ANSWERS: 42
  • i agree! it seems very hard for some people!
  • Well, evolution isn't in the Bible, and some people can't have that. You know, the real reason I, myself, don't believe that God created evolution is because I can see that evolution exists. How it works exactly might be partly a mystery, but I would have to be blind to not see that it is real, and even then I would expect to discover it eventually. However, there is absolutely no reason for me to believe that there is a God. In fact, God is based around the idea that you can't prove he exists, because it's important to have faith. So, why should I combine something I know to exist with something that I don't? I shouldn't. There's no point in me throwing God into the evolution equation.
  • Then who evolved god?
  • "Creationism", as usually defined, implies belief that the book of Genesis is an exact description of the Creation. Which means that all the species were created at the same time on one day 6000 years ago. That is incompatible with evolution as currently believed, which states the species evolved over billions of years. The two beliefs flatly contradioct each other: to believe both would be like bleiving that night is day.
  • Actually, many Christians do accept evolution. The catholic church has stated that it accepts the theory (kinda late, but still honorable). The church of England even apologized to Darwin (also kinda late). It is mostly America that is fighting against evolution, the reason being the following: Christians in America consider scripture to be very important. And while some people can live with contradictions of scripture and just bend their believes, many fundamentalists bend evidence to support the bible rather than science. Why is evolution pretty much contradicting theistic religions? Because the beauty of evolutionary theory is that it doesn't need the supernatural. And additionally, religions are very anthropocentric, Christianity sais that the world is created for humans. Evolution shows no direct trend towards humans, it took 3.5 billion years and ten thousands of ancestor species to get here. And evolution does not show that humans are 'higher evolved' than other animals, all animals have had the same time to evolve. So why is there no heaven for kangarous? If god prefers humans above the other animals, why do humans only exist since 100'000 years, while the dinosaurs survived for two hundred million years? Why did Jesus come only 2000 years ago? And also, people often say 'you need to interpret Genesis symbolically. Symbols are often vague, but still, they do give you kind of a direction. And you can search as much as you want, there is nothing in Genesis that alludes to evolution.
  • I don't really get it either. Everything has a beginning, even things that have eventually evolved into other things had to start somewhere. The fact that things evolve does not negate the possibility of the existence of God, nor does the possibility of a divine creation event negate the fact that all things evolve.
    • ReiSan
      So God must have a beginning. You id say everything has a beginning.
  • I think the entire beauty of the theory of evolution is the fact that it is plausible without having been "created by god". There's really no good reason to believe both...
  • Is God just some guy with a beard like a son that just decided to create us? this is the part that confuses me. Its just hard to fathom a "spirit" or whatever he is now just waving his hand and creating stuff lol.
  • It's hard to believe because it's not possible to prove that god created evolution. 'Evolution' is a concept borne of science; creationism is borne of religious dogma.
  • 1) Some seem to be. 2) It is harder than to believe that evolution created god... ;-)
  • Many people do, although the ones that do that I've met are usually very well informed about both evolution and their own religion, which I don't see often enough. I've always thought that evolution can very easily be used as an argument for divine origins, since evolution is so perfect. It's perfect by being imperfect, by not letting things stay the same. The mistakes are what lets life endure. I think that it's a very human concept to make things that are always the same, to picture beginnings and endings. To design a system that allows for life to constantly reinvent itself, and adapt to changes seems, to me, a stroke of genius, beyond human imagination. I don't think of myself as a creationist, personally I look at my view of evolution as typically human. I see brilliance, and something in me wants to believe there's brilliance behind it. That doesn't mean there is. But I can understand someone seeing god in it, more so than I understand seeing god in non-evoltionary view of life.
  • As a Christian, I have no problem with those who are able to combine evolution and creation belief. I can't, but I don't judge them for it. God will explain it all on the Last Day.
  • No, You don't Believe in evolution. You Accept it as fact, or you do not, but you do not believe in it.
    • ctlemon
      To clarify...you agree with it or you do not. You can't accept it as fact because it is not a fact. Evolutionary theory is an explanation that is supported by facts. Calling evolution a fact is mixing up scientific definitions and it's important that we get the definitions correct when debating with someone who does not agree with evolutionary theory. Definitely agree though that evolution is not something to be believed. It does not require faith...only the five senses we use to observe the world.
  • god with a small g, never. God with a capital G, maybe. its all about the DNA chain. How did that come into being? It is pretty complicated for it to evolve on its own.
    • ReiSan
      God is far more complicated. Using an even greater complexity to explain processes that are complex enough is illogical.
