Why do so many more Christians fixate on debunking evolution than say, Jews?

Question

I mean, the creation story of Genesis is clearly in Judeo realm of Judeo-Christianity. Yet, the vast majority of Jews accept evolution (and don't give me that crap about "Where's the statistics on that?" They are easily found, do your own research, lazy ***!). Since Genesis is their story, why do Christians get so up in arms over it? They don't get this pissed off over Leviticus.

Answer 1

That is because the Jews are not interested in arguing with you, as they know you because of pride won't accept any arguement anyway,



And those statistics you worship ohh so much ? Bunk !! Nothng but Bunk Crap, You have a problem with that ? If so I have a problem with you for having a problem with that, Chew on that for a while.



You come here not asking questions with an Objective mind But have already made up your mind and are ranting and raving, Convinced of your own opinions and rantings, Bull Citing Evidence and all that thinking that solves everything , Bull Crap, Everyone with half a Brain knows that the evidence is only a smoke screen to the real issue and that is Philosophy, People interpret Scientific data according to their own Philosophical point of view, They just like you use evidence as a freaking smoke screen to hide the truth about that.



I can hear it or read it in your statement/question.



People will go to outlandish means to hide the fact that the real reason they don't beieve in God is because they don't want to admit that they will be answerable to God for their actions.

Answer 2

properly I easily have been attempting for some years now yet they only shop calling me a troll and giving a similar lies many times. nonetheless that's straightforward. there's no longer information of evolution nonetheless they are going to say that they have got an entire fossil checklist that proves evolution to be a actuality which many declare there's no such checklist yet they are able to website 1000's of 1000's of information that declare this to be authentic. they say that DNA study proves it because of the fact the DNA is so comparable yet this would not logically tutor the top that they could be from a hardship-loose ancestor which they are able to no longer tutor ever existed nonetheless it quite is seen information of the potential for a hardship-loose ancestor they declare it quite is information of such no longer technological expertise and not good judgment. Then they are going to declare that it takes billions of years to supply those ameliorations or that it desires to be led to by some cosmic disaster. there's no convincing evolutionists because of the fact they have been taught by the regular public college device that a lot of those claims are authentic and that they shouldn't question people who're instructors and professors for they supoosedly understand issues straightforward as they accuse us of being they're brainwashed into believing evolution is authentic

Answer 3

For one thing, there are a lot fewer Jews than Christians, plus about 80% of Jews are secular.



Many Christians like myself have no problem with a big bang, or God working in an evolutionary process. Day is used figuratively for a period of time in many scriptures, and the day/age theory of the creation believes there can be millions to billions of years between the days.



The order for the creation parallels the same order science gives. First comes the heavens (stars, etc.), then an empty earth without form, then land followed by oceans, then plant life followed by the first intelligent life in the sea, then comes birds (which according to science are descendants of dinosaurs), then mammals, then a more specific wild animal, and finally man. It's actually amazing that it gives an order 3,000 plus years before science confirms that same order.



Adam is not created until after the seventh day, and the day/age theory believes the man created on the sixth day is not the same as Adam who is first mentioned after the seventh day. That allows for cave men, and explains where Adam and Eve's children found wives, since there were people before them.



As far as intellegent design, when some Christians latch onto a world that is 6,000 years old, the thought of "not intelligent" comes to my mind. They need to be convinced that science is not the enemy, that science actually corroborates the biblical order. Likewise, non-religionists need to explain how Genesis came up with the same order as science, considering how that might relate to intelligent design.

Answer 4

As a Christian I agree. But that happens because some are either close minded or misinformed, maybe a little of both.



The popular bible of choice for Christians is the KJV King James Version.

Its not bad but its not the original.It is a version translated from Greek or Latin one of those two. (I think i could be wrong so of course check for yourself)



And Greek isn't the original text Latin isn't either.



The historical figure Jesus Christ didn't speak Greek or Latin but Aramaic his disciples spoke it to and recorded the bible in that language.Many people say he spoke Hebrew and yea they are half right.But as far as Christianity goes the first ever Christian Bible was written in Peshitta.





