Evolution: What You Need to Know

While I found it on an atheist site (and was referred to it by another), this is a pretty useful and simple post on evolution versus creationism for those of us who accept evolution as a fact and a theory. The author does a very good job of debunking some of the more common creationism arguments.

At the end, the author recognizes that you can be a faithful Christan and still support evolution, and quotes from a Christian:

Some people feel that evolution pretty much does away with the need for a God. Others feel that evolution is one of the mechanisms that God uses to make things work. This response to a similar question from the talk.origins archive feedback section sums it up quite well :
from June 1998 feedback

"As a Christian who does accept evolution as a fact I also want to point out that as a Christian I am also a creationist, in that I believe that "In the Beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth." Far from being a religious belief that begins with "there is no God", evolution is simply one of the tools that God created to run His creation. Other tools include gravity, electromagnetism and the strong nuclear force. The Bible says that God holds all things together. Yet modern science tells us that the three forces I just mentioned are what hold all of matter together, from protons and neutrons all the way up collosal galactic clusters. In other words, God is not needed. Does this mean that those three forces are really religious beliefs that begin with "there is no God"? The Bible also says that God is the cause of all disease and the cure for all disease. Does this mean that the germ theory of disease and the immunological theory of disease resistance are beliefs that begin with "there is no God" because God is no longer needed to explain epidemeology?

It is certainly true that God transcends the natural universe and could have made it any way He wanted to. However, His creation -- the universe -- is by definition a natural phenomenon. It is controlled by naturalistic, mechanistic forces and what we can see of it appears to evolve over time. Unless God is trying to fool us, it would appear quite obvious that God indeed has used evolution to create and develop the modern universe.

For more information see the archive God and Evolution.

It is not necessary to abandon your beliefs because of evolution. Many theists find that it actually strengthens their faith as they can see and understand the processes used by their God.


Read it all. Hat tip to PZ Myers at Pharyhgula.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Giles Fraser on Gay Marriage

Image
The Rev. Gileas Fraser offers thoughtful piece on gay marriage on BBC Radio this morning: Back in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as the Book of Common Prayer was being put together, marriage was said to be for three purposes: First, It was ordained for the procreation of children … Secondly, It was ordained for a remedy against sin, and to avoid fornication .. Thirdly, It was ordained for the mutual society, help, and comfort, that the one ought to have of the other, both in prosperity and adversity. How do these three concerns relate to the prospect of gay marriage? The third priority insists that marriage is designed to bring human beings into loving and supportive relationships. Surely no one can deny that homosexual men and women are in as much need of loving and supportive relationships as anybody else. And equally deserving of them too. This one seems pretty clear. The second priority relates to the encouragement of monogamy. The Archbishop of Canterbury himself has rig...
Read more

Religious Map of United States

Image
This map shows which of eight major Christian denominations has a plurality in the United States, county by county. the map obviously does not capture the full story given the rich diversity of Christian denominations in the United States, but it does show much of the regionalization of the major denominations. The map and analysis can be found here . Hat Tip to my friend Jim .
Read more

New Climate Change Study

What a coincidence. Yesterday, I blogged about the James Dobson et al "We Get It" effort to deny climate change. Yesterday, NASA scientists issued a new report showing a strong causal link between human activity and climate change. Here is the Science Daily report: A vast array of physical and biological systems across the earth are being affected by warming temperatures caused by humans, says a new analysis of information not previously assembled all in one spot. The effects on living things include earlier leafing of trees and plants over many regions; movements of species to higher latitudes and altitudes in the northern hemisphere; changes in bird migrations in Europe, North America and Australia; and shifting of the oceans' plankton and fish from cold- to warm-adapted communities. "Humans are influencing climate through increasing greenhouse gas emissions, and the warming world is causing impacts on physical and biological systems attributable at the global scal...
Read more