Can you believe in God and Evolution?

@bonbon664 (3466)
Canada
August 31, 2009 12:22pm CST
I would have to say yes. I say that because I do, I believe in "God", and I believe in evolution. Is that a contradiction? I don't think so. I believe God was a force behind evolution. Why can't this be so? Why do some so called Christians think I'm a "bad" Christian for not believing in creationism? I think science is a creation of God. What do you think? Am I wrong?
4 people like this
20 responses
@gmode8 (60)
• United States
31 Aug 09
Evolution is a fact of life. Even if you believe in creationism any rational person should know that all things evolve in one way or another. To evolve is to change. So even if a god created this world that does not stop the living things in it from changing over time. Most people that are against The Theory of Evolution do not really even know what the theory states. They just assume that humans evolved from monkeys and do not care to find out the truth. You should do your research about the subject so that the next time this comes up in a discussion you will be prepared to defend your beliefs.
• United States
31 Aug 09
The arguements I've encountered most often aren't necessarily disputing that organisms change over time, they're positing the idea that the Earth is only something like 3000 years old. That's the point of creationism that I have the most problems with. The people who refuse to be swayed from the idea that the earth is 3000 years old and that the dinosaurs never existed, the skeletons are just hoaxes, or God put them there to test humanity.
@gmode8 (60)
• United States
31 Aug 09
I know what you mean. Of course arguements based on religion are not real arguements at all. These people just choose to believe irrationally. I know how it is.. I used to be one of them. However I always had issues even when I was a believer. I do volunteer work in my local library. I know of one very conservative religious mother who would not even let her kids watch the DVD "Ice Age". Since I have been a part of that kind of group I realize that preachers and ministers discourage thier congregation from reading, watching or listening to viewpoints other than what is approved of by the church. They believe it will allow the devil to creep into thier heart and mind.
@anklesmash (1412)
31 Aug 09
i beleive in both as i beleive evolution was actually gods design process to make creatures perfectly suited to there environments in the same way a designer makes prototypes and continualy refines it till they have designed the ideal product
@android (895)
28 Sep 09
It certainly seems as though there's some kind of 'system' in place. The question is where this system originated from. Interestingly enough I watched a television documentary that detailed how it has been proven that all life on Earth came from the sea, originating from this living creature with only the main organs, it didn't have eyes or a stomach or a nose or mouth. That's as far as they traced it though and their research (this was to do with Darwin's theory of natural selection) still begs the questions where did the water come from? And where did this bizarre life form come from?
• United States
31 Aug 09
If God is all powerful then wouldn't it seem logical that he is able to do anything? I world may be billions of years old or did God make it look that way? In Gods plan is there evolution? I believe there is. He can make all things happen or nothing happen. I agree that since science is study of "organic" logic then it is God's logic. There constructed by him or her down to the tinest spec. No one knows and why would we argue about something that is way above us. We are only parts of a great scene in a play which continues to play out.
@bonbon664 (3466)
• Canada
1 Sep 09
That's the way it seems to me.
@android (895)
9 Nov 09
The way I generally look at this, is that when I was born I came into this world with no knowledge and no beliefs. I learnt them as I grow and I learnt them from external influencing factors in life. Whether or not these beliefs and knowledge are true or false is irrelevant but one thing is certain - a lot of these beliefs will have come from other people's beliefs and the way they have influenced you into questioning things. We came into this world with no knowledge of religion. I think that through life we should choose our own beliefs based purely on our own experience, rather than what other people or books try to tell us. Psychology shows that the human mind naturally looks for patterns in everything and this is where false beliefs such as superstition come from. Personally I think a belief in religion is very similar to a belief in superstition. So are either true?