If you read a Peshitta translation of Genesis it pretty much says that God created man through the process we would later call Evolution.



The people of the Jewish faith don't dispute or disregard evolution because their book of origin the Tanakh is what they look back to when they make translations to the Torah.So evolution is already stated and isn't left out of their book. Where as the Christian version of the bible has changed hands so much through out time that a lot of it is lost in translation.



If they Christian church as a whole would go back to the original book of origin and translate it to modern day English they would see that yes evolution did occur by way of God.



Here are some links so you can check it for you self.

If you feel like it in your own time cross examine the Peshitta translation with the King James version and you will see the clear difference in the words used.And thus you will see where it all gets messed up lol.



* The first link is the best in my opinion so I would say check that one out first.



The third link is a Aramaic cross reference to the misconceptions about the bible and homosexuality.I included the link because you mentioned Leviticus which is supposed to be the "Gay ain't the way" book of the bible.



The forth link is ok but they seem to have a bit of a bias to the Lamsa translation which in my opinion is to close to the KJV.



But hey check it for yourself and formulate your own opinion.

As a intelligent human being I trust you will do well = )



Peace.

Answer 5

First off, let go of that idea of 'Judeo-Christian'. That's what Christians call themselves when they're trying to pretend their beliefs are more universal than they are. :-) Christianity may use some Jewish terms, but gives them polar opposite meanings.



Judaism teaches us to look for four levels of understanding in Torah -- basic/factual, what is hinted at, metaphorical/allegorical and hidden/esoteric. So even ultra-Orthodox Jews who are certain that Torah is literal history have a more complex way of being literal than fundamentalist Christians. That and they're not bothered if the rest of the world disagrees with them. :-) Every people has their own ways of acting and thinking, that's part of life.



Look up Aryeh Kaplan's writings. He was a noted scholar, rabbi and scientist who died far too young but left us some amazing work. By using a text which said that one of G-d's days equals 1000 years, he calculated the age of the universe at just under 18 billion years, approximately 4 billion more than the current scientific approximation.

Answer 6

Why are Jewish responders getting so many thumbs down? Do other people know better what they believe or not then the individual answerers themselves? Or is it that some people don't like what other religious people say about their support for evolutionary theory?



God did not die for the Jews because most of the temple no longer stands, they can still worship God. But other people hold on to ungodly, pagan ideas & traditions of man, like man-gods who have been dead for 2000 years, or other discredited, now dead, beliefs such as flat earth or a sun that revolves around the earth. Why would God give new revelation to people who try to make his original truths and Word obsolete and lies because of the words of a single fallible, wayward man like paul, a roman citizen set out to destroy Judaism and yet does not appear in the Roman history books nor is he mentioned in any of the works of their philosophers until centuries after he was supposedly born and preaching?

Answer 7

Maybe because if something appears to be real it may be real, and if it is real it must be from or allowed by God. The bible only has a few lines about creation and that does not make a science textbook. And since creation of the world and universe before people came about, was not directly experienced by humans and anything that can be said about the unknown is only speculation or myth. Why not see God in the real world, rather than in the world of speculation?



I just read through the long piece on evolution and faith by mama-pajama, it is excellent; and she addresses several side-issues in an excellent manner as well.



A few people don't understand the question-answer format. It is the answerer who provides the logic, facts, occasionally opinions, and statistics to answer the questioner (truth seeker), or to either agree or disagree with the questioner. You usually only provide references when you want to ask questions about or discuss that particular reference or source or if it is a necessary element of the discussion. Or if one asks about a quote or the wording of verses in the bible according to a particular translation or version.

Answer 8

There is one Jew for every 100 Christians. The majority of Jews on Yahoo are liberal Jews. The majority of Christians that speak on this issue are Fundamentalists.

Most Orthodox Jews don't believe in "evolution" BTW. Most Jews believe in intelligent design.



Edit: It may come as a surprise to the person above me be Christians look at scripture in an almost identical way. We would substitute the word spiritual with esoteric though. The word esoteric is associated with paganism.



