Can you believe in both evolution (as a process) and God?

Theology
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A lot of people believe that you have to pick one or the other. A lot of scientists say that human beings have evolved from other species. I feel like there’s a lot of proof that proves evolution, and there’s a lot of evidence that talks about the evolution of mankind.

Is it possible that God used evolution as a process in creating human beings in his image? Why do a lot of Christians question those who believe in evolution as a process?

There’s also the fact that evolution took many, many years, and God created the Earth within seven days. Also, the fact that we are evolving took many, many years, and God created the Earth within seven days. A lot of people bring up the fact that if you can’t believe in Genesis being the whole truth, then how can you believe the other parts of the Bible, but can’t Genesis be a form of poetry?

The Bible isn’t a science book that breaks down every part of how humans came to be. So, can you believe in both evolution (as a process) and God?

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This is how I see it. Evolution is a theory although it proclaims itself to be true. The only one who was there when the heavens and earth came into being was God. He says He created it and He tell us how He created it. I believe Him.

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Interesting topic. Here is my 2 cents. (or nickel – 2 cents rounded up – Thanks Trump!)

Wikipedia defines Evolution as :

“The change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as genetic drift and natural selection act on genetic variation, resulting in certain characteristics becoming more or less common within a population over successive generations.”

I have no problems with a “proven” science existing along side Biblical facts so in as long as they don’t contradict because then, only the Bible would be right. (By proven I mean not proven wrong, yet.) We can “prove” animals “evolve” and adapt to varrious environments, sure. This was designed by God to ensure their survival. My problems with the whole concept of evolution is its proposed timeframes for one, and the assertion that mankind sprang forth from a single celled organisim and not through divine creation.

No, It says he created us from dirt in one day. He didn’t create us from fish over the course of 60 million years. This is why Christians “question” those who believe in evolution as a process. God is not a liar or a deceiver as evolutionists would make him out to be.

This is the folly of science in that it believes in absolute fact. When dealing with God, physical science has no facts. He does what he will and wills what he does. Many many years usually means in the millions or billions (depending on who you ask) yet we as believers in God know that is not true. You can witness evolution in your own lifetime if you observe fruit flies closely enough.

Despite the nice thought, It’s less of a poem and more of a riddle whos answer we are not really equipped to know. If it were actually a poem, it wouldn’t be the epic or ode type, but a cryptic haiku.

The Bible contains science that we as humans have only recently (within the last 150 years) come to understand. Is it a far strech to think we do not have it all figured out by now? Besides, I have the feeling God gave us only what we needed to know.

As to evolution and God existing along side each other, sure. But the real question you should ask is this: Which came first… the chicken or the egg? Once you figure that out, everything else will be in perspective.

For Further Reading:

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As a Christian that accepts the mainstream scientific consensus that biological evolution is real, and has been going on since the first unicellular organisms emerged billions of years ago. Of course I’m going to answer yes to this question.

I see no conflict between genuine science and Christian faith. I don’t believe our faith and witness is benefited from denying the obvious and observable facts of natural science.

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When the word “theory” is used in science, it does not mean “a guess”, it refers to an explanation that has been demonstrated through the scientific method.

The word “theory” means something very specific in a scientific context. As an example, gravitation is a theory, germ theory is a theory, internal combustion theory is a theory–but “theory” doesn’t mean “not demonstrated by facts”–it’s very obvious how the internal combustion engine works. But it’s still a theory.

Biological evolution is a theory. It’s a theory that is demonstrated very clearly by the evidence. And all scientists of credibility acknowledge it.

This is only an issue for a minority of Christians. Bible-believing Christians from across many backgrounds don’t have an issue with evolution. The real issue is that, over time, this issue become politicized and turned into a faith issue when it really isn’t. There’s no conflict between an old earth, biological evolution, and a biblical worldview.

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Hello @Willow, let’s talk about it.

First, no. Science and God are not incompatible. I have never done this before, but check out
Why The Bible is True, Science. This will give you some examples of the Bible teaching us facts, and Science catching up to it.

