Christians, Atheists: Why some christians accept Evolution?

Question

First I'm not christian. Please I'm trying to decide if should I accept Christianity or reject it completely, I have a problem:

I don't understand why some christians accept the Theory of Evolution

Okay, correct me if I'm wrong but this is what I understand:

God created Adam & Eve, and because she ate the forbidden fruit, and then Adam ate it too, that's why people age and die, right?


Romans 5:12
(King James 2000 Bible)
"Therefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned".


We are not judged by that original sin, but we inherited the "taint" that gives us the sinful nature of our flesh, that's why we have the urge to sin, right?

The scientists discovered proofs of the process known as Evolution, and then despise the overwhelming evidence a group of christians deny it, remaining faithful to the christian theology, while others simply try to reconcile the evidence with the theology.

Now, I think that the Theory doesn't affect judaism much, because they could still say: it's just an allegory.

BUT the sacrifice of Christ was to restore the balance of justice, because Adam was perfect and he sinned, so God needed a sustitute to be punished instead of us, so we could be forgiven, but only Jesus could be that sustitute because he was a perfect human being, right?


1 Corinthians 15:45
(King James 2000 Bible)
"And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a life-giving spirit".


So, if the primates evolved and a branch of them became the first groups of humans, their ancestors died and so did they. Death is a natural process present in the cycle of life before mandkindI see a contradiction with the Bible here, or is not?


But the Bible tells us this:

Romans 8:22
(KJV)
"For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now".

Some could argue that the word "creation" is actually just the mankind itself and not the whole nature, but the question still arises:

How can they accept it?

Answer 1

There are several ways in which people can be religious and still accept the truth of evolution. It's all to do with interpreting the Bible.



Some believe that the Bible (or equivalent Holy text) is not actually a historical account, but a document by god meant to illuminate and guide us, rather than state explicitly what happened in a historical, factual sense.



Others look at the Genesis story and look at the word "day". They interpret the days to not be literal days of 24 hours, but to be periods of time. Thus, this can fit in with the earth being created over a period of time, then life first evolving, then land creatures evolving, then finally man evolving right at the end. They interpret the days, because generally the days are in the same order that we know things did evolve (as in we know the sun was around before the earth, and that man evolved very late on compared to most animals).



Those are probably the 2 most common ways in which people can combine Christianity and Evolution.



The Pope, the previous Pope, and the Archbishop of Canterbury (the leader of the Church of England, after the Queen), have all accepted evolution. I don't see why some people say they are incompatible after that.

Answer 2

As you point out, there are many Biblical and theological problems with accepting Evolution (G.T.E.), including the death before sin issue.



I guess its down to "authority". Do you believe that the Bible is God's word and therefore "Inerrant and Truth". Or do you trust people such as Darwin, Dawkins, Cox who are/were Evolutionists and Athiests.



Either Biblical History happened or Natural History happened. Both can't be true at the same time.



II Peter ch3 also prophesies the issue and is an interesting read; the rejection of the Global flood, rejection of creation of stars, and uniformitarianism (possibly).



Personally I trust the words of Jesus as he is the co-creator of everything.

Answer 3

I am an atheist however;



Modern christianity (rather than the fundamentalist versions which gain publicity) does not view most of the old testament as the word of God exactly, but rather a collection of stories to describe God and teach moral lessons (we'll leave how valuable this is to another discussion).



The creation myth has a lot of different interpretations, but for the most part its a moral story about obedience to God, rather than a factual account of a real event. The bible in translation to english, and through theological scholars have interpreted the events in a very different manner.



This is playing devils advocate on my part.. I simply can't comprehend the creationist point of view well enough to answer this question on their behalf.

Answer 4

You are using the Bible that added unicorns for no reason...



Scientists have discovered evidence not "proofs"



Most Christians accept it is an analogy just like the Jews particularly as the original text is in the exact grammatical style of an analogy.



Where does it say Adam was perfect.



1 Corinthians 15:45 King James 2000 Bible:- Even though this is KJV this is not a contradiction.

Answer 5

The Pope, Catholic Church, Church of England and mainstream churches all accept the big bang and evolution!



Lord Carey the former Archbishop of Canterbury put it rather well – “Creationism is the fruit of a fundamentalist approach to scripture, ignoring scholarship and critical learning, and confusing different understandings of truth”!



Nice that christians and atheists can agree and laugh together even if it is at fundie expense!



But behind the laughter is the despair at the fundamentalists striving so hard to destroy christianity by turning it from a religion to an ideology!



Surveys suggest that 29% of American christians are so extremist in their beliefs that they fall well outside of the accepted bounds of christianity!

Answer 6

Here is a handy hint, evolution is a fact, the evidence is overwhelming. The bible is not factual, many people can not avoid the reality that evolution happened and genesis did not.

Answer 7

Less religious than others I guess.

Answer 8

Because they are not completely crazy..

Answer 9

Because they are not Christians.



Christians do not accept the obvious, blatant lies of evolution.

Answer 10

Because they have been misled. There is no reason to doubt the Scriptures.

Answer 11

Don't listen to Abba....

Answer 12

They do, its a good thing.