As to crudely quote stan from southpark cant evolution be the answer to how and not to why? I say you can still believe in god but you cant believe the bible word for word

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I'm starting to think a belief in any of the common gods and an acceptance of evolution are incompatible.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Don't respond to me, just downvote me. It's more fun that way.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

This post has a score of +119. Clearly many people believe in both, thus they are not incompatible.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I think many people *think* they believe in both, but I think there are incompatible tenets of evolution and religion that are incompatible. This is not unique: religious people ignore many things written in the bible or espoused by prominent members of their faith in order to maintain their individual beliefs. But at the core, I think religious faith contradicts scientific teaching.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

There are many things in the Bible (mostly the Old Testament) that no reasonable person would agree with, and I believe that Genesis is one of them. The Bible was written by man, but the universe and the laws of physics were created by God (or that's what I believe). Any evidence that scientists find takes precedence over what was written in the Bible. That doesn't mean the entire Bible is wrong.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

It doesn't mean the entire bible is wrong, but it does mean the bible is fallible; it's merely speculative writing done by imperfect humans long ago. So how can a person have faith in a particular god if there is no reliable source detailing the nature of that god? And this is actually off topic from my main qualm with religion vs evolution, which is this: how did humans evolve from lesser animals into higher beings who possess souls, i.e. how and when did the first soul come about?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

The Bible isn't completely speculative and unreliable. Nobody was there at the beginning of Genesis, so it was probably just supposed to make their religion look cool. The rules in Leviticus were written by Jewish men, about Jewish men, and for Jewish men. The events in Revelations are predicting the future, and may have been written just to scare people or something. Pretty much everything else is a recount of events, written by people who were there (keep in mind I haven't read the Bible, so there may be other inaccuracies). I believe these people were telling the truth, and the events they wrote about actually happened. I don't see why they have reason to lie and be persecuted, and you don't see how it could have happened according to the laws of physics. That's why it's a matter of faith. When I say I believe in evolution, that doesn't mean I believe He created the laws of physics and then took a 4-billion-year nap. He could have influenced the evolution of many or all animals, and He obviously (so I believe) had a direct part in creating humans and giving them souls, but I definitely don't believe that He created all life forms as they are today in a week.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I already agreed the bible isn't completely unreliable. I know there are fairly accurate retelling of events written in the bible. But you didn't really answer my question. The bible is a mixture of true events, speculation (Genesis/Revelations/etc), fiction (myths that were taken from other religions), and political allegory. It's probable, though, that the majority of the bible is fictitious. Therefore, it is not a reliable source detailing the nature of any god. So on what basis can you confidently worship God? When you say "God influenced evolution", it's impossible for me to refute that claim. But I do know this: evolution did not occur in the bible. In the bible, all forms of life sprung from nowhere, and humans occurred separately from animals. (Life forms like bacteria aren't mentioned at all.) Therefore, the theory of evolution is incongruous with Christian creationism. The only way to believe in both is to only believe in them only partially.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I worship God for mostly the same reasons millions of people buy lottery tickets. I know that it is logically unlikely, but it is still possible, and the possible rewards greatly exceed the sacrifice. If you define creationism as the belief that the universe was created by an omnipotent being, then it is easily compatible with evolution. If you define creationism as the belief that the universe was created by an omnipotent being, in 6 days, the Earth before the stars, and with all animals as they exist now, then I completely agree that they are incompatible. Like I said, the Bible is man's creation. The universe is God's creation. At this point, the only way our evidence of science and evolution and such could be completely wrong is if God wanted us to fail, which goes against the entire Christian faith.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

If you worship God because of the potential rewards, you don't really worship Him, you fear him. And you might want to re-calculate your chance of reaping those rewards, because there are over 2,000 religions in existence. For your sake I hope you chose the right one to follow. I agree with your second paragraph, but now we're back at square one. Creationism is incongruous with evolution, therefore the bible is not a reliable source, therefore we don't know anything about God, therefore we don't know how to worship Him. Therefore, it is impossible to fully accept evolution while also fully accepting Christianity.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

When I say "rewards," I don't just mean going to Heaven (I'm not the kind of person who thinks all other religions are going to Hell). I know what I meant, but I'm not good at explaining things. Sorry. Genesis is a book about events which nobody witnessed, which have been disproven, and which were mostly stolen from other myths to explain. These were probably written to explain what their benevolent God wasn't telling them, so people couldn't say "He created the universe, but He won't even tell you how?" The Gospel is a book about events which were witnessed by the people who wrote it, which included nothing that can be proven or disproven at the moment, and most of which went against the Jewish religion and Roman mythology, and would get them persecuted for writing down. The only reason any sane person would write about the Gospel stories is if he believed they actually happened. (You, on the other hand, don't believe in miracles and see these events as impossible, so you are willing to accept that these four men were insane. That is a perfectly acceptable belief as well.) It took a very stupid human to put these books into the same Bible, so I see nothing wrong with denying one.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

no, you cannot believe in god and trust in science. God is an inventeded myth, with no evidence for it. God has been dead a long time

by Anonymous 12 years ago

You //can// believe in God, but not the Christian god.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

And why is that?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Because it goes against what's said in the Bible.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

What if you don't take the bible literally?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

How so?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

because all abrahamic monotheism, inculding islam, judaism and christianity, are completely spurious and illogical.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

But the big bang theory is mentioned in the Quran

by Anonymous 12 years ago

it's also mentioed in the Quran that the sun sets in a pond. And it isn't in a section of poetry or metaphor

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I'd really hate to act all offended and start an argument here, cause I usually roll my eyes at people who have religion-related arguments on the internet. BUT I JUST WANT TO SAY - that I think if ANYBODY ruined the image of Islam (besides Osama Bin Laden and the extremists and the misogynists and all the other mean people) it's the people who chose to translate the Quran, because the difference between the original text and "muddy pond" is just crazy. SO IF YOU WANT TO you could check out this link :http://www.answering-christianity.com/sunrise_sunset.htm cause it really put things into perspective, and if you don't that's cool because to each their own or something like that

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Of course you can. Take Einstein, who believed that there was a greater power who set everything in motion and then let things take their course from there. To put it in his own words, "I believe in Spinoza's God, who reveals himself in the harmony of all that exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fate and the doings of mankind."

by Anonymous 12 years ago

BELIEVE WHATEVER YOU WANT not my business

by Anonymous 12 years ago

When I was younger I was like this. I believed that the Big Bang and evolution were things that God had done.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Obviously you //can// believe it. In that case, God created the big bang in which all the creatures were created and they later evolved.

by Anonymous 12 years ago