Do you believe in evolution?

[KittenKoder]

True, the world would have started off spinning at slower rate, considering it is continually speeding up a fraction of a nano-second each hundred years I believe. So that may perhaps even be the case.

 

[Toro]

I believe in evolution but not creationism. I find the story of creationism to be incompatible with evolution. Creationism says God created the earth first before the heavens, and that God created man before the animals. Both are scientifically incorrect.

However, God may have been the spark for evolution and set it in motion.

 

[strollingbones]

as evidenced by this board?

 

[Ravi]

I believe in evolution with IN a species, it is pretty much a proven fact that happens ( try the horse for evidence) . However there is NO evidence that one species of NON plant life, or virus, or single cell life has ever evolved into 2 or more other species.

And Yes even if they prove man evolved from an ape like creature that JUST MEANS that is how God made man evolve. I keep asking who it was that Cain lived with once cast out for the murder of his brother, and who it was his siblings all married.

Religious people will not be effected by actual evidence that evolution occurs in the manner that science claims. Of course for now it is unimportant since it is totally unproven.

Of course there is evidence that one species evolved into another. You exist on a planet that in the past did not contain humans.

 

[Ravi]

I like to think that mankind evolved to the point where it was possible to make up God.

 

[KittenKoder]

I like to think that mankind evolved to the point where it was possible to make up God.

The true definition of "god" is giver and taker of life, therefore something is always in a position above other life forms, humans became so adapted and intelligent that we had to look beyond the physical world for a god, since we had become the absolute top of the food chain by sheer intellect. This is why so many of the earlier versions of gods were animalistic, they evolved as humans became higher on the food chain to the point where half the definition of god no longer fit the animals, so they started making them more and more human like, since we became gods to the animals, then surely a being mroe powerful than us would not be an animal.

 

[Care4all]

I believe in evolution but not creationism. I find the story of creationism to be incompatible with evolution. Creationism says God created the earth first before the heavens, and that God created man before the animals. Both are scientifically incorrect.

However, God may have been the spark for evolution and set it in motion.

FYI!
No Toro, the Bible does NOT say he created the earth before the Heavens...



Genesis 1

The Beginning

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

genesis 1, lists Heavens, then Earth.

 

[editec]

Suggesting that science and religion are in some kind of idealogical conflict where one must prevail and the other must be dismissed from our consideration is simply confused thinking.

It's rather like saying that one must either believe that a house has plumbing and electrical wiring, or one must stop thinking about how the family living in that house should treat each other.

 

[DavidS]

How? I've read that book over and over again (forced to as a child) and nothing in there contradicts any scientific theories, hell, it doesn't even discount alien life.

The most obvious reason would be the time constraints placed on the Week of Creation, which specify days, the time frame of "days" being literal 24 hour periods as specified by Genesis 1:14 and confirmed by Exodus 20:8-11, which is an obvious contradiction of the timeframe of evolution, the Cambrian Explosion alone lasting seventy to eighty million years.

Genesis 1:14 did not say a day was a 24-hour period. Genesis 1:14 says:

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night: and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.

Please show me where it says "24 hours."

Just because it's 24 hours today, does not mean it was 24 hours back then. How do you know that a full day to God isn't millions of years to a human?

 

[DavidS]

However you must recall the time period the original version of each story was writ, in the time that the Genesis story was written a "day" was a very subjective time frame, which had no definitive amount of time. Thus the word they used could represent 1 hour or 1 million years ... or even more. They were using it in reference to a god, which by all definitions would live in a completely alien time frame. So sorry, but it still does not discount evolution or any form of scientific creation, all it offers is a why, not a how and when in reality.

I anticipated that objection and intended to forestall it by referring to passages that specified "day" in the sense of a 24 hour period. We could refer to the mention of "the evening and a morning" in Genesis 1:2, 8, 13, 19, 23, and 31, though if "day" is discounted, that reference could be also. The Hebrew terminology which is used also specifies a 24 hour period, although one could argue that this is contradicted by Genesis 2:4. But as I already noted, the strongest evidence comes from Exodus 20:8-11, which makes it clear that God's "six days" of creation are equivalent to conventional days, the origin of the Sabbath being that God also rested on the "seventh day."

I used to be a theistic evolutionist, and I certainly understand its appeal. But it's simply not consistent with Scripture.

Again, the Torah never mentions "24 hours." Man didn't keep time back then, so the concept was foreign to them.

Do you believe the Torah, the Written Law and the Oral Law are the absolute Words of God and was written by God and handed to Moses completed? If so, are you a Christian?

 

[DavidS]

I'm well aware of the inconsistencies in the Bible. Their existence necessitates dilution of the allegedly inerrant or infallible text by liberal Christians who wish to diverge from their more conservative brethren. However, as is the case with conservative Christians' same behavior, it's simply not consistent to abandon the literal aspects of some portions of the Bible and claim that they remain intact for others if it's an allegedly "holy book."

Uh, if you're a Christian, and I do mean you, Nemesis, then you absolutely take some parts of the "Bible" in figurative and other parts of the Bible in literal meanings. I cite the entire fairy tale of one Rabbi Joshua as an example.

If you take the christian bible literally you cannot even say that evolution of humanity is not fact, because then you are assuming you know for sure that it is not the christian god's power, thus breaking the same commandment.

