Evolution and religion are NOT opposed
I don't even know why we have to have this discussion, but apparently we do, so I'm going to try to get through this as quickly as humanly possible.
Evolution and religion are in no way opposed to each other. "Believeing" in evolution does not in any way reject anything laid out in the bible nor does it render one a non-Christian.
First, lets deal with the claim that evolution is a "theory". Evolution is a theory in the same way gravity is a theory. It has been tested innumerable times and irrefutable evidence of it's function has been garnered from a myriad of observations.
Intelligent Design, Creationism, or whatever else you want to call it (Flying Spaghetti Monsterism...), on the other hand is bad science at best, and bad theology at worst. It has no ability to stand up to scientific scrutiny, hence why it's proponents appeal to the masses instead of the scientific community to sew the seeds of their beliefs, because they know it cannot be supported scientifically (don't believe me? Check out this article describing a leaked memo from the Discovery Institute, which heads up the Intelligent Design movement, in which ID leaders talk about their strategy to mislead the public by knowingly applying false logic to confuse people not well-versed in evolutionary theory).
But this shouldn't even be the issue. Is it really so hard to believe that God is the driving force behind evolution? Evolution is a theory based upon as strict set of physical and natural laws. ID requires that carbon dating not work. It requires God to put dinosaur bones inside the earth and to falsify the geological record so that it indicates the earth is 4.6 billion years old instead of less than 10,000 as ID claims. Then fails to explain why He gave creatures that have lived inside caves for longer than Creationists say the earth has existed functionless eyes or why He gave humans tailbones, appendixes, and pinky toes.
Is it really so hard to accept that the universe may not have been created in 6 days? Is it really so hard to accept that humanity could not conceptualize billions of years or the evolutionary process when the Creation was written? Is it really so hard to believe that the six day creation is an allegory to show simply that humanity is God's favoered creation?
I've talked a lot before about how much of the bible is flat out false and can be disproven both historically scientifically (see The Da Vinci Code on Christianity for a few examples. Thank God Dan Brown brought mainstream attention to some of the inconsistencies that religious scholars and, well anyone that actually read their bibles, have known for centuries). I've been saying this stuff for years, not to say that the bible is false, but merely that it cannot be taken literally because people, being fallable, flawed creatures, make mistakes, and some of them even have ulterior motives to decieve would-be believers.
In closing, I want you to ask yourself a couple questions. In the bible, God calls Himself "Law" and "Order". Which theory sounds lawful and ordered to you? The one based upon the natural laws upon which it can be proven that the universe functions, or the one that requires God to lie and decieve us, whom he calls "his most favored creation?"
I sure hope it isn't the latter.
Evolution and religion are in no way opposed to each other. "Believeing" in evolution does not in any way reject anything laid out in the bible nor does it render one a non-Christian.
First, lets deal with the claim that evolution is a "theory". Evolution is a theory in the same way gravity is a theory. It has been tested innumerable times and irrefutable evidence of it's function has been garnered from a myriad of observations.
Intelligent Design, Creationism, or whatever else you want to call it (Flying Spaghetti Monsterism...), on the other hand is bad science at best, and bad theology at worst. It has no ability to stand up to scientific scrutiny, hence why it's proponents appeal to the masses instead of the scientific community to sew the seeds of their beliefs, because they know it cannot be supported scientifically (don't believe me? Check out this article describing a leaked memo from the Discovery Institute, which heads up the Intelligent Design movement, in which ID leaders talk about their strategy to mislead the public by knowingly applying false logic to confuse people not well-versed in evolutionary theory).
But this shouldn't even be the issue. Is it really so hard to believe that God is the driving force behind evolution? Evolution is a theory based upon as strict set of physical and natural laws. ID requires that carbon dating not work. It requires God to put dinosaur bones inside the earth and to falsify the geological record so that it indicates the earth is 4.6 billion years old instead of less than 10,000 as ID claims. Then fails to explain why He gave creatures that have lived inside caves for longer than Creationists say the earth has existed functionless eyes or why He gave humans tailbones, appendixes, and pinky toes.
Is it really so hard to accept that the universe may not have been created in 6 days? Is it really so hard to accept that humanity could not conceptualize billions of years or the evolutionary process when the Creation was written? Is it really so hard to believe that the six day creation is an allegory to show simply that humanity is God's favoered creation?
I've talked a lot before about how much of the bible is flat out false and can be disproven both historically scientifically (see The Da Vinci Code on Christianity for a few examples. Thank God Dan Brown brought mainstream attention to some of the inconsistencies that religious scholars and, well anyone that actually read their bibles, have known for centuries). I've been saying this stuff for years, not to say that the bible is false, but merely that it cannot be taken literally because people, being fallable, flawed creatures, make mistakes, and some of them even have ulterior motives to decieve would-be believers.
In closing, I want you to ask yourself a couple questions. In the bible, God calls Himself "Law" and "Order". Which theory sounds lawful and ordered to you? The one based upon the natural laws upon which it can be proven that the universe functions, or the one that requires God to lie and decieve us, whom he calls "his most favored creation?"
I sure hope it isn't the latter.
posted by Jon Fish at 10:16 PM
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