Fundamentalist churches universally teach that one day for God equally 1,000 years for us. Traditional Judaism and most other Christians believe the God exists out side of time and matter or space. One Jewish Rabbi wrote a book explaining this and how it related to temple worship. It is commonly referenced in Christian theology degree programs. If I can find the title I will post it.

Answer 9

According to old Jews transmitting oral tradition before the first century, the Universe is 15.3 billion years old, and the earth is 4.6 billion. This was written down in the first century in a book called Sefer ha-Temunah, referenced by another Jewish writer 700 years ago, and revisited by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan in the 1960s. Curiously Jewish tradition matches modern estimates of the age of the universe and earth. Perhaps Jews know how to handle our own scriptures and the oral law that goes with it. Christians who disrespect the oral tradition and re-write the written scriptures to match their non-Jewish religious ideas seem to have painted themselves into a corner with their philosophical non-Jewish ideas from the dark ages. Science contradicts medieval Christian doctrines but support Jewish writings BCE.



You can read transcript of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan's lecture on his book on the age of the universe for free below. It also explains creation of human beings. The Jewish authors are the same ones denigrated as "Pharisees" who morphed into Orthodox. These ideas are not "liberal". Isn't that amazing that science agrees with over 4,000 years of tradtional Judaism?

Answer 10

The reason that we don't try to debunk evolution is because we don't necessarily see it as a 100% wrong or right thing. For us it could be a theory that's equally right or wrong; so we tend to give these kinds of things a second look, so to speak.



We also believe that when G-d said that he created the world in 7 days; he was speaking metaphorically, not actual.

Answer 11

Those are only the BAD christians with faulty thinking!!



Who says so? - The major churches!!



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



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 the fundies expense!!

Answer 12

Because they take Genesis 1 literally, when it isn't necessarily. It could be symbolic but still true.



Genesis 1, literally, and evolution would cancel each other out. Christians believe the Bible is true, which would make evolution false. What they don't understand is that both can be true.

Answer 13

If you are going to bring up a charge, you are responsible for providing the statistics, not the other way around.

Answer 14

>>>Yet, the vast majority of Jews accept evolution (and don't give me that crap about "Where's the statistics on that?" They are easily found, do your own research, lazy ***!).<<<



Wait a minute. Why is it up to US to research evidence for claims made by YOU?



Why are we "lazy" for not obtaining evidence to back up YOUR claims? Who is really being the "lazy" one here?



Oh, to answer your basic question -- I believe it's entirely possible that an evolutionary process was a part of God's creative work. I know that I am not the only Christian who believes that.

.

Answer 15

I accept evolution. I don't think I'm disrespecting God when I say that He was most likely the one that put the evolution into motion.



We're not that much into literal translations, I guess, but we are about the careful choice of words used to tell the story.

Answer 16

Jews have seen what irrational thinking does to people. Look at Germany in the 30's and 40's. As of such, they are more rational individuals.



Besides, they have nothing to lose. The christian church, on the other hand, has everything to lose because if science proves them wrong, they are done.

Answer 17

In one word: Literalness.





Judasim sees the stories on a number of levels. However none place importance on literalness. Those Christians believing in a lack of evolution, are being very literal about the stories.



There are a tiny number of Jews who don't believe in evolution (that the world is 6000 years old). But it's generally very ultra religious & only a subset of them. Speaking as a person in the Jewish community who would have noticed by now. I "met" one for the first time recently.



In fact, the kabbalist view of the stories uses layers of multiplication (1000x) & concluded --- long before evolutionary theory ---- that the earth (or universe) is approximately old as scientist now claim based on evidence.



Ah, one more important point.... in Judaism if the science contradicts the Torah we have the concept that --- our interpretations may be wrong!! So we go back to the book, not just to remove the science. Judaism in general is about that journey of moving forward for one's self, & in the Torah, & by projection... in our development of our relationship to the world through more knowledge.







In Judaism the point of the book is a combined history book & telling of the spiritual journey of the Jewish people as they grew. So, the history gets more accurate as it gets to later years, & it's obvious it's "well told" stories. Even if you believe God created every letter in Torah exactly as needed, you don't have to believe the stories are literal. Only that a lot of meaning can be gotten from digging in, & under.