If Humans have evolved from other species, there would be a mssive about of “links.” We would see the progression. There are no links. The ones that they have tried to give us have all, yes, ALL proven fake. If we "evolved from Monkeys, where are the Monhumans? Why would it have just stopped? Why are there still monkeys? The same thing goes with Fish. Oh, wait, maybe that is where the merpeople come from. Of course, I jest.

Absolutely no. He created man from the dust of the ground. This is why we go back to dust when the body dies. Why do I reject this theory? Because it is totally false with no proof. God tells us how He made us. He did not look at a fish and say, “Let us change that into our image.”

How old were Adam and Eve? God did not create babies that would be helpless. He created for grown adults on day one. Why is it so hard to believe that God created the earth to be a certain age for a reason? He is God. Then you got the whole a day is a thousand years and a thousand years a day thing. Time to us is linear. Not to God. God is outside of time. Then, of course, you also have the simple possibility that our science in putting an age on the earth is simply wrong.

No. It is what it is. By attempting to discredit Genesis, they think they can discredit the whole Bible. They can’t. It happened the way God told us. Be careful in listening to these people. Some can be quite convincing. You should tell them this fact. One of the easiest ways to disprove the Bible is also one of the easiest ways to prove the Bible is true. There are 1,239 prophecies in the Old Testament and 578 prophecies in the New Testament for a total of 1,817. This is according to “The Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy” by J. Barton Payne.

Well? OK. If the Bible makes all these predictions, and they are proven false, then the Bible is indeed false. However, if the Bible makes all these predictions, some 26 percent of the total Bible is made up of prophecies, then predictions proven correct make the bible true.

No. As I said before, the Bible contains science that will prove true. You cannot believe in both because one is a lie, and the other is the truth. God said, “Let it be,” BANG, and it was so. Is there natural evolution with the planet, some animals, and even space? Of course.

But the theory of evolution has already been proven wrong by science. Nothing can come from nothing. Did everything evolve from a single-celled organism? DNA and biology prove that wrong. A tree did not become a mosquito, nor a fish a human.

I love science. I always have, but if you take a theory, and you exclude ANY possibility, you have junk science and the quest to prove a theory correct that you specifically believe instead of allowing the observation, hypothesis formulation, prediction, and experimentation speak for themselves.
Peter

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@Willow

Today is resurrection day!

Let the miracle and wonder of the empty tomb take up all the space in our hearts. Let these thoughts dwell in your mind, thoughts of NEW life being inaugurated with the crucified Jesus rising bodily from the dead, thoughts of spontaneous change, Jesus being understood as the Firstfruit of many, thoughts of new eternal life springing up through sacrificial death, let these thoughts guide your understanding of God’s creation as explained in Genesis. Let thoughts of resurrection guide your critical evaluation of the theory of evolution. Thinking like this, your sure faith in “Resurrection by fiat” will pull-away, and completely detach from any trust in any theory of accidental generation that science puts forth.

The biblical term we must reckon with is “after their kind”; every creature forever limited to reproducing “after their kind”. This is the house divided, the unyielding basis of scientific genetics and the dismantling antithesis to scientific evolution.

It’s resurrection day.
I’ll contribute more on another day.
Thanks for the thoughts.

KP

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Can you believe in both evolution (as a process) and God?

NO

Any attempt to combine the two diminishes God.

Gen 1:25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

While there is genetic variability, there has never been observed the introduction of a new species from a previous one.

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You’re not dealing with a small side question here. You’re standing at the doorway of authority. Either God has spoken plainly and you bow to it, or you begin adjusting His words until they fit what fallen men say they have figured out.

The Bible does not stutter on this.

It says God made man directly: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground… and man became a living soul” ~Genesis 2:7. That is not a process crawling forward over ages. That is God acting.

And then the weight drops on your conscience. Scripture says death came because of sin: “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin” ~Romans 5:12. Evolution says death was already here, ruling, shaping, killing, selecting, long before man ever appeared.

So which will you believe?

Because if death is not the result of sin, then what exactly did Christ come to conquer? “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead” ~1 Corinthians 15:21. If you move death before Adam, you don’t just adjust Genesis. You start pulling threads out of the gospel itself.