  • I would suggest that it is ridiculous to not believe in evolution. However, the evolutionary theory has been taken too far; it is silly to deny that evolution exists because we see it every day in how both humans and animals adapt and develop to their surroundings - some survive these developments, others do not and prefer to stay in a more primitive way of life, one which dies out eventually. So in that respect, we do live in a 'survival of the fittest' world. But people forget that the evolutionary theory is just that: a theory. It has not been proved (nor, I would venture to guess, will it ever be) that we humans have somehow, over millions of years, become who we are as a species today from originally being single-celled amoebic organisms. If one is to accept that theory, then a lot of unanswerable questions are raised, for instance, where did our souls come from? Or our ability to feel and understand complex emotions? My personal opinion (as a creationist, believe it or not (haha, see what I did there?)) is that God created the world as the Bible explains, and gave us the capacity to grow and develop into our surroundings. Without this capacity, the human race would have remained a cave-dwelling, boarskin-wearing bunch and would quickly have died out, were it not for that crucial gene in our makeup, that grow-or-die mechanism. I find it impossible to believe that the complexities of our selves and our world were not created and designed by God, and that there is far more evidence to support creationism than there is for the evolutionary theory as the world knows it, but there is no way of denying that we do not adapt to our surroundings.
    • ReiSan
      There is no real evidence to support any creation myth, but there is much strong evidence supporting evolution. Most people in Japan believe Izanami and Izanagi were the creators. 99.54% of us do not think God exists.
  • Blackberry, you are very ignorant. You need to read the bible and go to church before you just throw randow things around like that. You need guidance.
  • No one can answer the question of WHO created god. (if you believe in one)
    • ReiSan
      Priests created gods to use for scams.
  • Well mostly because in the Bible God said that he created the earth in 6 days, including land, animals, and humans, and if you believe the Bible, then you cannot accept evolution.
    • ReiSan
      The Bible is crude fiction with no real supporting evidence. Evolution has much strong evidence.
  • It's a stretch from belief to fact.
  • Because they are two contradicting things. You can't have light and dark, nor can you feel hot and cold. Evolution talks about how life "evolves" into what we are now. Creationism talks about how once we were nothing and then "BAM" we're here, all because of god.
  • I always thought that it was logical. If a god created everything, then why not science and it's various findings?
  • One word: dinosaurs. Evolutionists want us to believe that these dinosaurs went extinct millions of years before humans, when it is clear from both the Bible and the fossil record that man not only lived with dinosaurs, but also domesticated them. Ornate dinosaur saddles have been found in Siberia, in addition to many finds of dinosaurs and men being buried together. Dr. Carl Baugh has even found evidence of a great war fought between humans riding flying dinosaurs that could shoot fire. If that's not enough to convince you, I don't know what is.
    • ctlemon
      These dinosaur saddles were found by "Creationist paleontologists" who got their "doctorate" from an unaccredited school called the Patriot Bible University...the same place where Kent Hovind got his degrees. Kent Hovind is considered a nutcase even by most Creationists. So...anyway.
  • Theistic Evolution says one of two things. First, either there is a God, but He wasn’t directly involved in the origin of life. He may have created the building blocks, He may have created the natural laws, He may even have created these things with the eventual emergence of life in mind, but at some point early on He stepped back and let His creation take over. He let it do what it does, whatever that is, and life eventually emerged from non-living material. This view is similar to Atheistic Evolution in that it presumes a naturalistic origin of life. The second alternative of theistic evolution is that God did not perform just one or two miracles to bring about the origin of life as we know it. His miracles were multitudinous. He led life step by step down a path that took it from primeval simplicity to contemporary complexity, similar to Darwin’s Evolutionary Tree of Life (fish begot amphibians who begot reptiles who begot birds and mammals, etc). Where life was not able to evolve naturally (how does a reptile's limb evolve into a bird's wing naturally?), God stepped in. This view is similar to Special Creation in that it presumes that God acted supernaturally in some way to bring about life as we know it. Both of the two theistic evolutionist views are flawed from a Christian prospective in that they don’t line up with the Genesis creation account. Theistic evolutionists imagine a Darwinian scenario in which stars evolved, then our solar system, then earth, then plants and animals, and eventually man. The two theistic evolution viewpoints disagree as to the role God played in the unfolding of events, but they generally agree on the Darwinian timeline. This timeline is in conflict with the Genesis creation account. One of the most unfortunate trends in postmodern Christianity is that of reinterpreting Genesis to accommodate evolutionary theories. Many well-known Bible teachers and apologists have caved in to the evolutionists and have come to believe that adhering to a literal interpretation of Genesis is somehow detrimental to the credibility of Christians. If anything, evolutionists lose respect for those whose belief in the Bible is so tenuous that we are willing to compromise it and embrace their ideas. Either you believe the genesis account as is or you believe in the Darwinian evolution. You can't have it both ways.
    • mushroom
      The most straightforward reconciliation of the creation timeline vs evolutionary is that a "day" as we know it could not be measured as 24 hrs before the Sun was created., leaving interpretation open as years, millennia or eons.
  • If i remember correctly evolution is when we have EVOLVED from animals meaning there is no God so if you are saying there is a God i would question on whether you believe in creationism or evolution because you are combineing to theories to make one of you own.
