Why can not religious beliefs and theory of evolution go hand in hand?

[Spirit of Light]

Due to an other OP about ToE i wanted to ask this.

Why is it so difficult to be an believer in God (or other deities) and still say.
Theory of evolution may have a lot of truth in It?

Belief is a belief/ Theory of Evolution just a Theory about how life started in our universe.

Non of them give a 100% clear answer.

Or what do you think?

 

[JustGeorge]

I really don't see the conflict between religion and the theory of evolution...

Beats me.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

There's a conflict with some religions, but many there is none.

 

[The Hammer]

I've never understood the contradiction either.

I think the only people who fall into this camp, are the ones that believe in YEC ie 6000y/o earth.

 

[Nimos]

Due to an other OP about ToE i wanted to ask this.

Why is it so difficult to be an believer in God (or other deities) and still say.
Theory of evolution may have a lot of truth in It?

Belief is a belief/ Theory of Evolution just a Theory about how life started in our universe.

Non of them give a 100% clear answer.

Or what do you think?

It depends what religion you are following and how one interpret the scriptures.

If you just think there is a creator God, evolution is no issue at all.

If you take Christianity and I guess its the same for Islam, is that humans are special and created in the image of God and the thought of us having evolved from a common ancestor with the other apes ruins the idea of being special, because if that is the case, then we are obviously not more or less special than a chimp is. It also means that the bible is not correct when it make such claim.

Another issue is that the bible claim that God created all animals after their kind, so you have a dog kind, cat kind, horse kind... etc. however this is also incorrect in regards to evolution.

These two things are the major issue for those that won't accept evolution. They fully accept micro evolution meaning that humans for instance have different hair color, some might have longer legs etc. But they won't accept macro evolution, that one animal can descend from another animal.
Despite there being no difference between micro and macro evolution besides time.. micro is over short periods of time and macro is over a long period of time, but the principles for these are the same.

 

[Spirit of Light]

It depends what religion you are following and how one interpret the scriptures.

If you just think there is a creator God, evolution is no issue at all.

If you take Christianity and I guess its the same for Islam, is that that humans are special and created in the image of God and the thought of us having evolved from a common ancestor with the other apes ruins the idea of being special, because if that is the case, then we are obviously not more or less special than a chimp is. It also means that the bible is not correct when it make such claim.

Another issue is that the bible claim that God created all animals after their kind, so you have a dog kind, cat kind, horse kind... etc. however this is also incorrect in regards to evolution.

These two things are the major issue for those that won't accept evolution. They fully accept micro evolution meaning that humans for instance have different hair color, some might have longer legs etc. But they won't accept macro evolution, that one animal can descend from another animal.

Despite there being no difference between micro and macro evolution behinds time.. micro is over short periods of time and macro is over a long period of time, but the principles for these are the same.

Could the scriptures from 2000 years ago been written in a way so they at that time could understand the more simplified verson?
It could also be that God is behind how evolution actually works ( creation hidden within evolution)

 

[TransmutingSoul]

Due to an other OP about ToE i wanted to ask this.

Why is it so difficult to be an believer in God (or other deities) and still say.
Theory of evolution may have a lot of truth in It?

Belief is a belief/ Theory of Evolution just a Theory about how life started in our universe.

Non of them give a 100% clear answer.

Or what do you think?

Evolution is part of faith and life.

The key is that it is intelligent design and as an example the human species has always had the human potential and will maintain that potential into the future, no matter what form we have taken or may take.

Regards Tony

 

[exchemist]

Due to an other OP about ToE i wanted to ask this.

Why is it so difficult to be an believer in God (or other deities) and still say.
Theory of evolution may have a lot of truth in It?

Belief is a belief/ Theory of Evolution just a Theory about how life started in our universe.

Non of them give a 100% clear answer.

Or what do you think?

No, that is not what the theory of evolution is about. It is about the origin of species, i.e. how the different forms of life we see today arose from earlier ones. It is a biological theory.

How life originally started - on earth- is another topic, called abiogenesis. There is no theory of abiogenesis yet, due to the difficulty in obtaining the evidence to assemble one. It would have to be a theory of chemistry on the early earth. We have a lot of pieces of the jigsaw, but there are still a lot missing, so all we have so far are a number of partial hypotheses.

But as for your question, the main denominations of the Christian church have no trouble accepting science, including the Big Bang theory for the age and development of the universe and the theory of evolution and the age of life on earth. It is only some biblical literalist groups (nearly all extreme Protestant) that think there is a conflict. I don't know about other religions.

 

[Heyo]

Due to an other OP about ToE i wanted to ask this.

Why is it so difficult to be an believer in God (or other deities) and still say.
Theory of evolution may have a lot of truth in It?

It isn't difficult. Most believers, even most Christians, don't have a problem with the ToE.

Belief is a belief/ Theory of Evolution just a Theory about how life started in our universe.

Nope. That would be abiogenesis. Evolution is the theory how life diversified after it had started.

 

[Altfish]

Due to an other OP about ToE i wanted to ask this.

Why is it so difficult to be an believer in God (or other deities) and still say.
Theory of evolution may have a lot of truth in It?

Belief is a belief/ Theory of Evolution just a Theory about how life started in our universe.

Non of them give a 100% clear answer.

Or what do you think?

May I correct you.
The ToE is NOT about how life started; it is about how life, once begun, changed to give us the diverse range of plants, animals that we have today

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Due to an other OP about ToE i wanted to ask this.

Why is it so difficult to be an believer in God (or other deities) and still say.
Theory of evolution may have a lot of truth in It?

