Can an individual believe in both evolution and creationism at the same time?

Question

Can an individual believe in both evolution and creationism at the same time?
One of my professors, who is a doctor, states he does believe in both and it didn't make much sense to me as the two seem clashing in my opinion. What do you think?

Answer 1

yes if you want to believe that "god" was the spark that started the big bang.



The human body is far from perfect - it has many inherent flaws



ask your professor why if we are made in god's image then how do you explain massive birth defects. If he answers it is because of sin drop the class

Answer 2

There is a school of thought which believs like you say called theistic evolution. What is theistic evolution? Believers in God who generally take the position that God made the universe, including the laws of nature, so that the universe and evolution moves along in response to these laws.



The problem is that the evidence doesn't support it. Darwinism or Neo-Darwinism or what have you, generally refers to the idea that all life present on the Earth has a common ancestor… a tiny, simple, single-celled organism. I accept that evolution happens… finch's beaks change size and shape to some limited extent over time. I have no problem with evolution in that specific sense, and that is well-supported by evidence. Call me an evolutionist if that is what is being talked about.



However, the idea that a finch could, via the same process, become a giant purple snorklewhacker is not supported by any real evidence. It's only assumed to be true by virtue of the fact that finch's beaks change shape a little.



Evolution which essentially refers to a simpler organism developing into a more complex organism is a whole different thing. There is absolutely no evidence of natural processes spontaneously producing the complex specified information we find in living systems!

Answer 3

It is possible in a round about way.



At one point during my transition from theist to atheist I was actually a deist (a logical transition, really) and I believed that God was the initial creator of life and that evolution was the means by which it was created.



It doesn't really make sense but it is one way to rationalise a supernatural God with science although it isn't proper creationism and it makes little to no sense if you're trying to be a theist rather than a deist.



Edit: If he used the term "happened by chance" this shows that, while he may be highly educated in his field, he does not have a proper understand of the theory of evolution. This would only make it easier for him to meld it into creationism and believe both at once.

Answer 4

Yes, I also believe this. I am not going to limit the power of GOD, nor the fact that GOD gave humanity the ability and drive to figure out things, thus in gaining knowledge humanity comes closer to knowing GOD. So either way we know GOD.

GOD in using the laws that were created at the start of time - time being one of the laws, gravity and evolution and others all make the plan of existence more in line to how powerful and small in detail GOD actually is.

Physical, spiritual, all - meaning all - GOD is present in everything.

Humanity has FREE WILL - this is the only thing outside of the control of GOD.

Answer 5

One key point to this is that you specified that your prof said "creationism", not a more vague and amorphous creation. So, if your report is accurate about his use of that specific term, then the answer is no.

Creationism makes a large bunch of claims that completely contradict the science and facts of evolution. Ergo, it is not possible to accept both views at the same time, because they are in massive contradiction to each other.

And, hes a medical doctor ? Thats somewhat scary, as evolution is a major base of modern medicine. But, if hes not doing research, his demented and ignorant views on the topic don't have to have an effect on his professional standing.

But, if hes teaching anything to do with the history of life on Earth, you need to get out of that class, and report him to his department head.

Answer 6

Yes they can and I do believe in both. The God Yahweh is explaining the evolution of life on Earth in the creation story in the book of Genesis. The confusion comes in at us properly interpreting the science out of the creation story because He is explaining it in a way at a time humans had no scientific knowledge about anything to understand. God is telling us that He is the "missing link" in the chain of evolution for the last billions of years in the creation story. We have failed to see this because our lack of scientific knowledge prevented us from seeing this. That is until now.

Answer 7

Yes.. I do. I mean, why not? There can be a specific point of entry and then evolve past that. IMO, every soul does this throughout its lifetime. Doesn't everything start with a beginning and then evolve and change past that?



Think about it... When you were concieved, there was an initial creation point, then the cells change, evolve and multiply. You changed form from one cell to many cells, then started to change into something that resembled the human form. Then at birth you changed in how you breathed... you evolved from being dependant to being independant in breath. You evolved to survive, which is what evolution shows us. As you developed more.. you began to think, walk, make choices until you became a completely self sufficient being.



This same thought is applied throughout all of the universe.. look at the creation of stars .. planets, etc. There can be a single moment of creation and then to survive, it all must evolve. Animal species change over thousands and millions of years..



For me, I don't understand what's so confusing about that.

Answer 8

Sure you can. It works like this.



God creates the Laws of Physics, then creates stuff out of nothing (ex nihilo). That's creationism.



Then He sits back and lets the stuff do its own schtick according to those Laws. And the stuff gets busy and does all kinds of nifty things, like bring forth life and the life then gets even busier and interacts with the environment to bring forth lots of different KINDS of life. That's evolution.



Eventually a life form appears and God gets active again. He hands this life form a special "ZAP", infusing it with a particle of His own image and nature. That's Man. Creationism again.



Then man gets busy, s****s up (somehow or other. we don't really know how) and God has to butt in on all that misused freedom (evolution) and do HIS schtick again to keep the mess man made from getting completely outta hand. And He does. His name is Jesus. And there we go with creationism again, because thanks to Jesus, those who accept Him are a new creation.



See how easy it is when you stop trying to stuff Almighty God into an itty-bitty box of a preconceived notion that you can carry around under your arm and show off to your friends?

Answer 9

A theist is capable of believing anything they want to. After all they believe the earth was created in six days, that there is a god, a hell, a heaven, shall I go on? The whole idea is nonsense.

Answer 10

Chance is not a causal agent. What we mean by "happened by chance" is "we don't know how it happened". Chance and random and coincidence all mean "we don't know". Science doesn't know how a genetic mutation occurred.



The problem comes when we see chance as a causal agent. Now we think we know how something happened but we really don't.

Answer 11

as long as you take humans out of the equation of evolution, and leave all other animals, then perhaps you can.



sounds like ignorance in my opinion though.

Answer 12

I think you have misunderstood your professor, because it is ludicrious.

Answer 13

your professor is either a moron or messing with you they contradict each other

Answer 14

I think they can co-exist.

Answer 15

no

Answer 16

No.