I go to church on Sundays, one of the things I would like to know what are the christian views on evolution. I'm not an evolutionist but, I think there some similarities between evolution and creation. I'm just asking, I am trying not to offend anybody I just wanted to ask rather than be ignorant.

My perspective as a Christian is simply that God created all things, and some things do evolve. Look at the butterfly for example, it starts as a caterpillar. I don't believe that humanity evolved from something else though. That theory doesn't line up with the account in Genesis of how we were created to have dominance over everything else, thus setting a distinction between us and animals. If things do evolve though, it's the Creator who has caused it.

It's also proven that microevolution is possible, so it's accepted. But macroevolution(like, man evolving from apes) isn't. Also, it just doesn't really work with Christian beliefs. So, evolution is to an extent true.

A christian view on evolution would be that there is no such thing. In Genesis Creation was planned and spontaneous. God also created everything apart from each.

Hoochman : well, I think a fair clarification would be that God created all the species (dogs, cats, birds, horses etc) and the variation we now have is simply animals breeding in different environments around the world.

As such I think micro evolution (which is scientifically verifiable) is true while macro evolution from a Christian point of view was non-existent.... or at the very least directed by God to create the life we see now.

I don't believe that man came from apes, but like tRIUNE said, there are some forms of "evolution", such as the butterfly.

And the only other evolution I can think about, is Pokemon. =P

Macroevolution is incompatible with the biblical account of creation. You may see some people who claim to be theistic evolutionist (Christians who believe God used macroevolution), but if they read their Bible, looking at the context, theme and original language meaning and translation, it is hard to make creation and evolution to be combined as complimentary views.

it is incompatible if you take a literal interpretation of the text. If you actually believe that God made the earth in 6 24 hour days based on the rotation of the earth that didn't exist until he had made it to rotate that way then so be it.

Was that confusing? .

I personally don't take the creation story as literally as some. I believe God made the earth but I don't think it took 6 days. You can argue with me all you want about that but you won't change my opinion. The universe around us is not 6,000-13,000 years old (depending on your interpretation of things). It can't be that young.... and the idea that it was made to look old but actually be young has no basis in fact and is unprovable.


So, the question is.... can evolution be compatible with the Bible? I personally don't think men from apes from smaller apes from smaller mammal types from whatever else all the way down to little bacteria and such is believable.... unless it was God directed. I don't see a lot of evidence for that idea and my personal understanding of Adam and Eve and the garden of Eden make an evolutionary idea of the earth not make sense....

So, no I don't think evolution was used to create humans... but I leave the possibility open that God could have used it to create all the other animal life on the earth. In the end I don't think it really matters though. Whether God created everything in 6 days with a snap of his finger or if he spent millions of years allowing the earth to develop "naturally" is a moot point in my opinion.

thanks for yr responses.

The book of Genesis is really God's way of explaining to Jews and early Christians how life came to be. Yes the earth was created in seven days in Gods time, not human time which would equal millions of years to us, (since God works outside of time). I believe in a form of creationism in that, God set all life in motion which is were evolution comes in place. All life, including us, had to evolve from a lesser creature. Now, with that being said, the Adam and Eve story tells us that Adam and Eve were banned from the Garden of Eden aka. paradise aka. Heaven. Now there are two ways of looking at this. Adam and Eve gave birth to two children which had descendants who possibly procreated with cavemen making this so-called missing link. Another way of looking at it is that Adam and Eve were cursed to become primitive and learn from their mistakes the rest of their life, such as humans do every day. There are many interpretations of biblical accounts, creationism, and evolution, but if we try to coincide those topics together, we might just get a somewhat close understanding of how God wants us to know how we came to be.

seeron : Just a natural reading of Genesis and the rest of Moses' books, which is written as historical narratives shows that it is saying that the days are written as 24-hour (or similar) days.

Just because God can work outside of time does not mean that He did, and the description from Moses is saying that it is 24 hour days.

Also, you really cannot combine marcoevolution and creationism together. You can have some debate on the age of the earth topic (even though I think it is clear what the Bible is trying to say), but if you really study what the Bible is saying and what marcoevolution is saying, they cannot be compatible with each other, you have to make a choice between one or the other.