Why isn't evolution in the Bible?

[The Sum of Awe]

If the Bible's story Genesis was about how God created mankind, why isn't Evolution in the Bible?

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Can this be moved to Scriptural Debates?

 

[Father Heathen]

There are three possible answers you're gonna get; one is that the ancient people who wrote it didn't have the level of scientific understanding that we have today, and second is that evolution is a lie and never happened, and the last is that genesis is allegorical and non literal.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

There are three possible answers you're gonna get; one is that the ancient people who wrote it didn't have the level of scientific understanding that we have today, and second is that evolution is a lie and never happened, and the last is that genesis is allegorical and non literal.

But didn't the ancients claim to speak to God? Why wouldn't God tell them?

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

With one minor exception they got the sequence remarkably close ...

 

[Revoltingest]

There are three possible answers you're gonna get; one is that the ancient people who wrote it didn't have the level of scientific understanding that we have today, and second is that evolution is a lie and never happened, and the last is that genesis is allegorical and non literal.

A fourth could be that God didn't think people needed to know about evolution yet.

 

[Levite]

The Rabbis of the Talmud have a maxim: dibra Torah ki'l'shon b'nai adam, meaning "The Torah speaks as people speak," which not only means that Torah can speak idiomatically, metaphorically, allegorically, etc., but also that the pshat (literal, plain, surface meaning of the text) is presented in the simplest fashion, able to be comprehended by our ancient and less refined ancestors. But the pshat is only the top level of the text: it is multi-layered, capable of infinite re-interpretation and re-understanding as we evolve, and our ability to think and understand complexly progress.

 

[Breathe]

Since this is being moved to Scriptural debates..


...Why would it?
It's not exactly the easiest concept for many people to grasp even in the modern world, after all - I doubt that Bronze Age peoples would have really understood it. I get the feeling humans would have ended up making some kind of mythology behind it anyway.

After all, humans seem to have a tendency for making myths and stories to go with the facts. The Greeks did so for their chronicles, apparently, so I would imagine it would have been the same in the past.

This fool's $0.02.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

The Rabbis of the Talmud have a maxim: dibra Torah ki'l'shon b'nai adam, meaning "The Torah speaks as people speak," which not only means that Torah can speak idiomatically, metaphorically, allegorically, etc., but also that the pshat (literal, plain, surface meaning of the text) is presented in the simplest fashion, able to be comprehended by our ancient and less refined ancestors. But the pshat is only the top level of the text: it is multi-layered, capable of infinite re-interpretation and re-understanding as we evolve, and our ability to think and understand complexly progress.

Think inkblot.

 

[beenie]

** Mod Post **

This thread has been moved to Religious Debates​

 

[outhouse]

If the Bible's story Genesis was about how God created mankind, why isn't Evolution in the Bible?

because primitive man didnt have a clue about the origins of anything.

It was written with cultural influences from from previous religions in the levant.

heavy on the sumerian and egyptian influences, they didnt have a clue about evolution so you wont find it in text.

Any sort of a attempt to try and tie in ancient text to evolution is pure imagination

 

[outhouse]

With one minor exception they got the sequence remarkably close ...

How so?? this ought to be good

 

[Quagmire]

If the Bible's story Genesis was about how God created mankind, why isn't Evolution in the Bible?

It is, especially human cultural evolution. You just have to know where and how to look.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

It is, especially human cultural evolution. You just have to know where and how to look.

Show please, and how should I look?

 

[outhouse]

Show please, and how should I look?

Look in a history book if you want real science and or history.

I have stated that book should never be used for a real education.

Its fine if you want to see how the edited version the authors were trying to show how the people grew and made cultural advancements in theology.

Much of how early ancient hebrews really were as a culture was edited out early on before they were compiled to what we have today .

 

[Willamena]

If the Bible's story Genesis was about how God created mankind, why isn't Evolution in the Bible?

Are you asking why a theory originally put forth in 1859 wasn't published in documents that were mainly written prior to the turn of the first millennium?

 

[averageJOE]

It sorta is. When Noah took one of each "kind" (whatever that means) of animal into the ark those "kinds" became each "kind" animal. For example, he took one "kind" of cat and that "kind" of cat, through the years, became every single species of cat on the planet.

This is a case of hyper-evolution that is impossible in the timeframe of the bible. However, creationist who dismiss evolution as fact will quickly use it to explain "kinds".

 

[Quagmire]

Show please, and how should I look?

First thing I would suggest is that you pick up a copy of Amazon.com: The Power of Myth (9780385418867): Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers: Books (any decent library should have it). Mythology has to be approached in a certain way. A myth is like an onion: layers upon layers... What it seems to be saying on the surface is only a hint of the deeper meaning/message(s).

Because interpreting a myth is like solving a multi-layered riddle (with each solution posing a new riddle) there is no right answer, just a development of personal understanding of what it could mean.

That said, take the story of Cain and Able:
Genesis says:

"Abel was a keeper of sheep"
"Cain was a tiller of the ground"

Many scholars interpret this story as an analogy for the "split" that occurred in human cultural evolution towards the end of the Neolithic age when some of our ancestors became sedentary farmers and the fore-runners of civilized man, and others became nomadic herdsmen.

"Abel was a keeper of sheep" (a nomadic herdsman).
"Cain was a tiller of the earth" (a sedentary agriculturalist)

Cain's murder of Able could be taken as a representation of the perpetual hostilities between the two divergent cultural branches .

Later in the story Cain goes on to build the first city, which is consistent with the development of civilization from sedentary, agricultural societies.

 

[outhouse]

First thing I would suggest is that you pick up a copy of Amazon.com: The Power of Myth (9780385418867): Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers: Books (any decent library should have it). Mythology has to be approached in a certain way. A myth is like an onion: layers upon layers... What it seems to be saying on the surface is only a hint of the deeper meaning/message(s).

Because interpreting a myth is like solving a multi-layered riddle (with each solution posing a new riddle) there is no right answer, just a development of personal understanding of what it could mean.

That said, take the story of Cain and Able:
Genesis says:

"Abel was a keeper of sheep"
"Cain was a tiller of the ground"

Many scholars interpret this story as an analogy for the "split" that occurred in human cultural evolution towards the end of the Neolithic age when some of our ancestors became sedentary farmers and the fore-runners of civilized man, and others became nomadic herdsmen.

"Abel was a keeper of sheep" (a nomadic herdsman).
"Cain was a tiller of the earth" (a sedentary agriculturalist)

Cain's murder of Able could be taken as a representation of the perpetual hostilities between the two divergent cultural branches .

Later in the story Cain goes on to build the first city, which is consistent with the development of civilization from sedentary, agricultural societies.

excellent post :clap


This was big early on when the first books of the bible were written. These clues are everywhere if your aware they exist

 

[sojourner]

If the Bible's story Genesis was about how God created mankind, why isn't Evolution in the Bible?

Evolution is a scientific treatment of the creation process. Genesis is a theological treatment of the creation process.