Dylan_Chica said:
there are things i have trouble understanding and the feeling of not knowing what to believe and feeling weak in your faith is very hard to deal with so i would appreciate it if someone could PM me to talk about this subject because i am having a hard time with this right now and i really want to understand it better so i can move on with my life. thanx and i'm sorry for taking up forum space with this topic
AS you see, you get different advice depending on where people are at in their own understanding, so in the long run you have to decide for yourself, taking it in prayer to God for guidance.
I can't fully identify with what you are going through because my switch from creationism to TE was swift. Like shernren, I knew all of the creationist arguments for why evolution could not be true before I ever looked at the science.
Science was not an attraction for me. I avoided it as much as I could in school. I am much more at home with literature than with science. But, as a first-year undergrad, I had to include a science course in my otherwise language and literature laden studies. So I chose a course in biology to find out why scientists were convinced of such a silly idea as evolution.
And it took just a day of reading to convince me. And my first reaction was to glorify God. Never at any time did I suppose that evolution = atheism, or that one has to ditch the bible to accept the scientific fact of evolution.
It did take a while to figure out how to put the science and my faith together in a coherent whole, but from the beginning I had faith that all truth is God's truth, and the truth of science and the truth of scripture could not conflict with each other, even if I couldn't see clearly how to reconcile them.
I don't know if you have a feel for science, as shernren does. If it interests you, by all means, study the science--from reputable scientific texts, not from those who are trying to convince you not to believe it. You will never have an accurate understanding of the history of the universe or of evolution if you avoid actual science in favour of its detractors.
But if you are not scientifically inclined, don't sweat it. The main thing to remember is that nothing in science displaces creation.
You might like to check out the writing of a Christian theologian in Britain by the name of John Polkinghorne (The Faith of a Physicist). Before he studied theology, he was a professor of physics at Oxford for 25 years. Today he spends a lot of time lecturing on the relationship of faith and science.
As a Catholic, you may be interested in the perspective of Catholic theologian, Hans Kung.
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/187/story_18786_1.html
Kung is known as a liberal, so it is interesting that he and a conservative pope like Benedict are old friends and get on well together. Also, on the question of science and faith, they are much in agreement.