• Romania
15 Oct 09
The so called Christians are "brain-washed", I know it's a powerful word, but what else can you call this blind belief? I agree with you in more than one way and I was thinkin' about the same topic until I saw this one and decided to answer here. It's very hard for people to believe something else than what their parents, colleagues from school, teachers, co-workers, president, government, priest, etc. tell them. Every time we challenge any deep-rooted belief, the mind manages to bring up so many questions and takes us up and down through the answers so much that we get tired of the game and end up telling ourselves that everything we knew until them is true and we forget all about the challenge. The thing is that once you start asking these questions and manage to answer something else than what you're used to, everything changes. I do believe in God, cause I see it all around. And I do believe in Evolution because I see it too all around.
@Natrina (37)
• Portugal
15 Nov 09
Of course you can. Christians spend a lot of time reconfiguring their theories to fit in Science. The new thing is the idea that evolution was created by God as well! So it just had to start it all and then sit back and see things unfold. This is called the Intelligence Design.
@stvasile (7306)
• Romania
1 Sep 09
I think there is absolutely no contradiction between believing in God and evolutionism. First of all, no evolutionist theory is able to explain how it all begin. The entire Universe, I mean. It all eventually gets to be explained by the presence of an almighty entity such as God. On the other hand, the Bible is not at all the supreme explanation. It is a book written by men and chosen by the Church from a series of more religious writings. The Church only selected the scriptures that served them the best and tried to destroy the other. Even so, the words of the Bible must not be taken literally, as it is mostly an allegoric book, containing many moralizing stories.
1 Sep 09
I am an atheist in reality, so I dont believe in God or creatisonism. In a sense, Seeing is believing. But anyway, I personally think, its more of a contradiction of your Christian beliefs but, atleast it shows you are a more open minded christian.
@jziakhan (701)
• Pakistan
1 Sep 09
well, bonbon, i really am not christian, i belive that the evolution of mankind never took place, even if we create charts which date back when apes were still around, my religion says that mankind didnt evolve from anything, man just came around from the begginging, science is too a creation of God, and i also belive that there is no sense in making theories about the evolution of mankind or other natural things which already exist from the begging of time, its all been there, it makes no sense to create theories which work on the concept of democracy, a theory is created when the majority of people or scienetists agree to it, but the truth is that we dont know anything, for all we know, most of them could be wrong, fallacies which people interested in presenting ideas have created as a chance to have a golden name forever more till the end of time, thats the way science works, and the way natural theories are, they are truly based on democracy, take the big bang for example, no one knows for sure how the universe was created, but we all agree that somehow the big bang had a connection to it, even though there is no proof of that concept, we just go with the most popular idea there is, majority agrees to the big bang idea, and gathering wastefull and untrue ideas and theories like these is a complete and pure wasted of time, since they can all be wrong, as far as your'e theory is concerned, i belive that it is okay, there is no law that goes against individualism, you are oppsing youre religion in any manner infact, youre just bringing a new theory, like we all do, have a good day, bonbon,
• Canada
1 Sep 09
I personally believe in a god and evolution, because I think that a god created the universe but I also believe that he gave the universe the ability to grow and change without him. He gave the power the universe does the work.
• Philippines
1 Sep 09
Of course, i believe in GOD. but i also believe we don't end in this time-line or the next century. i believe that we can really move to the next level. the concept of Armageddon will not happen unless we wanted to. there's such thing as evolution, let's gave nature a chance to change us some day, probably another one to two hundred thousand years
• United States
1 Sep 09
I personally believe in creationism, which is not as it has been represented by some comments here - those who believe in young earth theory say around 6000 years, not 3000 and I have NEVER heard anyone say the dinosaurs just did not exist! Having said that, just 'cos I haven't heard that doesn't mean someone else didn't say it, sofair enough....lol.... Gemerally 'Biblical' creationsists (that is those who base their belief on the Genesis account etc) would believe that dinosaurs were created at the same time as the rest of animals, and lived alongside humans, and just naturally became extinct like many other species have - possibly to do with climate changes after the flood (evolutionists also accept the evidence for a worldwide catastrophic event, and Noahs flood is, to the Christian, what this would be.) Evolution is a theory, which is often taught as fact, and there are plenty of highly intelligent educated people who do also believe in creation so its sad that people still have to say 'ah, they're just irrational'. There are many evidences to support the creation viewpoint, and I am interested in hearing either way, I don't go round saying evolutionists are stupid. I have a lot of sympathy with the view that God started evolution, I can understand that viewpoint because it says, maybe evolution makes sense, but something had to start it, and that was God.
