Atheists, Why Do You Believe That Christians Cannot Accept Evolution?

[MehGuy]

You do know that humans have been walking the earth before Christ right? And yes no matter what you believe Jesus was a man who walked the earth. It's been proven. Christians just believe that He was who He said He was,.. but that's a whole different subject.

Well how long ago do you think creation was?

 

[April_Rose]

Well how long ago do you think creation was?

You mean when the earth was created or when people were created?

 

[MehGuy]

You mean when the earth was created or when people were created?

People. We're talking the morphology. Doesn't matter if the earth is billions of years old and God just plopped humans a 6 thousand years ago.

 

[April_Rose]

People. We're talking the morphology. Doesn't matter if the earth is billions of years old and God just plopped humans a 6 thousand years ago.

Just curious but where are you getting the six thousand number from?

 

[MehGuy]

Just curious but where are you getting the six thousand number from?

That's around the number I see creationists use.

 

[Caliban]

Animals do adapt to their environment, but they will not change so much as to become another kind of animal.

I don't know what you mean by another type of "animal," but if you mean species--yes they do. We have mountains of proof for this.

 

[Aussie Pete]

I was just wondering because I saw this video and evolution doesn't necessarily revolve around the fact that monkeys turned into humans. So I really want to hear your insight on this. (Although I agree with the fact that religion should never be forced on anybody.)

Some atheists do believe that some Christians accept evolution. I know because they use that as a part of their intellectual armoury to attack those who accept the Bible's creation account.

 

[Strathos]

The modern creationism movement (along with the idea of taking every word of Genesis as literal history) actually didn't gain much traction until the mid 19th century, when a woman named Ellen White claimed to receive visions from God telling her as much. She would later go on to found the Seventh-Day Adventist movement. Not being SDA, I do not accept her as a prophet, or believe she had any kind of special spiritual insight.

Unlike many of the other SDA doctrines, like non-Trinitarianism, observation of Saturday as the Sabbath, and keeping Kosher, Biblical literalism became popular among other Christian denominations. I'd wager that many creationists don't know how and who really popularized these ideas.

Of course I'm not saying that there were no literalists before Mrs. White, but they were a minor fringe. Most Christians at the time viewed the first several chapters of Genesis as largely allegorical.

 

[April_Rose]

That's around the number I see creationists use.

Interesting, but we're only in the two thousands era and humans have been alive for much longer than six thousand years. That's only a few more thousand than the year that we're in now.

 

[MehGuy]

Interesting, but we're only in the two thousands era and humans have been alive for much longer than six thousand years. That's only a few more thousand than the year that we're in now.

Yeah, but I'm asking you how long do you think it's been since God created man?

 

[Gene2memE]

Some atheists do believe that some Christians accept evolution. I know because they use that as a part of their intellectual armoury to attack those who accept the Bible's creation account.

Yes. There are plenty of Christians who accept evolution. Perhaps even a majority of them.

For instance, the Catholic priests who taught me middle school and high school biology all accepted evolution as the best scientific explanation for the state of life on the planet.

Even when I was Catholic, creationism was just a weird idea to me, and young earth creationism was comical.

Imagine my surprise visiting the US when I discovered that these weren't just fringe of the fringe beliefs.

 

[public hermit]

The modern creationism movement (along with the idea of taking every word of Genesis as literal history) actually didn't gain much traction until the mid 19th century, when a woman named Ellen White claimed to receive visions from God telling her as much. She would later go on to found the Seventh-Day Adventist movement. Not being SDA, I do not accept her as a prophet, or believe she had any kind of special spiritual insight.

Unlike many of the other SDA doctrines, like non-Trinitarianism, observation of Saturday as the Sabbath, and keeping Kosher, Biblical literalism became popular among other Christian denominations. I'd wager that many creationists don't know how and who really popularized these ideas.

Of course I'm not saying that there were no literalists before Mrs. White, but they were a minor fringe. Most Christians at the time viewed the first several chapters of Genesis as largely allegorical.

I would also add, somewhat surprisingly, the Presbyterian influence. A significant contribution to Fundamentalists' literature in that period came from Presbyterians.

"In 1909, the Presbytery of New York licensed three candidates who did not affirm a belief in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. A year later, the General Assembly of the PCUSA responded by adopting resolutions for ministerial ordination that included five required articles of faith: (1) the inerrancy of the original manuscripts of scripture, (2) Christ’s virgin birth, (3) His vicarious atonement, (4) His bodily resurrection and (5) the reality of miracles as recorded in the scriptures. These five points were not intended as a creed. And yet, as George M. Marsden writes in Fundamentalism and American Culture, “They became the basis of what were long known as the ‘five points of fundamentalism."

The Presbyterian Beginnings of Fundamentalism

When I think of the PCUSA, fundamentalism is not what comes to mind, haha.

 

[Hans Blaster]

Again, this is all speculation as there were no cameras back then and none of us were around to know what humans looked like.

Sure we do. We have their skulls and modern skulls. We can compare them.

We also have some DNA from those old skeletons. We can identify genes responsible for some external traits and know that they had similar hair and eyes to some modern humans.

 

[Hans Blaster]

Yes. There are plenty of Christians who accept evolution. Perhaps even a majority of them.

For instance, the Catholic priests who taught me middle school and high school biology all accepted evolution as the best scientific explanation for the state of life on the planet.

Even when I was Catholic, creationism was just a weird idea to me, and young earth creationism was comical.

Imagine my surprise visiting the US when I discovered that these weren't just fringe of the fringe beliefs.

Nearly everything in Gene'2memE's post applies to me as well except the part of about having priests in school. I went to public school and I don't think our priest even taught any of the religious instruction classes we had each week.

 

[Hans Blaster]

Some atheists do believe that some Christians accept evolution. I know because they use that as a part of their intellectual armoury to attack those who accept the Bible's creation account.

Pay attention to our statements Pete. These aren't "tactics". Some of us were Christians who accepted evolution during our Christian years.

I'll go one further. I think I was in college before I knew any Christians that I knew were creationists.

(I'm not saying none of them were, but it wasn't a common topic of discussion so I never heard anyone express any sympathy for creationism until after I was an adult and moved out. This includes never hearing anyone in our church express such views.)

 

[AV1611VET]

Of course I'm not saying that there were no literalists before Mrs. White, but they were a minor fringe.

I'm almost certain Jesus would disagree with you.

 

[April_Rose]

Yeah, but I'm asking you how long do you think it's been since God created man?

I don't know, I recently heard a million years or so in a video of when humans first appeared on the earth. Sounds about right.

Sure we do. We have their skulls and modern skulls. We can compare them.

We also have some DNA from those old skeletons. We can identify genes responsible for some external traits and know that they had similar hair and eyes to some modern humans.

Yes, but we still don't know exactly what they looked like.

 

[Hans Blaster]

Yes, but we still don't know exactly what they looked like.

Why does that matter?

Do you look exactly like your parents?

Does it matter what any person looked like exactly?

 

[MehGuy]

I don't know, I recently heard a million years or so in a video of when humans first appeared on the earth. Sounds about right.

So you'd consider yourself more of an old earth creationist?

 

[TenthAveN]

It’s hard to measure how many years it was exactly between now and creation because we don’t really know how old Adam was when he was created, or if his creation was to be treated as his birth