Why Theistic Evolution?

kiwichristian · #1 24th August 2003, 04:32 AM

Hey all,

Why is it that some people believe that God was a guiding force behind evolution?
If people are christians, and they believe the bible, surely they would believe what the bible says??
This thing about theistic evolution really confuses me

wblastyn · #2 24th August 2003, 04:41 AM

Originally Posted by kiwichristian

Hey all,

Why is it that some people believe that God was a guiding force behind evolution?
If people are christians, and they believe the bible, surely they would believe what the bible says??
This thing about theistic evolution really confuses me

We believe what God tells us in Creation, so with what we know from Creation we accept evolution as God's creative process and realise Genesis could not possibly be literal history, but rather a poem conveying the message that God created everything, but not HOW He created.

There is so much evidence from the various sciences supporting evolution ( http://www.talkorigins.org ) that for me to believe in creationism would be intellectually dishonest.

Why do you believe the earth is a sphere when the Bible supports a flat earth?

kiwichristian · #3 24th August 2003, 04:43 AM

It supports a flat earth?

I dont know. Where in the bible does it say that?

kiwichristian · #4 24th August 2003, 04:46 AM

Anyway, heres a link from a site that goes against Theistic Evolution. What do you think?

http://www.christiananswers.net/q-aig/aig-c015.html

wblastyn · #5 24th August 2003, 04:53 AM

Originally Posted by kiwichristian

It supports a flat earth?
I dont know. Where in the bible does it say that?

Read this thread: http://www.christianforums.com/t48672

kiwichristian · #6 24th August 2003, 04:53 AM

Heres another link:

http://www.icr.org/pubs/btg-b/btg-111b.htm

wblastyn · #7 24th August 2003, 04:53 AM

Originally Posted by kiwichristian

Anyway, heres a link from a site that goes against Theistic Evolution. What do you think?

http://www.christiananswers.net/q-aig/aig-c015.html

I've seen that before and here is the counter-arguement:

http://freespace.virgin.net/karl_and.../10dangers.htm

wblastyn · #8 24th August 2003, 05:06 AM

Most Christians are uncomfortable with purely naturalistic evolution. The solution for many Christians has been to adopt theistic evolution, which is based on the idea that the God of the Bible employed an evolutionary process to create.

Actually, most Christians accept evolution.

Any listing of the attributes of God would include omnipotence, omniscience, loving, gracious, possessing forethought, and the desire for a relationship with man. Would this kind of God have used long ages of evolutionary development?

Since when has God done what we expect Him to do. Would any sane person have chosen a shepherd boy to fight a giant? No, but God did.

If God chose to create over millions of years then so be it. Using the logic of this article God is limited by creationism also, why did He have to take 6 days to create, then rest on the 7th? An omnipotent God resting!?!

Theistic evolution looks back to about four billion years ago when God brought just the right chemicals into the right order to form a single cell. This multiplied and mutated for over three billion years until He either allowed or caused them to evolve into two-celled organisms, then about 500 million years ago into marine invertebrates, such as clams, snails, trilobites, and flatworms.

Actually, I think most TE's believe Gd created the universe to create itself, so God did not bring all the chemicals together, the universe did it itself.

Over hundreds of millions of years, many types went extinct and were never seen by man. But the flatworm begat fish, then amphibians, then reptiles and birds, then mammals. They would live and die, mutate and go extinct. Some would eat the others. All were subject to disease and starvation. Some, like the dinosaurs, also passed into oblivion before man arrived. The fossil record provides ample evidence of their existence, suffering, and extinction long ago.

So? This is how it is today, why not back then?

Just a few million years ago there were upright-walking apes, then Homo erectus, and then Neandertals, "animals" who made tools, employed agriculture, utilized both religious implements and weapons, suffered from disease and malnutrition. They enjoyed music and flowers and art, but had no soul.

How do you know they had no soul?

Then, just a few thousand years ago, God made true man. He either created man from scratch or took a sub-human animal and gave it an eternal spirit. As He finished His work, He called it all "very good." God's creation could finally recognize His grace, respond in love, and give God the glory due His name.

No, evolution created man, so God created humans indirectly.

But was it all "very good"? Beneath Adam's feet would lay the fossils of billions of animals, many giving evidence of traumatic death. And who were the long extinct dinosaurs? Had God been experimenting, trying to find something He could call His image? Did He not know what He wanted? Was He not powerful enough to create it without so many missteps? If the creation and redemption of man was His purpose, why did He wait so long?

God said it was so it must have been.

God commanded the Hebrews to slaughter men, women and children, to rip out their wombs, etc, and you're surprised God would use all this natural death?

Maybe he was watching His creation grow. It's like how some people have pleasure from growing their own vegetables instead of buying them from a shop.

What missteps? Oh you mean like how God created animals just to help Adam but it turned out they were unsuitable? :rolleyes:

A few billion years is nothing to an eternal God.

And why did He use the process of the extinction of the unfit to create? His very nature ultimately impelled Him, the Fit, to die for the unfit. In redemption, He would strongly denounce personal works as a method of salvation. Would He have used survival of the fittest as His method of creation and accept "glory" from His creation on this basis?

I never understand how someone can deny Natural Selection.

No, the righteous God revealed in Scripture would create just as described in Genesis One. Creation would be orderly and wise, with man and his walk with God the result. It would be deathless and sinless, compatible with the all powerful, Holy, life-giving Creator's label as "very good."

So now you're telling God how he should have created. Well, the writer must know better than God then.

OldBadfish · #9 24th August 2003, 05:14 AM

Actually, most Christians accept evolution.

Really? Got some official statistics?

Last I saw 57% of Catholics believed in evolution, and Catholicism is the major representative of Christians, followed closely by protestants whos evolution believing percentage would probably be pretty low.

Jet Black · #10 24th August 2003, 05:19 AM

Originally Posted by wblastyn

I've seen that before and here is the counter-arguement:

http://freespace.virgin.net/karl_and.../10dangers.htm

heh... this is an excellent debate