Ways of digging include making allegories out of events. Seeing one word repeated more than another so finding a way to make wisdoms out of that. It can seem strange, but it's not literal. So it says stoning - but other passages say not to do such extreme, so they cancel out & it becomes allegorical punishments.



The spirituality of the stories matters even more. It's important to see Araham arguing & negotating with God. It's very different than prior God cultures that had their human ruler as semi-God & everyone else unequal & in a one way mercy at the God. (While Christianity has those ideas to some extent, Judaism has little or none of them.) FYI, Judasim also does not have a salvation concept so the whole Christ idea makes no sense in Judaism. It's purely Christian.



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Grace's additions

About 1/2 of the YA Jewish frequent answerers are ORTHODOX - Kismet, Bluefoots, Aryeh, Allonyoav, Tehilla, Feivel, RJ, Mz. Rahi, etc..



A MUCH more accurate term is that many Orthodox believe in "theistic evolution." They agree with evolutionary scientific findings but add a guidance by God. Creationists claim evolution is non-existent & God went "poof" to create stuff or it's correct only on a micro level. So it's a totally different spectrum. I clarified my answer above, very Jews few think the world is less than 6000 years old.



Orthodox beliefs aren't far removed from any person who believes God has something to do with the world....that both science & God concepts can exist at the same time.



From this link here are a spectrum of Orthodox views. I'm not including the rest of Judasim (which is in the article too):

http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:aku7I8V81REJ:www.uncommondescent.com/education/orthodox-jews-in-s-florida-join-debate-on-evolution-vs-intelligent-design/+Orthodox+Jews+who+are+biologists&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us



“This is one of the cutting-edge issues of the culture wars,” said religion professor Nathan Katz of Florida International University, a co-organizer of the conference. “The basic question is: Is God there?”



At least their honest about their interests:

"Lipskar met head-on the suggestions by some that intelligent design is meant as a “back door” to putting religion in schools. “It’s not a back door, it’s a front door!” he said. " [Paraphrase - which is about resolving social ills like drugs.]



"Gerald Schroeder, the Aish speaker, reads Genesis symbolically, saying that human bodies evolved from prehuman hominids, but the human soul was created instantaneously.

Intelligence is manifested in the world; it didn’t develop randomly,” he said in a recent interview. “But we don’t know how the metaphysical interacts with the physical — how the Creator works in creation.”



--

CONCLUDING ---

I'll repeat this quote:

"But we don’t know how the metaphysical interacts with the physical — how the Creator works in creation.”



So, Jewish positions, including most Orthodox, look to integrate science with their sense of God -- not bash science on the head with literalism.

Answer 18

I wish i would have kept the column that the local Rabbi wrote about this very thing. Well written and made more sense than the nonsense the less than intelligent say about it.

Answer 19

Jews are better funded and get better educations than the sorry lot of creationists do. Can't argue with that logic.



In all seriousness, most creationists are simply ignorant of evolution, and are further lied to by "Creation scientists," who in reality aren't scientists, but preachers. Answers In Genesis by its own admission states that "any evidence that doesn't support the bible is not valid evidence."



It's under their "Statement of faith."



Scientists don't care about personal religion, belief, thoughts, or GPA. All science cares about is the evidence, and Creation isn't science.



http://www.answersingenesis.org/about/faith

Answer 20

Because they are close-minded and can't think for themselves. Also the church brainwashes them by giving them bullshit answers to their questions like "God works in mysterious ways" and "God is testing us" and using fear to get people to believe in what they want them to. They tell them that people who are gay or who aren't Christian are going to hell and that anyone who worships anything other than God is condemned.

Answer 21

Because we view parts of the Bible as allegorical, not literal, and in general we value education.

Answer 22

But the vast majority of Jews also reject Jesus as the Messiah. So what else do you think they are willing to compromise on? Modern Jews are fairly secular - they've been without a temple for 2,000 years, and have gone all that time without sacrificing any lambs for the atonement of their sins, and they reject Christ for the atonement of their sins, so they are still in their sins.

