Religion vs. Science: Does the Bible Support Evolution? [Creationist Debate]

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Religion and science are often portrayed as enemies with little common ground. The most frequent conflict involves the origins of the Universe. According to modern science, the evidence clearly proves that the Big Bang happened billions of years ago. Yet a literal reading of Genesis narrates God creating the entire world in only six days. This has led some Young Earth Creationists to believe that the Universe is less than 10,000 years old.

Can Genesis be reconciled with evolution? Many think so. Some apologetics argue for Intelligent Design, meaning that God guided things as they developed. Others think that God set things in motion and let evolution play out on its own. As an allegory, Genesis matches evolution remarkably well, more closely than any other sacred tradition. The days mentioned in the Bible could symbolize the passage of a much longer time, viewed from the eyes of the Lord.

Even ancient Christians like Saint Augustine preached that Scripture can never contradict natural truth. Here is what that famous theologian wrote about the subject in the early fifth century:

“Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience.

“Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an unbeliever to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men. If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods and on facts which they themselves have learnt from experience and the light of reason? Reckless and incompetent expounders of Holy Scripture bring untold trouble and sorrow on their wiser brethren when they are caught in one of their mischievous false opinions and are taken to task by those who are not bound by the authority of our sacred books. For then, to defend their utterly foolish and obviously untrue statements, they will try to call upon Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they think support their position, although “they understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertion [1 Timothy 1.7].” (The Literal Meaning of Genesis, Book 1 Chapter 19 Paragraph 39)

Perhaps Genesis was like the many parables of Jesus, a means to teach a much simpler people about deeper ideas. Maybe religion and science are describing the same thing, only using different languages.

Similar: Religion for Breakfast; Bible Project; InspiringPhilosophy; Bill Nye; Infographics Show

YouTube url:	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi9hyEStWTc
Created:	9. 3. 2023 03:39:43

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Religion vs. Science: Does the Bible Support Evolution? [Creationist Debate]