RE: Why are Christians against evolution?
June 12, 2009 at 12:05 pm
(This post was last modified: June 12, 2009 at 12:10 pm by Johnny.)
(June 5, 2009 at 2:26 pm)Cleanthes Wrote: Hi, here goes.
I'm a philosophy and theology student in the UK, and the more I study the more I struggle to understand why (some) Christians have a problem with evolution. I think there's no reason why we shouldn't come at it looking at the evidence like everyone else - and there are much more important things to worry about! I thought I'd investigate some of the reasons and try to put together an article on why Christianity doesn't require a rejection of evolutionary theory. Basically, I'd like to look at the arguments for a Christian rejection of evolution one by one and dismiss them. The ones I've come up with so far are:
1: Evolution contradicts the Bible ('we can't say the earth is 6000 years old')
2: Evolution insults human dignity ('we can't say we're different from animals')
3: Evolution defeats arguments to design (we can't say 'God made that!')
4: Evolution leaves no room for the doctrine of the Fall (we can't explain where right and wrong come from)
5: Religion and Science are naturally conflicting ('whose side are you on?')
So my questions are: Have you come across other arguments for a Christian rejection of evolution? What are they? Why do birds, suddenly appear, every time, you are near?
Thanks, much appreciated.
Cleanthes
My old pastor said that he rejects evolution because he couldn't mesh it with original sin. He said that if we evolved then there could be no point in history where Original Sin entered the human narrative. At the time it kind of made sense, but then later on I was like what the hell? How can you reject something so out right because it doesn't vibe with your (twisted) theology?
(June 12, 2009 at 10:21 am)chatpilot Wrote: Aside from the fact that there are two versions of the creation story in Genesis chatpers 1 and 2 that completely contradict each other,I think that christians hate evolution because it does go against creationism on many different points.The main one being the span of time for the existence of the universe and the world we live in.Also,specifically the evolution of man takes away from God the act of creating us from dirt with his own hands thus taking away our special place in creation.Evolution brings man down from his ego trip and puts us where we rightfully belong on Earth as yet another evolved animal as opposed to a divine creation above all other species.When I was a Christian I had no problem with evolution. I didn't understand why God couldn't have created us through a process?
Also, it's mostly fundamentalist protestants who take the Bible very literally who object to evolution.
http://www.calvarychapel.com/our_teachings.cfm
If you follow that link, and click on the very first "teaching" Genesis 1: 1-18 you will get a pretty generic fundamentalist defense of creationism.