Only evangelical Christians get "up in arms" about it because we're the only ones who believe that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of the Living God. Jews and backslidden Christians don't.

Answer 23

Why do so many atheists debunk Christianity than say, Judaism?



Why do so many atheists debunk Jesus Christ than say, Buddha?



That's why..

Answer 24

Could it be that more evolutionists/atheists address their questions to Christians?

Answer 25

You've got several things going on in your question. First of all, there really is no "Judeo-Christianity". Judaism is PROFOUNDLY different than the replacement theology of Christianity. To address that in detail could max out the space here. I'll give a link at the bottom of the page for you to look at later. I'm not keen on using Wikipedia for learning about Judaism. "Vandalism" to pages about Judaism is an almost every day occurrence. For about a year I nearly drove myself crazy removing bizarre things on that "encyclopedia" about Judaism, from someone insisting that Jewish funeral custom included sniffing a sock of the deceased to people posting outright quotations from the New Testament and Quran as either Jewish belief or to insult Jews.

There can be good references found there, but it is also sometimes hard to know the difference for the layman, and that's just one reason universities and most schools do not allow it to be used as a reference for term papers.

Now onto evolution and God belief from a Jewish perspective ( mine )

While the Torah teaches us that God created everything in six days, and the literal interpretation means precisely six solar days ( the word yom means a day, not an eon, but a day) most Jews accept that creation has never really stopped. God refrained from further creation on the 7th day..he didn't suspend or cease it entirely. One can believe in a Creator and not have that conflict with the reality we SEE of how life works.

As long as there is reproduction with exchange of genetic material, evolution happens. "creation" essentiallly is ongoing. It doesn't require "believing in" but accepting the observed and tested reality. There has been absolutely NO debate in scientific circles over the reality of evolution for nearly 70 years. What IS debated in Biology are various means and methods and intricate details of the many processes at work IN evolution. We know more about how evolution works than we do about GRAVITY. This "debate" between fundamentalist literalists and the scientific and medical community is NO different from the early medieval church condemning astronomers who put forth the notions of a heliocentric solar system.

Creationism and Intelligent Design are not science. The ideas at work cannot be applied to scientific method. They are not falsifiable, they make no predictions. This is why it fails in court EVERY time as an "alternative" view in a science curriculum.

Science is a method and not an entity. Scientific method does not address God belief, so it is only atheistic to the aspect that it does not address any faith in any deity one way or another. That is because we have no objective physical evidence to apply to the steps of scientific method to determine one way or another the reality of an Omnipotent Creator. Until that time, faith, belief, religion...are outside of scientific method.

There is no belief, meaning faith, required for evolution to be accepted as real.

Neither is it the case that evolution as a biologic theory, threatens or denies the existence of an Omnipotent Creator Deity. Scientific method does not apply to this issue because we have no objective data to put to the method to determine one way or another.

Evolution isn't a threat to belief in an Omnipotent Creator. It is a threat to the SELF-CONCEPT held by people who accept a fundamentalist narrow view. My faith in God is not threatened by scientific method. My faith teaches me to test what I know to make sure it is real. If there is an aspect of dogma that I accept and it becomes threatened by objective evidence, perhaps that is an aspect of belief that should be challenged.

Biology shows us that rather than life appearing on the planet *poof* in six literal days, as long as life exists, creation continues!

Biology does not support or negate a God.

The same Torah that the Genesis creation story came out of is the same Torah those fundamentalist literalists deny in their commandments! They will argue viciously for the creation story but just as harshly argue that the "Old" (eternal it says in the scripture) Testament has been "done away with" or "nailed to the cross".

Torah teaches Jews that we are to test and challenge something to make sure it is real. Scientific method doesn't threaten our faith in God.

Religious dogma has no place in a science class.

IMHO it is NOT faith in God that is *threatened* in the fundamentalist literalist, but their SELF-CONCEPT! I tested this over a number of years in chat rooms. ONLY VERY RARELY (and only after they heard my rationale) would any "Creationist" say YES to the following Yes or NO only simple question.

Are you an animal?

