True Nirvana

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Evolution & Christian Views

Evolution seems to be a hot topic on the minds of many Christians. Many people mistake human evolution as humans evolving from apes, but this is not the case. It simply implies that humans evolved from the same animal, at one point, as every other animal over a long period of time. The church accepts evolution as a legitimate theory as long as you believe that God guided this process and specially created the human soul at some point during it. So my question is this "Is alot of the Old Testament (such as Adam and Eve) meant to be parables for the betterment of its readers or should you stand by it as historical fact?”

posted by Andy at 10:56 PM

6 Remarks:

  • Haha, I love topics like this! Yay!

    Anyway, you're in luck my friend. To my knowledge, you don't need to believe in the absolute historical validity of the creation stories, or the majority of the old testament stories, in order to gain salvation. The stories can be interpreted in several ways. The books of the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deutoronomy) are commonly known for their allegorical content. The seven days of creation are commonly known as allegorical or metaphorical figures, being that one day to God could be a thousand years to us. So you could see it either way.

    My opinion is this: God created the world. God created me. I may have come from an ape, but I thoroughly doubt it. There is much science to disprove such a theory. And regardless of what I came from, I'm definitely human now.

    God is good!
    Erin

    By Blogger Erin Marie Hall, at 7:17 PM  

  • I actually think that the Bible was written before evolution. Whenever I think on the subject, I imagine Holy-Spirit-inspired monkeys that write the stories and organize them into the written compilation known today. This goes along with the theory of monkeys writing the complete works of Shakespeare given a great amount of time, and certainly time was in ample supply at the time of the writing. Futhermore, I believe it is possible that around the time of Jesus, this same occurence came about with the Q source. No one actually knows its origin and this solves the whole problem. Thus far, I am without any proof whatsoever to support my theory, but I just know its out there.

    By Blogger Alex, at 2:32 PM  

  • Alex you're forgetting that the theory that "a million monkeys typing on a typewriter will eventually write the entire works of shakespeare" has been disproven by the internet.

    By Blogger Andy, at 3:06 PM  

  • Ok then, so my theory is unsupported entirely then. Its still dead on.

    By Blogger Alex, at 3:38 PM  

  • First off, Erin. God doesn't have any days. To say that one of his days is a thousand years for us is kinda like saying he could die from old age sometime. Which, you know, he wont.

    And Alex, if the Holy Spirit inspired them it wasn't random, and is probably right. So i'll agree with you, as far as it goes.

    leahciM

    By Blogger Mike, at 7:11 AM  

  • Michael, I understand that God is outside the limiting binds of time, but in Scripture, such comparisons are often used. ("A thousand years in your eyes are merely a yesterday" Psalm 90:4) What I meant was that though God created universe in seven days, it could possibly be many more to us. (As Cyprian said in his Treatises, "The first seven days in the divine arrangement contain seven thousand years") Like I said, it can be interpreted allegorically, but doesn't have to be.

    Catholics are at liberty to believe that creation took a few days or a much longer period, according to how they see the evidence, and subject to any future judgment of the Church (Pius XII’s 1950 encyclical Humani Generis 36–37). They need not be hostile to modern cosmology. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, "Many scientific studies . . . have splendidly enriched our knowledge of the age and dimensions of the cosmos, the development of life forms, and the appearance of man. These studies invite us to even greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator" (CCC 283). Still, science has its limits (CCC 284, 2293–4). (Catholic Answers)

    By Blogger Erin Marie Hall, at 11:08 AM  

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