I do not wish to change anyone’s beliefs about Creation or Evolution, but wrote this in defense for people who tell me I am wrong unless I believe exactly what they do. This paper is short, incomplete, and is not in-depth. I am willing to provide more information, and hear arguments from your side of the story if you find this paper unacceptable. It is my opinion that the theories of Biblical Creationism and Evolution do not contradict each other. I believe that God gave this world a complete set of laws which are constant, unchanging, not limited to the moral laws given to us, and were as present in the beginning as they are today. I do not think that the idea of evolution takes away from the glory of God, but rather emphasizes it. I do not think it is an attempt to "explain" away the miracle God has done, for he has given us this observation in plain sight. Before giving the reasons for my belief, an assumption must be made that the Bible is meant to be interpreted instead of taken literally. Aside from the fact that there are already two different stories of creation found in the Bible (Gen 1 and Gen 2); I will support the idea of interpretation with two short examples which should be sufficient: Jesus said, "I am the vine, you are the branches" to His disciples (John 15:5). This is not to be taken literally. PSA 145:9 The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works. JER 13:14 And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them. My faith accepts no contradictions; so again, this is an example of how the Bible was meant to be interpreted. According to the Bible, the Earth is flat. How can Young Earth Creationists accept this? They don’t. Why they selectively choose to believe certain parts of the Bible and not others is beyond me. Bishop Ussher calculated 6,000 years old, and the Flood at 2348 BC by using references from the Bible. Because there are so many written historical references of civilization before 6,000 years, Creationists conveniently extend the age of the Earth to 10,000 years. Which is it? By calculating dates from the Bible, is the Earth 6,000 years old or not?
18 February 2014 “NSTA Position Statement: The teaching of Evolution”. NSTA.org. -. nd. Web. The Web. The Web.
The arguments that many Young Earth Creationists make for their belief and against evolution are that fossils were created through the great Flood, the literal belief in Genesis, and that radiocarbon dating used in Evolution is too imprecise to prove that the Earth is older than 10,000 years.
Evolution and creationism: two warring beliefs that are constantly looking for an upper hand. With similarities and comparisons that Christianity does not deny, yet evolution quickly repudiates. Where do you stand? In a belief that has so many loose threads, like a puppet that has too many strings, you try to apply it, but the strings become tangled and unusable? Or in a belief that does have proof and undeniable evidence, one that has a promise of everlasting life as apposed to a dark nothingness? A decision must be reached. Whether through further evidence outside this paper, or just through your day to day life, your must know where your beliefs lie. Just know, that if what Christians say is true, and the evidence is overlooked and criticized, you will face something much, much worse than being castigated by those around you.
The Bible has been at the center of many highly controversially issues over the last 2000 years. Believers and non-believers alike have been debating whether it is the true word of God, or just a collection of stories and myths. At the forefront of this debate is the issue of creation. Many Christians believe that God created the world in 7 literal, 24-hour days. Using this theory, they would say the earth is roughly 6000 years old, but there is also a minority who believe in an old earth and that the creation story in Genesis 1 should be taken figuratively. Those who believe that the creation story is written in figurative language hold a variety of different beliefs on the issue, but at the center of their argument is the statement that: “Genesis 1 should not be taken literally, and that there is no way the earth is only 6000 years old”. In order to understand both sides, the true meaning of the Biblical text must be understood.
Young Earth creationists believe that Earth and everything on it was created by God between 5700 and 10000 years ago (Numbers, 2006). They believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible in terms of the age of the earth. They differ from old earth creationists who interpret Genesis metaphorically and believe that the Earth is 13.798 +- 0.037 old (Scott, 2000). Young earth creationists also interpret the passages in the bible of the flat Earth literally. They reject modern astronomy, physics, the big bang theory, the age of Earth and chemistry. They also reject biological modifications that happened throughout history. Young Earth creationists believe that God created every genetic variation in all living creatures on earth. Henry Morris was one of the biggest influences of young Earth creationism in the second half of the 20th century (Scott, 2000).
Berra, Tim M. Evolution and the Myth of Creationism: A Basic Guide to the Facts in the
Chapters of Genesis have been interpreted in non-literal ways since around 1820; discoveries in geology before the arrival of Darwin’s theory have shown that the Earth is much older than Archbishop Ussher’s proposal that the world began in 4004 BCE (Ferguson 2012: 84). St Augustine himself suggested that the early books of the Bible were metaphorical and were written so the Bible would be accessible to those who were uneducated (Stewart-Williams 2010: 58). Many Christians today do not take the literal view of Genesis but still view God as the Creator despite Darwin’s theory surfacing over a century ago. Numerous believers maintain that discoveries in science that explain the process of creation just register the power of a Creator to ordain those laws (Ferguson 2012: 85). An explanation for this may be that many people who hold the belief that God is the Creator held this belief before encountering the theory of evolution (Stewart-Williams 2010: 51). They simply do not stop believing just because of this. A creator God may be an internalization that they have more than likely grown up with. Still, this could be a cultural factor as Christianity is embedded in so many societies
The book Refuting Evolution 2, by Dr. Jonathan D. Sarfati, exposes the false premise behind many evolutionary theories or hypothesis. Dr. Sarfati brings to light some of the problems with evolution and the manipulation of the humanistic world view. He tries to make the book understandable, so that Christians can talk about evolution versus creation and not be intimidated.