Most people will of course, say YES. Sometimes they will qualify it that our soul or spirit is different or that we have greater abilities, etc..but we are still animals. Almost all Creationists will give a knee jerk reaction that NO, we are human, we are above animals.

When the very rare Creationist said "yes", it was ALWAYS with the qualifier that we are above and separate from all other animals. Well that wasn't the question..but at least they recognized they were animals.

Our psyche is a wondrous thing. If our self-concept is threatened, the self-protective mechanism of DENIAL kicks in to prohibit the shattering of self to be replaced by one that is unacceptable to them. That EXPLAINS why they simply cannot see the literal mountains of observable, tested, verified, physical evidence that is SO VERY PLAIN to see to those whose self-concept is NOT threatened to KNOW that they too are an animal affected by the same biologic processes at work in all life. They are unable to consciously process things that would replace their self-concept with one that is degrading to them. So many of them are completely revolted by the notion that they are an animal. I do not see it as degrading. In fact, I can find spiritual wonderment and awe in knowing I am connected to all life on the planet. Nevertheless, that is just my own personal bent, that opinion has no bearing on the science involved to show me that connection.

If you are indoctrinated to believe that humans are SEPARATE and ABOVE ALL other life and NOT connected to it..then THAT is why you cannot appear to grasp evolution (that is if you ever tried to learn what it is rather than what your preacher told you it was) Evolution shows that humans are all related, related to one another and to all life forms..we are bipedal primate mammals and we are still evolving as a species. That is a fact, not up for debate.

Sometimes that self-protective mechanism is very helpful; in this instance, it impedes knowledge. There is NOTHING degrading about acceptance of our biologic mortal physical self. Our very thoughts are electro-chemical processes. I believe that an Omnipotent Creator set every process at work in the universe in place. That isn't my place in a science course to try to teach that, it makes no difference if one is atheist or theist in a science classroom; objective data is something that can be seen and tested by ALL.

Scientific method is the best method yet devised by the human mind to determine if something is real or not. This is why theories change when new evidence comes into play. That is what makes it SCIENCE. Creationism/ID is religious dogma. It cannot be tested, it cannot be changed, and to do so is heresy. It is religion.

Religion is belief in a deity with dogma and a method to seek to find meaning beyond our mere mortal life existence and find connection on a spiritual level and to fulfill purpose of existence. Science is a method, steps to discover knowledge of the universe. It primarily answers questions of why and how, not who.

One may seek and find knowledge by using both in their life. I do and I understand their differences and their limitations to connect to one another.

Homo sapiens has become Homo technos. We have lost something since we have gained technology. Our human ancestors once recognized our connections to all other life. Now we separate ourselves, and not to our psychological benefit, I might add. I try to look at this from a holistic perspective.

Since we do have greater technologic capacity and ability to manipulate our environment, it makes the case for damning the human species all the greater. With our greater skills, we should be greater caretakers of this earth we have "dominion" over. A good ruler cares for those under his care. Humans are not even taking care of each other, much less our other ape relatives. There is nothing demeaning in recognizing your relation to other animals.

It can, in fact, empower you with empathy and understanding and perhaps let you realize how we as just one species on this earth have such a great impact on all our relations.

http://www.actionbioscience.org/



" Our technology has exceeded our humanity", Albert Einstein



edit: on perusal of that WIKI page I did find one obvious mistake.."and his tremendous following remains largely committed to that position, though individual Chabad Hasidim may hold different views." with regard to the followers of the late Rebbe Schneerson's followers not accepting evolution. Orthodox Judaism comprises a little more than 10% of all Jewish believers, and of THAT number, less than five percent are Hasidic and not all Hasids reject biology. So the qualifier "tremendous following" is extremely misleading there. I've personally, never met a Jew that didn't accept the objective reality of biological evolution. It requires no faith. One day in the future, the people who now argue against it will appear to ALL humanity as NO different than those who called the astronomers who taught a heliocentric earth "heretics"

Answer 26

I think.....



Because we are more outspoken and passionate about our faith and folly, and we hate people who spread lies to dis-credit God -- Blessings!