[sword-devel] OT: can you be a Christian evolutionist?

[fred smith]

On Sun, Dec 23, 2001 at 09:19:08AM +0800, Leon Brooks wrote:
> On Friday 21 December 2001 13:50, Chris wrote:
<snip>
> > Don't get me wrong. I'm not an apoligist for evolution - not at all.
> > But I can see where a Christian might say, well God created
> > everything, but maybe he didn't snap his fingers, maybe
> > he went through a process to get to the end result.
> 
> He did, it took six days (more specifically, six night-and-day periods), so 
> says Genesis 1:1-2:3.
> 
> > There
> > might be two scriptural arguments, God didn't make the world
> > in one shot, but he made it in steps.
> 
> Also a true claim, with metered time as above, same verses.

You may find it interesting to check out the book "Creation and Time"
by Dr. Hugh Ross. A Christian, an astronomer, who wrote this book to
suggest that the universe, which we are told displays the glory of
God, could not therefore be a liar. If the Universe "says" it is
billions of years old, then it must be.... This is only a tiny part
of his thesis, please read it and see what he says, I think he makes
compelling arguments for "old universe". Note also that he does not
use this as evidence for evolution, though.

<snip>

> We might also run into a plethora of immediate problems with both Scripture 
> and natural observations.

See the book referenced above.

<snip>

> > The point is, a thoughtful Christian could possibly believe
> > in evolution.
> 
> This is so, but it is an unstable state. On the day that said Christian is 
> forced to reconcile his belief in an omnipotent Lord and His book against a 
> belief in evolution, one or the other will go. Our obligation - our part of 
> the Great Commission - is to see that (s)he is suitably equipped to make a 
> good choice, one based on only a little more thinking than the above.

I must be really dense. I was a Christian for quite a long time before
I became aware that many Christians vehemently deny evolution. It always
seemed to me to be a neat mechanism by which God developed the universe
beginning simple and growing complex. Much the way we write code, or
engineer complex machines.

But such arguments as you're making, and all the others that many people
make about the impossibility of (for example) evolution, remind me very
much of Galileo and his non-geocentric universe. he was "obviously" wrong,
Scripture tells us (or at least "we" read into scripture) that Mankind
and our world are the center of the universe. If this scientist or his
instruments tell us otherwise, then they must be 1) wrong, 2) lying, and/or
3) instruments of the devil.

Well, we all know where that ended up. The zealots who persecuted him 
turned out to have been overly zealous in their beliefs. I prefer to
err on the side of caution, by acknowledging God as the omnipotent
creator (whose Word does not give nit-picky scientific detail, why? 
because it's not a science textbook, it's the story of his love for
his people!), who COULD have done it via stepwise refinement. 


-- 
---- Fred Smith -- fredex@fcshome.stoneham.ma.us -----------------------------
  "And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father,
  Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government there will be no end. He 
 will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding
      it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever."
------------------------------- Isaiah 9:7 (niv) ------------------------------