Since someone just raised this same issue in another thread, I thought I would restate my thoughts on this phenomenon"
There are two distinct minority groups which most violently oppose the idea that evolution and Scripture can be entirely compatible:
Militant atheists and YECs.
I am not sure which first concluded that their mutual position was correct, but they have developed a symbiotic relationship, feeding off each other, quoting each other, believing each others statements since it is what they want to hear.
It is true that when the atheists first heard of evolution, it seemed to give them an "out", a method of explaining origins without God. Because you CAN describe evolution without God, there is no doubt about it. Sure, there are still first cause arguments, intelligent design issues, etc, but evolution itself CAN happen without God. Just as importantly, it was contrary to the traditional reading of Genesis. Atheists combined these two and leapt for joy: they had a platform to stand on.
They were wrong, of course. While evolution CAN happen without God being involved, this is not proof whatsoever that it DID happen without God, much less that God does not exist. No more than photosynthesis happening without God could prove that God does not exist. Nevertheless, atheists took full advantage of the new foothold they seemed to have gained and began presenting evolution as a blow against Christian teaching, proving the Creation stories false. If that is false, they argued, everything else may be false as well!
Many Christians bought right into this hook, line and sinker. Rather than learn the lesson of geocentrism and simply recognize that their traditional reading of Genesis and their concepts of origins and the age of the earth may be incorrect, they dug in, giving the atheists more and more ammunition. They began making their OWN statements agreeing with the atheists that evolution and Scripture were entirely incompatible, thus playing right into their hands. From then on, the more that science established evolutionary concepts, the shakier Christianity would become. And, I am sure this worked to a great extent. It is dismaying to think of all those souls lost to the Kingdom due to the combined teaching of these atheists and Creationists (as they were soon being called). These strange bedfellows created "all or nothing" propositions that left people with no choice but to accept *either* Christianity or the persuasive new evidence of science. Who knows how many abandoned Christianity as a result. However many there were, the blame lies equally on both of those groups teaching the same "incompatibility" dogma.
What would have happened if the Christian community as a whole immediately stated that evolution could, indeed, be compatible with Scripture, we just had to adjust our traditional reading as we did with geocentrism? How many of these lost souls would still be in the Kingdom?
Over the years, the Christian community in general HAS come to apply the lesson of geocentrism and simply re-examine their traditional readings of Scripture. After all, just as with geocentrism, Man is able to err when reading Gods Word, and sometimes they can err BIG. This has taken a lot of the wind out of the atheistic sails and, I am convinced, has prevented the loss of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of souls.
But in the last few decades, we have had a resurgence of the debate, with Young Earth Creationists once again spouting the atheistic line that evolution and the Scripture are incompatible and that if evolution is correct, Scripture is false. While still primarily a movement in the U.S., it is spreading to the UK and Australia as well. They have ministries which spread these teachings and, once again, are presenting it as a choice: you can either accept the Scripture or the evidence supporting an old earth and evolution. The atheists are there in the background urging them on.
All very, very sad
There are two distinct minority groups which most violently oppose the idea that evolution and Scripture can be entirely compatible:
Militant atheists and YECs.
I am not sure which first concluded that their mutual position was correct, but they have developed a symbiotic relationship, feeding off each other, quoting each other, believing each others statements since it is what they want to hear.
It is true that when the atheists first heard of evolution, it seemed to give them an "out", a method of explaining origins without God. Because you CAN describe evolution without God, there is no doubt about it. Sure, there are still first cause arguments, intelligent design issues, etc, but evolution itself CAN happen without God. Just as importantly, it was contrary to the traditional reading of Genesis. Atheists combined these two and leapt for joy: they had a platform to stand on.
They were wrong, of course. While evolution CAN happen without God being involved, this is not proof whatsoever that it DID happen without God, much less that God does not exist. No more than photosynthesis happening without God could prove that God does not exist. Nevertheless, atheists took full advantage of the new foothold they seemed to have gained and began presenting evolution as a blow against Christian teaching, proving the Creation stories false. If that is false, they argued, everything else may be false as well!
Many Christians bought right into this hook, line and sinker. Rather than learn the lesson of geocentrism and simply recognize that their traditional reading of Genesis and their concepts of origins and the age of the earth may be incorrect, they dug in, giving the atheists more and more ammunition. They began making their OWN statements agreeing with the atheists that evolution and Scripture were entirely incompatible, thus playing right into their hands. From then on, the more that science established evolutionary concepts, the shakier Christianity would become. And, I am sure this worked to a great extent. It is dismaying to think of all those souls lost to the Kingdom due to the combined teaching of these atheists and Creationists (as they were soon being called). These strange bedfellows created "all or nothing" propositions that left people with no choice but to accept *either* Christianity or the persuasive new evidence of science. Who knows how many abandoned Christianity as a result. However many there were, the blame lies equally on both of those groups teaching the same "incompatibility" dogma.
What would have happened if the Christian community as a whole immediately stated that evolution could, indeed, be compatible with Scripture, we just had to adjust our traditional reading as we did with geocentrism? How many of these lost souls would still be in the Kingdom?
Over the years, the Christian community in general HAS come to apply the lesson of geocentrism and simply re-examine their traditional readings of Scripture. After all, just as with geocentrism, Man is able to err when reading Gods Word, and sometimes they can err BIG. This has taken a lot of the wind out of the atheistic sails and, I am convinced, has prevented the loss of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of souls.
But in the last few decades, we have had a resurgence of the debate, with Young Earth Creationists once again spouting the atheistic line that evolution and the Scripture are incompatible and that if evolution is correct, Scripture is false. While still primarily a movement in the U.S., it is spreading to the UK and Australia as well. They have ministries which spread these teachings and, once again, are presenting it as a choice: you can either accept the Scripture or the evidence supporting an old earth and evolution. The atheists are there in the background urging them on.
All very, very sad
