Why Christians Attack Evolution

[psychoslice]

I think they attack because it threatens their beliefs, in fact most will attack if any belief is threatened, even atheist.

[Bob Kelso]

I do not attack it and I am a Christian. Nor do many other brilliant Christians in the academy attack it.

So where does that leave your post?

In good standing, just because you or "many other brilliant Christians" don't argue over evolution does not falsify his post. Fact is discipulus, there are a lot of proudly ignorant gits in your religion. Deal with it.

[*Deidre*]

While many Christians may say they don't "attack" or dismiss evolution, the dilemma they all have (all denominations) is that they can't fully embrace evolution if they believe a god instilled us with a "soul."

Nowhere does evolution speak of the evolution of souls or that humans are "special"

Christians believe that God created humans as special and apart - so this is where they will have to choose between science and faith. A Christian in good faith can't fully embrace evolution without turning a blind eye to certain major tenets of their faith.

Ironically, Darwin was a Christian and he went through a process of denouncing the Bible. I don't believe he ever considered himself an atheist though.

[JuliaL]

Religious belief enhances in-group identification and social cohesion. It is the secret handshake which bonds the believers into a group which then can be wielded against other groups or individuals. The weirder and more counter intuitive the belief, the more firmly must the adherents adhere against all comers. At least the ones who are able to endure the cognitive dissonance between what they believe and what they observe.
Up to a point for most people. For many, the obvious reliability and useful products of methodolgical naturalism erode confidence in bronze age fantasies. Accommodation must be made, albeit grudgingly. So lots of Christians give ground, like the Catholics with evolution. Some try to absorb the invader of their halls of power by adopting but interpreting. The days of Genesis weren't days. Evolution formed the body but God installed the soul.
Some never reach that point, but feel that attack is the better strategy. Like the island campaign against the Japanese in WW II. They will be bypassed.

[MindForgedManacle]

The main problem here is that, contrary to what has been said in this thread, prior to Darwin Christians did not just take the Bible literally. That is just factually wrong. Some indeed did, but the doctrine of sola scriptura and Biblical literalism is rather new to Christianity. For example, two of the most influential Christians - Augustine and Aquinas - did not take Genesis (much less the entire Bible) literally. This is just a wrong-headed view many atheists have and I'd wish it'd go away.

It really sounds stupid if you think something like "Blimey, this Darwin guy showed Genesis couldn't have literally happened... REJECT SCIENCE!!!111" happened.

[Chas]

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Any half-rational individual knows that Evolution is the back-bone of modern science. Differential Reproduction is the method by which medicines are developed, and natural selection explains why humans resemble their parents, grandparents, and their many other relatives. Without evolutionary science, we would essentially be returning to the dark ages when people blamed evil demons for terminal diseases. Advocates for faith-based healing still do.

Not surprisingly, many Christians adamantly oppose the theory of evolution, despite their rampant ignorance about it. Court cases concerning the teaching of creationism in public schools include the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, 1981’s McLean vs. Arkansas, 1987’s Epperson vs. Arkansas, and the most recent 2005 case, Dover vs. Kitzmiller, in which Justice John Jones ruled creationism is in fact not at all science and does in fact promote religion (outlawed in the U.S. Constitution).

But why exactly is it that Christians oppose evolution? There are many reasons that come to mind, but it’s difficult to put my finger on it. Then I started reading Ruth Hermence Green’s book, The Born-Again Skeptic’s Guide to the Bible, and I figured it out. Listen to this:

Achievements in this world, even if they promote the welfare of humanity, are pointless, and honors and recognition for the advancement of human knowledge are meaningless in God’s massive bookkeeping system.
Spiritual life is the only measure of a person’s worth when heavenly rewards are bestowed: What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Mark 8:36.

Most Christians judge others by what they believe in. Not what they do. As the quote above indicates, it really does not matter how many good deeds you do in this life, as long as you trust in fictional Jesus Christ. If an Atheist jumped into a burning building and saved a whole bunch of helpless children, he or she would not get the endorsement of pretty much any local church. If an atheist discovered a cure for cancer or any other terminal illness, they would not get an endorsement from most any local church, either.