Creationism is based on several seemingly unquestioned assumptions. Of the several assumptions creationism defends, the foundational assumption, the inerrancy of the bible, is the most perplexing. With a literal understanding of the Bible, several problems begin to surface. “A belief in the literal truth of the Bible presupposes designation of a particular version out of the many that have been written in the last 2000 years” (Spuhler, 1985). Creationists must be dogmatic, not only about their religious beliefs, but also about which Bible is most accurate for acutely gaining the literal understanding of the Word of God. The Bible creationists use, as a translated text, has interpretation through translation inherent within the wo...
The ongoing scientific investigation of how exactly evolution occurred and continues to occur has been an argumentative idea amongst society since Darwin first articulated it over a century ago. The scientific basis of evolution accounts for happenings that are also essential concerns of religion; both religion and science focus on the origins of humans and of biological diversity. For instance, in the reading “Truth Cannot Contradict Truth,” Pope John Paul II, addressing the Pontifical Academy of Science, discussed the matter of God as creator of man. The Pope explains that men cannot relate to animals because men are superior. The reasoning for that is because God created humans under his likeness. What the church is saying about mankind contradicts with the scientific evidence scientists have found on human evolution. By analyzing the different scientific approaches, one will be able to grasp a clear understanding that the theory of evolution by natural selection conflicts with the Judeo-Christian worldview of God as creator.
6 . Life is limited and is governed by these principles , because life itself is a product of the inherited laws and may not be wrongdoing .
However, upon examination, it is possible for all of these to not only coexist, but support one another under Evolutionary Creationism. Young Earth Creationism and literally interpreting Genesis has become tradition for many churches in modern day society, but that does not make it the right way. Modern presumptions has made people blind to the true intended meaning of Genesis to act not as a literal, scientific and chronological account, but instead as it should be read: an account of creating order and bestowing function to a chaotic world. God’s messengers were ancient people, as was his audience; it is important to recognize this and read the text as such, instead of pressing modern day views upon it. If one is not careful about this distinction, they are likely to unknowingly warp the text of its true intended meaning, as has likely been occurring for some time. Young Earth Creationism is built on these incorrect assumptions, and treats Genesis like a scientific guidebook when it is not meant to be so. Genesis must be treated for what it is, and scholars who are proponents of Evolutionary Creationism such as John Walton have taken the original language of the Bible as well as the time period and culture when Genesis was written into careful account when analyzing what Genesis is really saying. By doing this, these scholars
Evolution is a theory that argues that all organisms alive on earth today share a common ancestor. It is thought that through generations, specific changes or adaptations were established in species in order to help them survive, reproduce, and raise offspring. But how are we certain that these changes occurred? Today, there is an abundant amount of research evidence that suggests that anatomical and physiological alterations occurred to species that caused them to turn from aquatic animals to terrestrial animals, allowing them to survive different environmental conditions. The following are several gradual changes an aquatic organism must go through in order to move to land and adjust to its new terrestrial habitat: circulatory and most importantly respiratory systems must be improved, structural adaptations should be modified, development of a skeletal system to protect the body and organs, and an adjustment of the senses must also occur.
Creationism is taking the literal meaning of the Bible. The theory of creationism is accepted all throughout the world by many different religions. Creationism is based off of Genesis, which is the first book of the Bible. Genesis 1 describes the physical event of creation. Genesis 2 describes the creation of human beings and other little details. It states that the universe was created in six days. Those days can be even more broken down into steps from there. The first four days of creation was physical. God created all the universe and the physical characteristics. This included light, darkness, dry ground, water, the sun, the moon, the stars and all of space. On the fifth and sixth day, God created animals. This included, sea creatures, birds, all animals on earth, and human beings. On the seventh day, God rested. This is the reason many Christians still keep Sundays, “a day of
Without evolution, and the constant ever changing environment, the complexity of living organisms would not be as it is. Evolution is defined as a process that results in heritable changes in a population spread over many generations (8).Scientists believe in the theory of evolution. This belief is based on scientific evidence that corroborates the theory of evolution. In Figure 1 the pictures of the skulls depict the sequence of the evolution of Homo-sapiens. As the figure shows, man has evolved from our common ancestor that is shared by homo-sapiens. The change of diet of homo-sapiens over time has thought to contribute to the change in jaw structure and overall skull shape.