This is not about being anti-science. This is about refusing to call God unclear when He has spoken plainly.

God says He created in six days: “For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth” ~Exodus 20:11. Not six ages. Not a poetic blur. Six days tied to the very pattern He gave man to live by.

And Jesus Christ did not leave you room to turn Genesis into metaphor. He said, “from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female” ~Mark 10:6. Not at the tail end of a long chain of death and mutation. From the beginning.

Now here is where this presses in.

You are not being asked to reconcile two neutral ideas. You are being asked to decide whose voice you trust. “Let God be true, but every man a liar” ~Romans 3:4.

The danger is subtle. It sounds humble to say, “Maybe God used evolution.” But what it really does is place human reasoning over divine revelation. It says, “God’s Word must bend to fit what we think we see.”

That is the same root as every deception. “Yea, hath God said?” ~Genesis 3:1.

This is not about intelligence. It is about submission.

Will you let the Word of God stand as it is written, even if it cuts across what you have been taught? Or will you reshape it so it sits comfortably beside the world?

Because you cannot do both.

The line is clear. The issue is clear.

And now your conscience has to answer.

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us all and the world are here because of god thank you god for blessing us all

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Agree 100% @TheologyNerd

I believe you can hold to both evolution as a process and God as Creator. Scripture teaches that God made us in His image, but it does not have to function as a modern science textbook.

Christians disagree because they want to honor the Bible, but affirming a process does not have to mean denying the Creator behind it.

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@JennyLynne et.al,
I don’t see how a disciple of Jesus can rationally accept both declaratons of human origins, or accept that they somehow work together.
(see 2 Corinthians 6:14-16)"

As I stated briefly yesterday, [on Resurrection Remembrance Day], our personal understanding of bodily resurrection can greatly aid our understanding of our own biological origins. If you have no difficulty accepting the spontaneous bodily change Jesus underwent at His resurrection, you can then rationally understand the Bible’s claim of “creation ex-nihilo” (spontaneous generation out of nothing). It seems irrational to accept the Bible’s claims of a virgin birth, Jesus’s ability to command nature, raising dead people back to mortal life, and His bodily resurrection, and then question the Bible’s claims of a six day creation. All of these unnatural events require faith, and faith is Gods supernatural gift to you that allows you to take Him at His word; in other words, “God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.”

"For the Spirit searches (peers inside) all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God (faith). These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
(1 Corinthians 2:10-16)

The apostle is saying the person who, by faith, takes God at His word judges (accurately understands) all things, yet, the person of faith is not accurately understood by those outside of faith. Faith is a definite advantage to understanding, as faith puts unshakable substance on the future, and makes things that cannot be seen plainly evident. (Heb. 11:1).

The origins of the evolutionary theory are plainly evident. Without the rooting of faith, many theories on the origin of biological life have emerged, and some will surely take predominance. Timing and necessity led to the popularity of C. Darwin’s publication “On the origin of Species” over 160 years ago. His popular theories were welcomed as they filled an uncomfortable hole in man’s need to understand his origins apart from God. The one universal thing any theory of human origins, apart from God, lacks is faith. Without faith, every theory is restricted to an explanation of some kind of independent generation, a mechanism that functions without a mechanic, a theory of origin without an originator. It is the a-priori necessity of providing an explanation for being without the input of a superior being that lies at the very root of what is called “scientific evolution”. It is this very necessity that provides a framework and a platform for irrationality, the ability to accept an apparent falsehood, and be willing to defend it. This irrational platform is the spirit and function of deception. Deception allows a rational mind to embrace irrational thoughts as factual.

