So you have no illusion that anything you post here will have any effect on the science of evolutionary biology, right?
Correct. You must be thinking that I am arguing so well that I should go to some science website and debate. Thanks.
Maybe to you it is, but for a lot of other Christians that isn't the case. Evolution doesn't impact any of those things for me.
Here’s the concern: evolution, particularly the idea of death, struggle, and natural selection over millions of years before humans, raises serious theological questions. To accept it, it needs to water down the creation event. If death came long before sin, then what exactly did the Fall do? Why does Paul tie death to Adam’s sin (Romans 5:12; 1 Corinthians 15:21–22)?
For me, it’s not just about scientific models, it’s about preserving the integrity of the biblical storyline: creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. If evolution reshapes the beginning, it inevitably touches the middle and the end, too.
So yes, I do believe it matters, not because I'm trying to force a false choice, but because I want to be faithful to the full sweep of Scripture.
Seems to me like you're a little confused. You've been posting a series of oft-repeated and old creationist arguments that are about science, not scripture. Why? If your point here really is scriptural as you describe and you have no intention of affecting science, then I recommend focusing just on what you wrote above. Also, if the above is accurate, why are you interacting with atheists? They don't care about scripture.
Why have I been posting on here? It is because of people like you. People who believe but then water down the creation event. So I post in the hope that you may see your folly. And if atheists are on here, then I hope that their eyes are opened.
You seem to have been arguing that scientists should incorporate God into their work while also acknowledging that things in science must be empirically testable. But if you can't say how God could be empirically testable, you've defeated your own argument.
I’m not saying scientists should be running lab tests on God. What I’m challenging is the assumption that all explanations must exclude intelligent agency from the outset. That’s not an empirical rule, it’s a philosophical one called methodological naturalism, and it limits what kinds of conclusions are allowed before the evidence is even considered.
We infer intelligence in other fields, like archaeology, forensics, or SETI, based on the nature of the evidence, not because we can test the intelligence directly. If a pattern or system exhibits specified, functional complexity beyond what chance and natural processes can explain, it’s at least reasonable to consider design as a possible cause.
So, the point isn’t to put God under a microscope; it’s to avoid excluding intelligent causes by definition, even if the evidence might support them. Science should follow the evidence wherever it leads, not only where naturalism allows it to go.
Whenever I see someone say something like that my response is usually to tell you, if you think you have a better way to do science then go forth and do it! Go show the world how much better your method is and they'll beat a path to your door!
Wow. I take that as a compliment that you are telling me to go and be a scientist. You must think very highly of my arguments.
Do you think agreeing with scientists on evolution is a salvation issue? Do you think such agreement will keep someone out of heaven?
I’m not the judge of anyone’s salvation, only God knows the heart. But I do believe this: if someone knowingly chooses to disbelieve what God has plainly said in Scripture, especially about foundational truths like creation, it raises serious concerns about their trust in His Word overall.
Jesus and the apostles consistently treated Genesis as real history. If we begin redefining or dismissing parts of Scripture because they conflict with current human theories, we’re not just disagreeing with a passage, we're challenging God's truthfulness. That’s not a small issue.
It’s not about whether someone believes in a young earth or debates about the age of the universe. It’s about whether we take God at His Word or reshape it to fit popular opinion. I wouldn’t want to stand before God and explain why I treated His Word as something to be edited rather than obeyed.
Salvation is by grace through faith in Christ, but faith that deliberately ignores God's clear Word is something that should make us pause and reflect and shudder, not just brush it off.
Do you think agreeing with scientists on evolution is a salvation issue? Do you think such agreement will keep someone out of heaven?
When people begin to suppress the clear truth of God’s role as Creator, give credit to random processes or animals, and treat Scripture as secondary to human theories, they risk exactly what Paul described: exchanging the glory of God for something lesser, and allowing their hearts to be darkened. It’s a reminder that we should never compromise God’s truth to fit into a man-made framework. The glory belongs to Him alone.
So, if someone calls themselves a Christian but rejects what God says about creation, replacing it with a theory built on human speculation, they’re not just disagreeing with a detail; they’re disagreeing with the Author. That’s serious. Belief in God isn’t just abstract; it’s trusting what He’s revealed. If we rewrite or override what He says in Genesis, we’re not believing God; we’re believing man. And faith that doesn’t believe God’s Word at the start of the Bible casts doubt on whether it truly trusts Him at the Cross.
