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.

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