLION years is like, and all that can be accomplished in that time; or how many combinations of size and position you could have with a BILLION BILLION planets to work with.

They're much more comfortable with their small little god lording over a small little world where they're the center of the universe and everything revolves around them...