• Philippines
1 Sep 09
i guess not. They are two different things. You can't say that you can believe in God and at the samem time you believe on God. It's because evolution simple says that there is no creator. In short there is no God that created man. It's just because evolution states that everyhting happens because of coincidence. It explains that things in this world just evolve and just exist through mutation or something...so, i think that would be very really impossible...
1 Sep 09
I believe in God, but of course evolution is a part of life. We all evolve with time.
@pyewacket (43903)
• United States
1 Sep 09
I agree with you bonbon664---while not Christian but a follower of the pagan/wicca path I do believe in a God/Goddess, or anyway a "higher" force/creator, but due to my heavy science studies all through my school years I also believe in evolution as I particularly studied anthropology/archeology, geology, etc. While the Bible for instance gives the creationistic viewpoint of how the Universe was made it just doesn't sit well with me as fact the way some people who believe every word to be "gospel" truth.
@android (895)
31 Aug 09
Yes, you're right in a way. Evolution doesn't disprove the existance of God though most atheists use it in that way. However, being an atheist myself it does bring me on to the question of 'what is the driving force behind evolution?' - It can't just occur completely naturally by itself into the huge amount of abundance and the complexity of the way existance operates is too hypocritical. Even evolution must have started and come from somwhere, so where did it start and who kicked it all off?
• China
1 Sep 09
I think I am an atheist, but I will not say that God is not existing, because I cannot disprove it, though I actually think so. I kind of believe in evolution, but not completely, for there are still many things science cannot explain. My grandma is a christian, I think it is good, because at least she can have some spirit comfort. So, the only thing that I can say that I believe in is destiny.
• United States
1 Sep 09
If one accepts evolution as development and growth (I do) then everything organic is constantly going through evolutionary changes. However, I draw the line at and do not accept Darwinistic theory of interspecies evolution because, quite frankly, it doesn't happen. If it were such an important aspect of organic development, assuming it may have ever happened, why then did it stop? Surely such a process would continue with other life forms on this planet working their way towards being something else.. So, from my point of view, creationism and evolution are compatible concepts so long as Darwinism is left out in the trash (where it belongs). ENJOY!
• United States
31 Aug 09
I'm not actually Christian, so I never really believed in creationism to begin with, but I have to agree that this is the best way to view things. My high school Biology teacher posited basically this same idea when he taught evolution. He wanted all the Baptist kids he taught to actually learn something instead of memorizing the particulars and then using them to get a good grade on the tests. Basically, he put forth the idea that perhaps a day for God is different than a day for us. Maybe a day from God's perspective is an eon to us. And maybe his method of creation, when taking the time relativity into account, is what we've come to know as evolution. I've always thought that was a brilliant idea and I don't understand why there are so many people out there who cling to either evolution or creationism instead of just changing their perspective slightly and combining them.
@Xzcess (174)
• India
1 Sep 09
No i do not think you are wrong, and neither you are a bad christian for believing in evolution. Science and religion are not at war as many seem to think or profess. I believe in science for I am a student of science and science can actually define absolutely anything here except the concept of God, but that does not makes me someone who does not believes in God. Like it is not true that anything science cannot explain has no right to exist, similarly, i think it should not be said that anyone who is curious about laws that govern us, or anyone who questions purely for knowledge should be considered as an outcast in the eyes of religion. My opinion is that science and spirituality co-exist. Evolution brought us here but it was an unknown power, different from the will of certain animals or laws like survival of fittest that made sure we reach here. That power, most likely, was a work of God.