crod101 said:
I remember that before I became a christian that I used my logical background (I graduated as an Electronics Engineer) to analyze anything and everything. I obviously don't analyze everything like that anymore. However, I believe God uses a person's unique background and evironment to reveal himself. When I look back, one of the most important things that convinced me that Creation and Christianity were true was that it simply made sense. The whole idea of a personal God, redemption, good vs. evil, etc. made more sense that that of Evolution. There are just too many assumptions and unanswered questions with Evolution.
This is just a simple question for anyone that believes in the Humanism (Evolution, Darwinism, Marxism, etc). Explain how a simple cell evolved into a higher organism capable of reproducing itself given all the factors against it (time, environment, etc). How that orgainism changed from reproducing by iteslf to reproduce in pairs. Then, find another organism with the same characteristics but opposite sex in the same geographical area in the same timespan. The odds of that happening are just not possible!
When you look at Creation, it simply makes sense. I would rather believe in a personal God that created us as described in Genesis. Looking at it from a worst case scenario, if Evolution is true and Christianity is false, then the worst that could happen is that you lead a life of love, kindness and respect to others and die. However, if the opposite is true, then you've got a big problem. If I were an unbeliever, I would make every effort to be absolutely sure that Evolution is true.
Hi crod101,
I am both a Christian and I accept evolution, so I probably don't fit into your definition of an "evolutionist" (I know for one I am not a Marxist... :o). In any case, I accept an old earth, and evolution, for several reasons:
1. Genesis
While it is certainly true that much of Genesis reads like "history", our definition of history is completely different to the ancient Jewish perspective of history. As Christians in a post-modern, largely secular world, we are brought up to believe that if one cannot scientifically validate something, it must be false. However, ancient peoples did not do this. What we would nowadays refer to as "myths" or "legends" were to the Jews equally as valid forms of history as a newspaper article would be today. As such, to insist that Genesis must be read as a strictly factual, scientific, modern history is in fact reading it in a way the people God wrote it for (the ancient Jews) would never have done!
2. Evidence
Evolution is often criticised by creationists for not being able to explain everything. But that is not what science is about; science is about learning and discovering! To use a Christian analogy, just because we do not know everything about God, does not mean that what we do know about God (e.g. the Trinity, the Bible, Christ's resurrection) are false. The point is, evolution does not explain everything. But it has not been
disproven, and that is very important. Though there are things evolution (and natural science as a whole) cannot explain, no currently accepted scientific theory has been disproven. If there was one piece of evidence which contradicted evolution as we know it, it would no longer be accepted by scientists.
And that is the thing. There is absolutely no evidence which disproves evolution, or an old earth. Though many "creation science" institutes, such as Answers in Genesis, International Creation Research, etc. claim to have disproven evolution, honest evaluations of their claims have shown every one to be
false. Of course, many creationists will deny this, and some haved claimed evolutionists are simply lying about the evidence to defend their own viewpoint. As a Christian evolution myself, I find that claim most upsetting, but I guess only your own unbiased research into both sides of the debate will tell you the answer to this one
3. God
Simply put, I believe their is substancial scientific evidence for an old earth. I know that Genesis was interpreted as a mythological narrative by the ancient Jewish people for whom it was originally written. Hence, I have no problems accepting
both Genesis (as a mythological and theological history) and modern science (as a modern, scientific history) of the Earth. So if the Bible is true, and the evidence is true, then what options do I have? Assuming the evidence is correct, there are two scenarios:
A. The Earth appears old, because it is.
In other words, God used evolution and other processes (many of which we have yet to discover!) to create life on Earth. Despite the ridiculously improbable chance it that these processes would actually produce anything fruitful, they did - of course, because they were expertly and precisely fine-tuned by God to do so! Because He loves us so much, God inspired men to write Genesis in a mythological way, so that people from all different times, places and cultures - regardless of their education or scientific knowledge - could learn about Him.
Also, He designed us with an inquistive mind, knowing that we could glorify Him by seeking to learn more about His amazing creation. As such, He created the Earth in such a way that we could learn more about Him, by not hiding anything from us or making things seem other than they were.
B. The Earth appears old, even though it isn't.
In other words, God created the Earth to look billions of years old, even though it isn't. He set the universe to expand at a certain rate which would suggest it was created billions of years ago. He made fossils to represent once living creatures, placing them in specific geological layers, with a seemless progression in design from the bottom layer to the top. Each fossil He also made release radiation at a particular rate, which was always consistent with the layer the fossil was in. And, though none of these fossils had ever actually been alive (having been created in sito within solid rock, ice and wood), He created each fossil with DNA - despite DNA only ever occuring naturally in living creatures. Of course, He made sure that when scientists were able to study this DNA, each fossil's was similar to that of fossils that look the same. Also, He made sure the DNA varied in different ways, almost precisely matched with the different ways the designs of the fossils changed throughout the geological layers.
Yet despite this attention to detail, He actually created the world 6000 years ago. Though He created us with a highly advanced brain, he created the Earth to look billions of years older than it is, rendering it impossible that anyone could learn anything scientific about the creation process. He also gave humans a scientific account of creation in Genesis, though instead of waiting until His people were scientifically minded, He wrote the creation account so that the people he gave it to would interpret it as a mythological history, and anyone with knowledge of the Jewish culture would do the same. He also made sure that noone learned the truth about how the fossil record was created (i.e. flood geology) until He gave it via special revelation to the founder of a controversial Reformationist sect, in the late 1800's.
Now I'm not the greatest Christian around. Maybe I have been deceived. But I don't think that the God who loves us so much He would let His own Son
die to fix the problems we caused (by transgressing against Him...
) would create the universe 6000 years ago, and make it look 13.7 billion years old. It just doesn't make sense!
We know the scientific evidence can be trusted - since God created it! - and at present, evolution is the best possible scientific explanation for the Earth's creation. And we know Genesis would never have been interpreted in a modern, scientific sense by the Jewish people - making young-earth interpretations of the Bible unnecessary; perhaps even misguided. As such, I think for Christians to accept evolution makes a LOT of sense. Yes, we don't understand everything. Yes, the chance of the process producing humans is next to nothing. But how can you ever say it is impossible, if God Himself was the one who made evolution in the first place?
Peace,
Nick