No, it wouldn't. It would simply assert that he chose not to cause evolution, despite theoretically having the power to do so.

My friend, not even an Orthodox Rabbi who spend every day of their lives studying Torah and have been raised with it in their lives since they were very young, would make such an arrogant claim such as you did. You have no idea what God chose to do and what he chose not to do. None of us do.

 

[DavidS]

I believe in evolution but not creationism. I find the story of creationism to be incompatible with evolution. Creationism says God created the earth first before the heavens, and that God created man before the animals. Both are scientifically incorrect.

Incorrect on both.

Genesis 1:1

בְּרֵאשִׁית, בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים, אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם, וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:25

וַיַּעַשׂ אֱלֹהִים אֶת-חַיַּת הָאָרֶץ לְמִינָהּ, וְאֶת-הַבְּהֵמָה לְמִינָהּ, וְאֵת כָּל-רֶמֶשׂ הָאֲדָמָה, לְמִינֵהוּ; וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים, כִּי-טוֹב.

God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:26

וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, נַעֲשֶׂה אָדָם בְּצַלְמֵנוּ כִּדְמוּתֵנוּ; וְיִרְדּוּ בִדְגַת הַיָּם וּבְעוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם, וּבַבְּהֵמָה וּבְכָל-הָאָרֶץ, וּבְכָל-הָרֶמֶשׂ, הָרֹמֵשׂ עַל-הָאָרֶץ.

And God said: 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.'

So, according to this, God created the heavens before he did the Earth and the animals before he did man.

 

[Agnapostate]

My friend, not even an Orthodox Rabbi who spend every day of their lives studying Torah and have been raised with it in their lives since they were very young, would make such an arrogant claim such as you did. You have no idea what God chose to do and what he chose not to do. None of us do.

I can't imagine what fueled such a random and frankly odd remark. What he "chose" to do is reflected in the book of Genesis, if you believe that. If he'd not "chosen" to do it...it wouldn't have been done.

 

[KittenKoder]

My friend, not even an Orthodox Rabbi who spend every day of their lives studying Torah and have been raised with it in their lives since they were very young, would make such an arrogant claim such as you did. You have no idea what God chose to do and what he chose not to do. None of us do.

I can't imagine what fueled such a random and frankly odd remark. What he "chose" to do is reflected in the book of Genesis, if you believe that. If he'd not "chosen" to do it...it wouldn't have been done.

Thus why a christian could still not deny it, for it would mean they would have to say they know the will of their god, which he clearly says is not a good thing to do.

 

[YWN666]

I believe in both evolution and creation.

The Bible says God created man from the ground ... evolution says we evolved from some single celled organisms from a primordial soup of some kind.

Why couldn't God have created evolution?

2 things:
1. Evolution is a well supported scientific theory that doesn't require "belief".
2. Evolution does address how organisms change but it does not address the origin of life from primordial soup.

 

[KittenKoder]

I believe in both evolution and creation.

The Bible says God created man from the ground ... evolution says we evolved from some single celled organisms from a primordial soup of some kind.

Why couldn't God have created evolution?

2 things:
1. Evolution is a well supported scientific theory that doesn't require "belief".
2. Evolution does address how organisms change but it does not address the origin of life from primordial soup.

Precisely, the spark of life itself has no scientific explanation, at least not yet. Something had to trigger it. Could have been a god, could have been aliens, or maybe some extradimensional phenomenon.

 

[YWN666]

I believe in both evolution and creation.

The Bible says God created man from the ground ... evolution says we evolved from some single celled organisms from a primordial soup of some kind.

Why couldn't God have created evolution?

2 things:
1. Evolution is a well supported scientific theory that doesn't require "belief".
2. Evolution does address how organisms change but it does not address the origin of life from primordial soup.

Precisely, the spark of life itself has no scientific explanation, at least not yet. Something had to trigger it. Could have been a god, could have been aliens, or maybe some extradimensional phenomenon.

It was the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I swear.

 

[auditor0007]

Well, for one thing, it directly contradicts the book of Genesis, if that's your source.

And how does it do this? Please explain.

 

[Gurdari]

I believe in both evolution and creation.

The Bible says God created man from the ground ... evolution says we evolved from some single celled organisms from a primordial soup of some kind.

Why couldn't God have created evolution?

Any logical, scientific person would only believe in something 'for now' - that is until a better methodology, thought process, etc. was discovered.

SO, whatever you consider God to be (perhaps "universal forces and laws", as opposed to a sentient "man-like super-being") could be the catalyst. Or random chance mixed with the right ingredients... hard to say.

 

[Gurdari]

I was watching, (Sort of watching, I was doing housework and mostly listening to it, occasionally) a discovery channel science special the other day, can't remember what it was on specifically, I think it was called, How the Earth was Made....anyway, I just caught the ending part of it saying that our days were much longer when the earth was first created...I didn't hear exactly WHY....? But I did get a little chill for a nano=second that made me smile as well, thinking, Lord forgive me for doubting your Creation timeline and being such a doubting Thomas....

I believe in both, to answer the original post...nothing in the Bible rules out the evolution of a species or the Earth....the whole creation story was an evolution.

SO, God made man in 'his' image but just really really slowly from apes... but he made other things right the first time?


I think the dinosaurs would be in the bible if it was truthful. And they would be if the authors had known about their existence...