How do evolution and religion coexist?

Here's a simple thought; Science tries to explain everything that is physical. Religion tries to explain everything that is Spiritual. Since we live in a world where physical forces and spiritual forces are at work, one needs to understand both in order to understand his life. You can't rely only on science Even though it's something palpable,something we can prove (or at least try to). As, in my opinion, You can't rely only on faith, wich is simply a belief.

First, it may depend on whether you're focusing on the Abrahamic tradition or religion in general. I don't believe religion and evolution are mutually exclusive, even though there are many people who take sides with one or the other. I don't take sides because I believe to do so is arrogant and foolish.

Let's say your focus in on Christianity, which includes the Judaic tradition in the Old Testament. As far as I know, the "literal" interpretation of the Bible is a fairly new invention. I believe, throughout history, the allegorical interpretation has dominated.

People didn't read Bibles throughout most of history. Why? Because Bible weren't mass-produced until the invention of the printing press. In 1456 "Gutenberg Produces the First Printed Bible." Protestantism, which places great focus on an individual's personal relationship with God through reading the Bible, didn't emerge until the early 1500s.

The King James Bible wasn't completed until 1611. This "Version" is the basis for most contemporary Protestant forms of Christianity, as far as I know. So, what's my point? Evolution and creationism aren't mutually exclusive. While serious questions ought to be raised about the authoring of "God's Word" it's not impossible that ancient Hebrews were inspired by God. It's not impossible that there was a man called Jesus, who was God's only begotten son.

I think I would focus on the fact that an allegorical interpretation of the Bible and creationism are not mutually exclusive. It's people on both sides of the debate who claim that the Bible is literal who attempt to make the two mutually exclusive when, in fact, their reasoning is biased, if not outright fallacious and false.


Let me conclude by stating I believe in evolution but I don't believe in creationism. As far as I'm concerned, I need evidence of some kind to make determinations about the existence of gods, immortal souls, the afterlife, angels, demons, and the like. I consider myself agnostic because I am open to the possibility of the existence of supernatural phenomena and I believe people who take sides, for or against creationism, often lack the evidence to do so. I feel many people believe in creationism, God, and afterlife merely to make themselves feel better, merely to make life feel like it's not in vain, not so meaningless, so they can get through the day and sleep at night. I'm also a nihilist.

they just do. one can believe in dinosaurs, stars, planets, and Star Trek and also still pray to God sometimes. Generally in times of trouble or personal turmoil you pray to God and think less about Dawrin

"Oh, Mama, can this really be the end, to be stuck inside of mobile
with the memphis blues again"

That's a fascinating subject. And one that I find parallels an ongoing conversation I've been having with my ten year old. I have a degree in anthropology--one of the 4 subfields in physical anthropogy, which primarily focuses on human evolution. Yet as someone who believes in god, I do not find it impossible to believe in both, or atleast to allow them to coexist.

The bible is supposedly the word of God, but translated to disciples. It is not out of the realm of possibility that all things spoken by God have not been translated, nor is it a stretch to imagine the interpretation to not be inclusive--meaning if in the mind if the writer he was hearing things that made no sense to him, he would sort of brush that part off. To truly believe God created Adam and Eve was created from his rib might have been more of a way to illustrate the complexities of human evolution over time. Bible Literalists hate to hear any argument to the contrary, but I feel just because it was not discussed in the bible doesn't mean it never happened. And not everyone believes in the Christian theology anyway. Every religion has its own creation stories.

Science has shown there were early bipedal hominids that predate many religious texts. We keep finding new fossils, which sometimes even prove our previous beliefs were actually incorrect. Neither science nor religion can give anyone 100% proof. It boils down to faith. Of either side. Or both. I like to tell my child that I believe God created the universe, our world, the dinosaurs, the Neanderthals, everything around us. Just because it doesn't say so in the bible doesn't mean God didn't do those things. We just don't have a record (yet) for that. Maybe in wasn't for man's eyes and ears yet to hear about those events, so it wasn't shown. But I think you can believe in the possibility of both. It is the believe in that which is not proven that is the essence of faith. Which to science and religion is a good thing :-)

More recent religions have both united. Creation and evolution. Maybe check them out.
One I know is Bahai.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-r-friberg/bahai-creation-evolution-debate_b_4721219.html

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Lincoln Lee: I lost a partner.
Peter Bishop: I lost a universe!

It would work like this: God creates the universe, and lets it run its course, but intervenes to create humans.

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Open the pod bay doors, HAL.

The the coexisting for evolution and religion in the Christian religion is called theistic evolution. From my experience as Christian who believes in theistic evolution, it comes from the belief that God used created the universe and life in it and then used evolution to evolve the basic forms of life into animals and humans. As for why we question or deny Young Earth Creationism (the belief that God created the entire universe in six 24-hour periods as stated in Genesis), from my experience it's by understanding that God doesn't experience time the same way we do.

"But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."-2 Peter 3:8 KJV

We also understand that the Bible was written by people transcribing the words of God for the people of that point in time, like how Revelations is mostly metaphor and allegory since the people back then wouldn't know about the state of the world, socially and politically, when the events of Revelations actually takes place. Likewise, God told Moses (who wrote Genesis but did not experience any of the events in it) the creation story the way He did since describing evolution would have been largely meaningless to the people who lived back then. The motivations for believing in theistic evolution and the beliefs of God's involvement can change from person to person, but in general they think along similar lines.

Also, Young Earth Creationism is a relatively knew concept. It was thought up by George McCready Price in the early 1900's. Price had little scientific education and was adamantly opposed to evolution. He believed that the Bible was completely without error and everything in the Bible was to be taken as fact (which ignores discrepancies described in the first link below). More detailed information on this from a theistic evolution believing Christian perspective is in the links included.
http://www.sciencemeetsreligion.org/theology/bible-inerrant.php
http://www.reasons.org/articles/how-young-earth-creationism-became-a-core-tenet-of-american-fundamentalism-part-2
I hope this was helpful and in time for you to complete your essay.

Adults with imaginary friends are stupid. Science and fairy tales don't coexist. Oil and water.