    • ctlemon
      You don't remember correctly. We haven't evolved from animals...we are animals. And why does that mean there is no god? Evolution is about the diversity of life on Earth; that doesn't have to mean there is no god. A logical person who wants to believe in God can look at the evidence for evolution and believe that God created the process of natural selection and uses that as a tool to diversify life. Wouldn't that be the most efficient way for God to operate? Where's the fun in designing everything from the beginning? If I were God, I would create a process like evolution just to see what would happen.
  • Many religious people do believe just that. But, evolutionary theory shows how life could have gotten so diverse without need of any outside intelligence - so many decide it's more prudent not to add one. After all - if I accept evolution but decide I want to add that guiding hand, there is no reason it needs to be God's. It could be Magic Pixies, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster's or any of the great many gods that have come and gone... +5
  • Why don't people seem to be able to believe in just evolution? How hard is it to realize that there is no god?
  • Nope. They're contrary. You either hop on the evolution train (bad idea)or you accept what Gods' Word has to say about man. Take Your Pick.
    • ctlemon
      Why? Why can't people believe that evolution is a tool used by God to diversify life on Earth?
  • thats is my personal belief
  • Because you'd have to believe in a God who doesn't intervene in anything on Earth, which is a bit of a pointless thing to believe whether it's true or not
  • It's impossible for me, but that's because I know god doesn't exist.
    • ctlemon
      Unless you are gifted beyond everyone else in the world, you do not know that god doesn't exist. It's impossible to prove that god doesn't exist. You no more can prove that god doesn't exist than a believer can prove that god does exist. The most logical way to think about god in my opinion is to be agnostic...someone who understands that we just do not know.
  • Why don't people seem to be able to believe and see fact at the same time? How hard is it to believe your head was in your arse since you were born? Do you see how stupid you sound!!
  • One is faith based. One is fact based. They are opposites.
  • This question got me thinking about the premise of "evolution vs creation". Could it be paraphrased as science vs non-science? I "believe" that evolution is "real" based on observations (and logic). Belief in god on the other-hand appears to me to lack observation and instead is one of many ideas that rely on "faith" (and logic?). There are a multitude of things that could fall into the non-science category. For example: I believe in god (a single conscious and omnipotent being?). I believe that if you harbor ill-will toward others then bad things will happen to you (bad karma?). More, cynically: I believe in leprechauns. I believe that if I sacrifice a virgin, then the volcano won't erupt. I suspect that the scientific approach and faith approach are a bit difficult to resolve. Scientific training required a level of self criticism that is not really consistent with faith.
  • The two terms Creationism and Evolution are opposites. If you understand evolution it makes it hard to BELIEVE in creationism. Creationism has no evidence, it is a BELIEF. Evolution is a THEORY that is based off observations. Darwin's analysts of the fossil record helped him prove the THEORY. So to believe in both is counter-intuitive. Evolution is not created either. It involves randomness and the notion that things change. It is possible for a person to BELIEVE in God and understand evolution, because evolution has nothing to do with God.
  • Probably because some people on both sides believe that evolution disproves the existence of God. On the science side, it probably means that they haven't studied science very far, or that they are filtering science through their own beliefs, which is really bad science. On the other side, it probably comes from people who don't believe in God very deeply and who think that God can't stand up to scrutiny. My own belief is that the more you study science, the more it leads back to God, and I started from a position of non-belief to very weak faith.
  • Why don't people stop asking this question?
  • Most deity-led creation myths have very specific creation stories and the literal interpretation of Genesis is the one that Christian groups who are known as Creationists roll with. The stories are clear and, for their believers, unequivocal. So, while the word creationism purely linguistically just means a religious belief that life, the universe and everything were created by a supernatural being (a basic definition which would allow for evolution to be slotted in if desired), the common usage of the term creationism implies a strict adherence to a specific creation story revolving around a god or gods and these stories do not include evolutionary theory.
  • A lot of people believe in this concept. It's called divine engineering.
  • Can't say why people do or do not believe in anything but I would say more than a few do believe in both, some believe in neither,some in one, and others do not give any thought to eiter. Me - I would not discount it. +5
  • Probably in part because there is no mention of it anywhere in any religious texts. This is because at the time of writing, no knowledge was available.
  • I don't personally believe in God but I see nothing wrong at all with those who do believing that God uses evolution as a tool to diversify life on Earth. It's a logical way of believing in God and believing the mountains of evidence for evolution by natural selection. Why wouldn't God create a tool to diversify life instead of creating every individual species and variation? It's just more efficient that way.
  • I am from Japan where 99.54% of the people do not believe in God. Izanami and Izanagi are our creators. There are many creation myths, so why prefer the Jewish one? Science needs no gods to explain anything. Creationism has no real supporting evidence. It is just one of many creation myths.

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