But in the end, I am not the judge, but I can still warn people.
Not in my experience. I've had kids bring me creationist material that quotes, cites, or refers to scientific work, and after I give them the original paper or book to read themselves they come back appalled at how the creationists completely misrepresented it. The practice of "quote mining" is particularly shady.
Many students are never actually exposed to strong, thoughtful arguments for creation. They're handed a caricature: that it's just pseudoscience or blind faith. But when people take the time to seriously engage with qualified scientists and scholars who hold to biblical creation (and there are many), they often find the material isn’t as shallow or dishonest as it’s been made out to be by evolutionists.
Yes, there are bad arguments and poorly written materials on both sides. But the existence of bad creationist writing doesn’t mean biblical creationism as a whole is dishonest. The core issue remains: Is Scripture the lens through which we view the world, or is science the authority that tells us what parts of Scripture we can keep? That’s the bigger concern.
As for my quote from Darwin. It still stands.
Darwin asked this question himself, and it remains a serious one today. He suggested that the fossil record is too incomplete to capture all the transitional forms his theory predicts.
But over 150 years later, with vastly more fossils discovered, the Cambrian Explosion still stands out. In a short geological window, a huge variety of complex animals with entirely new body plans suddenly appear, fully formed.
If evolution is supposed to be gradual, we would expect to find a chain of fossils showing how these complex creatures developed from simpler ones, but that’s largely missing.
Even secular palaeontologists admit this is a major puzzle.
And for Christians, Jesus puts it plainly: "In the beginning God made them male and female." (Mark 10:6)
This is a direct affirmation of creation, not the result of countless mutations over millions of years. So, we have to ask: Do we believe Jesus, or try to reinterpret Him to fit evolutionary theory?
But you're persisting in characterizing people having different interpretations than you as "undermining" and "watering down" scripture. That type of language in itself puts people off because it immediately puts them on the defensive. If you want to persuade other Christians to your POV, that language is probably counter-productive.
I appreciate the reminder. My intent isn’t to offend, but to speak plainly about what’s at stake. I do understand that not everyone who reads Genesis differently is trying to attack the Bible. But from my perspective, once we begin reinterpreting foundational parts of Scripture, not because the text demands it, but because current scientific theories do, it does raise concerns about biblical authority. That’s not a personal attack; it’s a conviction about how we approach God’s Word.
I agree that tone matters, and I want to be careful not to sound dismissive. But persuasion can’t come at the cost of clarity. If I truly believe that the Gospel rests on the historical foundation laid in Genesis, then I have to speak to that. Not to win arguments, but to encourage confidence in the full authority of Scripture, from beginning to end.
That's not the same as me saying you have to listen to me or arguing from authority. You had made some unsupported claims about specific fields of science, which makes it reasonable to ask about your qualifications in those fields. If a random person came up to me on the street and told me the same things, my first question would be "who are you and how are you qualified to make such assertions".
Thanks for clarifying, but let’s be honest, phrases like “FYI I’m a biologist, so there’s no need to lecture me about science” and “how did you get to be such an expert in palaeontology?” don’t exactly sound like neutral curiosity. They read as dismissive, especially when used to deflect from the point I was making. That’s why I took it as an appeal to authority.
The truth is, arguments should stand or fall on their merits, not on who’s delivering them. I’ve read both sides of this debate because I care about the truth, not because I claim to be an expert. If something I’ve said is wrong, I’m open to correction, but I think we should be weighing ideas, not resumes.
Right, you keep making baseless claims about specific fields of science, so it's entirely in bounds to ask about your qualifications. If you had provided some support for your claims we could check into that, but because you posted them with nothing other than your own statements, you leave us no choice but to examine your qualifications to make them.
If you have no qualifications and give no support for your claims, why should anyone believe them over the conclusions of actual professionals?
You’re missing the point entirely. Scientific claims are not validated by someone's job title; they're validated by evidence and sound reasoning. What you’re doing is classic gatekeeping: demanding credentials instead of engaging with the actual content. That’s not science. That’s intellectual elitism.
Plenty of scientific breakthroughs came from people who weren’t credentialed in the field they challenged. The real test is whether an argument holds up under scrutiny, not whether the person making it has a degree that satisfies your standards.
If I’ve said something incorrect, then refute it with logic and evidence, not with appeals to your own authority. Otherwise, all you're doing is sidestepping the conversation and proving my point: some people hide behind credentials when they don't want to answer hard questions.