I recently was near, and not part of due to the fact that it degraded into people talking over eachother, a conversation wherein 1 person suggested that the evolution theory is not diametraclly opposed to christianity, the other said he was open to the idea if someone could explain how Christ as GOd and Man and his death and resurection relate and are necessary. We are operating on the premises that Christs sacrifice was necessary for our salvation and that he is in fact God. I wanted to be a part of the conversation but it turned sour. I am still interested in hearing what people who espouse evolution as an origin have to say about this.
__________________ TROPARION; TONE 4
As a faithful ascetic of Saint Herman / you flowered as a spiritual rose in Platina / As an illuminator of Orthodoxy in America / your writings bring hope throughout the world / Having taught us the True Faith / Oh Blessed Seraphim / pray to God for us.
Well...evolution makes very little difference to this question. We are God's special creation, we are fallen and were separated from God, Christ came as a sacrifice for our sins and restored our spiritual connection to God, His resurrection was a triumph over spiritual death.
The biggest difference is that literal creationists feel that the spiritual separation is due quite literally to a man and a woman eating the fruit of a tree that they had been told not to. TE's tend to believe that the story is representative of the choice that was made by all mankind of knowledge over innocence.
btw, if you were a friendly little fishermen, maybe these conversations would go better. (j/k)
So the Fall is not an act of sin but a spiritual de-evolution?
I was a happy fisherman once, but I havent been able to catch any crayfish lately
__________________ TROPARION; TONE 4
As a faithful ascetic of Saint Herman / you flowered as a spiritual rose in Platina / As an illuminator of Orthodoxy in America / your writings bring hope throughout the world / Having taught us the True Faith / Oh Blessed Seraphim / pray to God for us.
So the Fall is not an act of sin but a spiritual de-evolution?
I was a happy fisherman once, but I havent been able to catch any crayfish lately
Not really. Evolution (at least when speaking of "the theory of evolution") is a physical matter of physical changes in genomes which are physically inherited from one's parents/ancestors.
Sin is a spiritual state of being separated from God. Evolution doesn't have anything to do with that. It is inapplicable unless you are using the term in a completely different frame of reference that has nothing to do with DNA or genes or anything impacted by them.
I have never been able to understand why some Christians think evolution (the biological kind) does away with sin and the need for salvation.
__________________ The high, the low, all of creation God gives to humankind to use. If this privilege is misused, God's Justice permits creation to punish humanity~~ Hildegard of Bingen cited in, Earth Prayers from around the World
Evolution, as the scientific theory, has nothing to say about it. But a philosophy of evolution-ism, might have something to say about it. You could understand, like the Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a Christian evolutionist who saw philosophy in the light of evolution, Christ incarnate as the "evolver" of humanity toward the Divine.
__________________ As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene. … No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.
So I guess I should re ask my question. My apologies if you have answered this over and over.
How does the spiritual world, soul sin angels God, miracles and so forth play in? Where did the soul come from? How does evolution allow it to exist?
__________________ TROPARION; TONE 4
As a faithful ascetic of Saint Herman / you flowered as a spiritual rose in Platina / As an illuminator of Orthodoxy in America / your writings bring hope throughout the world / Having taught us the True Faith / Oh Blessed Seraphim / pray to God for us.
So I guess I should re ask my question. My apologies if you have answered this over and over.
How does the spiritual world, soul sin angels God, miracles and so forth play in? Where did the soul come from? How does evolution allow it to exist?
Evolution is not a world-view. It is not a philosophy. It has no theological outlook. It is a simple little theory about how species change over time.
It has no function of "allowing" (or disallowing) anything whatsoever as far as spiritual things are concerned. One might just as well ask how Archimedes principle "allows" the spiritual world soul sin angels God miracles and so forth to exist.
Let science be science. Let evolution play its role in science.
Stop treating it as if it is a grand overview of the whole of reality--including spiritual reality--and let it be just the biological theory which is all it has ever claimed to be.
Then most of the theological problems with evolution just disappear.
Indeed most of the people who allegedly have problems with evolution don't really have problems with the theory of evolution, but with other concepts which they associate with evolution but don't actually have anything to do with it at all.
Science (and therefore the science of evolution) has nothing to say --either positive or negative-- about anything in your list. It cannot allow or disallow any of it.
PS. I hope this doesn't sound angry. I am trying to drive home an important point, not attack you personally in any way. You are asking a question many people ask but I need to say as strongly as possible that it is a false question. It comes from a strawman construction of what evolution is. And the best antidote is to find out what evolution really is. It is not the bogeyman some people make it out to be, because it really does not address the issues that are important to you.
__________________ The high, the low, all of creation God gives to humankind to use. If this privilege is misused, God's Justice permits creation to punish humanity~~ Hildegard of Bingen cited in, Earth Prayers from around the World
Evolution is not a world-view. It is not a philosophy. It has no theological outlook. It is a simple little theory about how species change over time.
It is far more. When applied to biology, that is all it is. But it can be applied to many other things as well. The issue of selection (natural or not) with genetic change has been used countless times in genetic algorithms.
I am not trying to say that evolution should be a philosophy, just that it applies to a lot more than just biology.
__________________
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If history is to change, let it change. If the world is to be destroyed, so be it. If my fate is to die, I must simply laugh.
The past is dead. It was all just a dream...
- Magus
To help protect the sanctity of marriage, please keep all affairs heterosexual.
If no image appears, something has gone wrong. I don't know. Probably run out of squirrels.
It is far more. When applied to biology, that is all it is. But it can be applied to many other things as well. The issue of selection (natural or not) with genetic change has been used countless times in genetic algorithms.
I am not trying to say that evolution should be a philosophy, just that it applies to a lot more than just biology.
The term "evolution" can apply to many things. In science, for example, it is used of stellar evolution (which describes the stages of a star from formation to extinction). Culturally it can refer to the evolution of rock (or heavy metal or hip hop) music to refer to its development over time. Historically it can refer to the evolution of democracy or capitalism or human rights, etc. And, as you point out, the principles of evolution learned from biology have been used in technology.
The term "theory of evolution" applies to the evolution of species through (mainly) natural selection and common descent. It is wholly biological.
No one considers the non-biological applications of "evolution" controversial. Only the theory of evolution in biology draws controversy. But usually for reasons unrelated to biology and therefore unrelated to the theory.
When people get anxious over whether it is possible for a Christian to accept evolution it is always the biological theory they have in mind.
So while you are technically correct, your point is also irrelevant.
__________________ The high, the low, all of creation God gives to humankind to use. If this privilege is misused, God's Justice permits creation to punish humanity~~ Hildegard of Bingen cited in, Earth Prayers from around the World
So I guess I should re ask my question. My apologies if you have answered this over and over.
How does the spiritual world, soul sin angels God, miracles and so forth play in? Where did the soul come from? How does evolution allow it to exist?
All of those things have to do with what is between humans and God.
Evolution says nothing about it, because evolution says only something about how humans are made up and came about in a biological way. Nothing else.
__________________ As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene. … No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.
(j/k) 
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