I also came across another argument in my research, and this one has to do with religion in general and not just Christianity. From C.M. Kragel’s The Grand Deception:

Christians, Muslims, and other religious people are just as capable of immoral and harmful actions as anybody else. Does the knowledge they contain of morality, God or Jesus save them? No, it simply supplants lessons into their minds of superior beings with supposedly higher morals, but this does not enable better individuals. It simply instills a form of arrogance that is derived by the belief of a people that their morality is in fact superior to all others since it is supposedly handed down by God.

C.M. Krager brings up an excellent point: sectarian religious people tend to think their own fictional God is better than another religion’s fictional God. This explains why a repulsive Christian woman I know refuses to vote for an Atheist for president, and why Christian televangelists slander Charles Darwin, atheists, Muslims and anyone else who contradicts their doctrinaire ideologies.

But of course, this natural feeling of superiority over dissenters is not confined to religion. This is true of any one who holds a political position, as well. Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and other rabid, hate-spewing right-wingers do nothing but slander “the left” with ludicrous aspersions, and self-identified liberals like Markos Moulitsas and the Daily Kos bloggers say more or less the same about conservatives. I am sad to say that Atheists like Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris have a pompous attitude towards people who don’t think like they do.

---

Dawkins wants to racially profile Muslims, Christopher Hitchens was for the Iraq invasion because he wanted to stamp out religion in the name of secular fundamentalism, and Sam Harris is just another islamophobe.

And that is my two cents.

Pretty good except for the "racially profiling Muslims" bit. That's bullshit. Muslim is not a race.

[Irish]

Not all Christians disbelieve in evolution...usually, that's an opinion of Fundamentalist Christians. They tend to take Genesis more literally, than other Christians. But, then what does that say about the religion as a whole? Christians can't even agree on their own faith book?

Which just speaks to me, that it's all nonsense...just spun several different ways, in various denominations.

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the basic premise of evolution is true, but then they get tripped up when they believe that God still gave humans a 'soul.' When did that happen exactly in the 'evolutionary process?''

Before Charles Darwin's theory took shape, Christians took Genesis, literally. Hmmm...then, Charles Darwin came along, and years later...the Catholic Church and other denoms were teaching that it's 'ok' to accept Genesis as metaphorical in nature. So, just like that...'god' changed his mind? He sent a cosmic message to all the 'church leaders' that...now, thou shalt believe in evolution? lol Oh please.

It's just too much nonsense for me, anymore.

Science is complex, yet simple. It's beautiful. It doesn't have all the answers, but that doesn't mean it never will. I trust science, because simply put, it doesn't lie. Religions lie.

The Catholic Church has the entire truth and does not lie.
We accept evolution as plausible as well as the accounts in Genesis.
What is key to the issue is a God created the World and how he did it may be evolution or the Biblical way.
Irish.

[KichigaiNeko]

Not all Christians disbelieve in evolution...usually, that's an opinion of Fundamentalist Christians. They tend to take Genesis more literally, than other Christians. But, then what does that say about the religion as a whole? Christians can't even agree on their own faith book?

Which just speaks to me, that it's all nonsense...just spun several different ways, in various denominations.

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the basic premise of evolution is true, but then they get tripped up when they believe that God still gave humans a 'soul.' When did that happen exactly in the 'evolutionary process?''

Before Charles Darwin's theory took shape, Christians took Genesis, literally. Hmmm...then, Charles Darwin came along, and years later...the Catholic Church and other denoms were teaching that it's 'ok' to accept Genesis as metaphorical in nature. So, just like that...'god' changed his mind? He sent a cosmic message to all the 'church leaders' that...now, thou shalt believe in evolution? lol Oh please.

It's just too much nonsense for me, anymore.

Science is complex, yet simple. It's beautiful. It doesn't have all the answers, but that doesn't mean it never will. I trust science, because simply put, it doesn't lie. Religions lie.

The Catholic Church has the entire truth and does not lie.
We accept evolution as plausible as well as the accounts in Genesis.
What is key to the issue is a God created the World and how he did it may be evolution or the Biblical way.
Irish.

You came all this way to say so little?

Have a Guinness mate.

[tor]

Because it disproves Genesis.

[Kayenneh]

The Catholic Church has the entire truth and does not lie.