Difference between revisions of "Debate: Can you be a true Christian and believe in evolution?"

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NO

It is very simple - Jesus was born to rescue us from the original sin. If there is no Adam and Eve, there is no original sin. Hence the whole premise for Christianity will break down. So every true Christian should believe in creation account - literally. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Heffalump (talk)

Reply: So are you saying that all evolutionists deny original sin? Because Darwin didn't deny original sin. -Ethan

YES

As humans are capable of believing two or more contradictory things, it entirely possible (and quite common) for someone who is truly a Christian to have a wrong view about parts of the Bible, including the parts that contradict evolution. So believing in evolution does not mean that you are not truly a Christian, even though you believe something quite anti-biblical. Philip J. Rayment 21:59, 11 March 2008 (EDT)

This is very difficult to answer. I agree with Mr. Rayment - probably yes. --JBuscombe 08:15, 14 March 2008 (EDT)

As said above. --UaSsAu 08:35, 14 March 2008 (EDT)

I don't understand. How can someone believe in two contradictory things? --Heffalump 18:31, 16 March 2008 (EDT) Can you give me an example of some thing you contradictory you believe in? --Heffalump 18:45, 16 March 2008 (EDT)

Most people who believe in two contradictory things don't realise that they believe in two contradictory things. They've never really thought through the implications of the things they believe to realise that there is a contradiction. That's not always true, though. Sometimes people do realise that they believe in two contradictory things, but choose to keep believing both of them. This I cannot understand, and I can't recall any examples. More common, however, would be those that have realised that two of the things they believe in are contradictory, but don't yet know how to solve that contradiction. Many people have become Christians but continued to believe in evolution. At first, they don't see the contradiction (believing, for example, that God used evolution to create). Later, many of them realise that there is a contradiction (their compromise doesn't actually work), but don't know how to resolve that. Fortunately, many of them ultimately resolve the contradiction by rejecting evolution, but there's many others who haven't done that last step, or haven't reached that last step yet.

But the point is, salvation is not dependent on the believer accepting every last detail of what the Bible says. Those described above who eventually come to reject evolution haven't finally become Christians at the point that they reject evolution; they were already Christians before that.

Philip J. Rayment 21:04, 16 March 2008 (EDT)

That is a great explanation, Philip. That kind of opened my eyes. --Heffalump 14:14, 17 March 2008 (EDT)

As a theistic evolutionist I think that the story of creation is more of an allegory. As for Adam and Even and Original Sin I haven't really decided whether or not they literally existed and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, or if that is an allegory as well. To be honest, I'm more of a passive evolutionist, fully realizing that I could very well be wrong while being glad that I'll be forgiven if I am. I'm just glad that the creationism v. evolution isn't really central to Christianity. FernoKlump 00:09, 25 May 2008 (EDT)

That's a defeatist attitude (don't take it personally!). Today you are a "passive evolutionists", tomorrow a "passive liberal". When will you be a "passive atheist"? Sorry for kidding, but think about it. If you don't take Creation literally, everything else in the Bible can be an "allegory". There are many allegories, metaphors, parables in the Bible, but the account of Creation is not. Nowhere it mentions that it shouldn't be taken literally. I'm sure Mr.Rayment will explain it better. --AdamE 11:18, 29 August 2008 (EDT)