Belief is a belief/ Theory of Evolution just a Theory about how life started in our universe.

Non of them give a 100% clear answer.

Or what do you think?

Evolution makes God unnecessary as an explanation of the history of life. Intelligent Design becomes as absurd as "Intelligent Falling."

This is quite a blow for some theists.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Evolution is part of faith and life.

The key is that it is intelligent design and as an example the human species has always had the human potential and will maintain that potential into the future, no matter what form we have taken or may take.

Regards Tony

Intelligent Design is incompatible with the Theory of Evolution.

A cornerstone of the Theory of Evolution is that natural selection, random mutation, and inheritance are sufficient to explain the history of how life on Earth developed and diversified, and how life - at an ecosystem level - behaves today.

"Intelligent Design" is the idea that natural selection, random mutation, and inheritance are not sufficient to explain the history of how life on Earth developed and diversified, and that another mechanism (God) is required to explain the history of life.

ID and ToE are diametrically opposed. The only real idea in ID is that the Theory of Evolution is wrong.

 

[Nimos]

Could the scriptures from 2000 years ago been written in a way so they at that time could understand the more simplified verson?
It could also be that God is behind how evolution actually works ( creation hidden within evolution)

I personally don't buy that explanation, that people were to "stupid" to understand it. Because the bible is not a scientific book, so it could simply have said "I, God created all life" and just keep it with that. It would have been an even more simple explanation and would not conflict with evolution. And besides that, it is not even be a simplified version, it's straight up wrong according to how we know it works.

There are people that will say that God is behind evolution and he put it all in motion. Again, if I were a believer I wouldn't go with that, because it seems to simply be a way to dodge the issue and still it is not what the bible say. You would be reading stuff into it, that is simply not there. But a lot of people see it like that and make it work for them.

But for me, I would stick to the idea that Genesis is not to be taken literally, but as a poetic description of how God is said to have created everything. And whether he used evolution or not doesn't really matter, because its not really the purpose of Genesis of trying to give a scientific explanation of creation. But rather to explain humans, animals, our existence and relationship to God. But this would be a "modern" day understanding of it. But I would think that back then they believed that it was how it happened and it was understood literally as the way God did it or at least as the best explanation for it.

The reason for that is that I think it makes sense if you don't have the knowledge that we have today, and just had to make a qualified guess of how all of this started based on what you observed around you. Then it is not a bad or poor guess that they made by any means.

 

[sun rise]

I know Christians who see no conflict. Pope Francis and the Catholic Church don't Evolution and the Catholic Church - Wikipedia Many protestants have the same view FAQs – Sy Garte for example. What is Evolutionary Creation? - Common-questions

This is also present in Hindu thought. And Meher Baba explicitly included evolution in the model he presented.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Due to an other OP about ToE i wanted to ask this.

Why is it so difficult to be an believer in God (or other deities) and still say.
Theory of evolution may have a lot of truth in It?

Belief is a belief/ Theory of Evolution just a Theory about how life started in our universe.

Non of them give a 100% clear answer.

Or what do you think?

Some simply can't accept the facts of science superseding their belief.

 

[Spirit of Light]

My understanding is that creation and evolution go hand in hand. No matter if you call it theory of evolution or abiogenesis, they are obly different understanding of how things started and evolved.

 

[Kooky]

In my opinion it's not about a conflict of religion or beliefs, it's about a conflict of authority and a lack of trust.

Some simply can't accept the facts of science superseding their belief.

That's pretty much it. Especially when said beliefs are more convenient than the science contradicting them.

We see the same thing with COVID these days.

 

[F1fan]

Get your science right, then adjust your religious beliefs. Use symbolisms liberally, and you'll be able to have a rich religious experience, and understand how nature works at the same time.

No inner conflict and anger episodes due to trying to lie about science.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Why is it so difficult to be an believer in God (or other deities) and still say.
Theory of evolution may have a lot of truth in It?
Belief is a belief. Theory of Evolution just a Theory about how life started in our universe.
Non of them give a 100% clear answer. Or what do you think?

There is sufficient proof for Big Bang and Theory of Evolution, while there is none for God and soul. How can they go together? Sure, we are unclear about exact processes. We have come to know about Quantum imbalance and the relationship between Energy, space and time. The answer is somewhere there (in a layman's terms - about existence and non-existence).

That would be abiogenesis. Evolution is the theory how life diversified after it had started.

Abiogenesis also is a part of evolution, the first part. From self-replicating molecules to RNA to DNA, to a theory larger than Darwin's theory of evolution.

Get your science right, then adjust your religious beliefs. Use symbolisms liberally, and you'll be able to have a rich religious experience, and understand how nature works at the same time.

You mean a new apologia? God and soul still remain unnecessary untruth and fantasy.

 

[ADigitalArtist]

Intelligent Design is incompatible with the Theory of Evolution.

A cornerstone of the Theory of Evolution is that natural selection, random mutation, and inheritance are sufficient to explain the history of how life on Earth developed and diversified, and how life - at an ecosystem level - behaves today.

"Intelligent Design" is the idea that natural selection, random mutation, and inheritance are not sufficient to explain the history of how life on Earth developed and diversified, and that another mechanism (God) is required to explain the history of life.

ID and ToE are diametrically opposed. The only real idea in ID is that the Theory of Evolution is wrong.

Pretty much this. Not only does evolution not make sense with an intelligent force involved, it's actively refuted by traits we see. Unnecessary duplications, nerve pathways that are inefficient, anatomy layouts that compromise other systems.

It makes sense with a process that is random, but it would mean an unintelligent designer.

This is one reason why biologists are the least likely to be creationists within science fields.