Since Darwin’s publication in 1859, G. Mendel’s research in plant hybrids in 1865, to Miescher identifying DNA in 1869, to Watson & Crick’s discovery of the double helix in 1953, and Sanger’s technique to rapid DNA sequencing in 1977, our ability to peer into the dark recesses of biological regeneration has rapidly advanced. Understanding the role DNA plays in regeneration of a species demonstrates scientifically what God told Moses 3500 years ago, that God made everything to reproduce “after it’s kind”. This is now a proven fact. Each species has a characteristic, fixed number of chromosomes (strands of DNA) in every cell of their being. The number varies widely across organisms. Humans have 46 (23 pairs), while other species range from one pair in ants to thousands in some single-celled organisms. This number is essential for reproduction! Closely related species have the same number of chromosomes, and so are of “one kind”. This is, of course, an oversimplification, but our best scientific work at peering into the mechanics of our own reproduction and origins simply will not allow an evolutionary model. (*BTW, “adaptation” and “mutation” are something altogether different, and should be examined separately. Neither account for evolution. *

One may choose to accept the whole, or even parts of a faithless theory of natural origins, one that engenders the known impossibility of reproduction across “kinds” (something Darwin did not understand because the research came later), a theory that remains devoted to an explanation that involves no creator. Or, one can take God at His word (faith), and even though all the details of His supernatural creation by fiat are not understood, we embrace the idea as a gift from a faithful Creator and loving Father.

By faith we believe God created everything that IS, including us. He did it by fiat; He said it and it was so. The Spirit-Father-Jesus created light out of nothing, matter out of light, and us out of matter, and in us he was pleased to infuse biological life Pneumatically (of His Spirit). Our biological life, which is based in created light, is but a shadow of eternal life, which is based in unapproachable, uncreated light. His Eternal Light is His Eternal Life of Eternal Love. Jesus is Life, The Life He is willing to share with us who take Him at His word.

(see also 1 Corinthians 1:20-25)

Alive in His Love
KP

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Let me try this. I make a set of dominoes. I set them up in various patterns. I tip the first one, and it creates a change of events that follow the pattern I planned out. I am both the cause of the dominoes and the toppling, aka the evolution of the dominoes.

Do I or I don’t, anyone here believe that you have to believe that Pizzas came from dominoes? No, of course not. Man did not come from monkeys, fish, or a single-celled organism. God also did not create a baby. He created a full-bodied man with a very complex physicality. Then, a full-grown woman, the same way.

He created the earth. Is it 6 thousand years old? Six million years old? Six days old? I have no idea, but I do know that God created the very complex universe that supports our life, in which He placed the very complex physicality of human beings.

Without me, there are neither dominoes nor the many various patterns. Without God, there is neither evolution nor creation.
Peter

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I see you solved the age old question I mentioned.

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yeah a little of science and a lot of god sounds right i like your opinion

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Love this man @KPuff

How I reconcile evolutionary theory and my belief in God as Creator | John Lennox at Claremont.

That said, I concur with your post.

J.

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God did not evolve us from ape-ancestors, @Willow, because of Moses’ inspired account:

Gen 2:7 then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

Gen 2:21 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
Gen 2:22 And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

These verses say that God created Adam, then Eve, as special creations like animals in some ways but different because of the following verses:

Gen 1:26 Then 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 birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Animals may have personalities, but they were not created like God or in his image, the way the Bible clearly says humans were.

We need to look at science in the light of God’s Word instead of looking at the Bible in the light of science.

On the other hand, God may have used natural processes to do some of his creative work, since the Bible does say,

Gen 1:11 And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so.

Gen 1:24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so.

In addition, the word “day” in a word study of the Bible points to an indefinite period of time in relation with God, so that the “days” may have been longer.

However, such conclusions look at the possibilities in science from the viewpoint of the Bible, not the other way around.

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Luk_16:13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

1Ti_6:20 O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:

Jas 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

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Actually, we have observed speciation occur. So we have seen new species emerge from a common ancestor on shorter timescales than we would ordinarily consider necessary.

So this claim is actually just untrue.

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When the scientists can map out the family tree and DNA of an octopus..I might hear them out. Otherwise I believe in creation. God created everything in 6 days..human time frame as we know it..24 hours. The actual length of one day for God can be 1000’s and 1000’s and THOUSANDS of year’s. A lot could take place in a single day :smiley: Even our 24 doy isn’t accurate..lol

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