How can I justify evolution of man with God creating man?
I have considered Genesis 2:7 as a possible solution. "Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being". Could this mean that God used the evolutionary process "to form man from the dust of the ground" and evolve him to a point where he then gave him a soul by "breathing life into him?"
Genesis 2:7
ESV - 7 Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
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Asked June 21 2013
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Jasper De keizer
Community answers are sorted based on votes. The higher the vote, the further up an answer is.
Kelli Trujillo
Supporter
I believe it's important to note that the theory of evolution is just that: A theory that has never been proven scientifically and for which scientific support continues to wane. It made its appearance at a time when people were ripe to believe it as there was a great cultural shift away from biblical teachings and biblical worldview toward secular humanism when it was introduced. Although it received opposition, those that were already looking for a way to dismiss the Creation account readily received evolution as fact and its supporters have tried desperately to find and present evidence to support it ever since. The Creation account used to be the prevalent answer to the age-old question, "Where did we all come from?" That has clearly changed, even though evolution has yet to be established as fact. Even among those that vehemently oppose the Creation account, there are those that admit that evolution does not provide an adequate alternative. A quote possibly attributed to a Forward from a centennial edition of "Origin of Species" says this: "Evolution is unproved and unprovable. We believe it because the only alternative is special creation, and that is unthinkable." Some people would argue that it takes as much faith or even MORE faith to believe that evolution is true than it does to believe the Creation account because there is so little empirical evidence to support evolution, while our awe-inspriing universe points to an Intelligent Designer at every turn. Look at Romans 1:20: "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." In keeping with this verse, another idea that has made a more recent debut is "Intelligent Design," a theory stating that it is clear that our universe couldn't possibly have come together on its own and attributes the formation of our known world to a supreme designer. While Christians can believe that that "Designer" is God, this theory can work for non-Christians, as well because it doesn't specifically state that God is that supreme designer and doesn't require the supporter to accept the Creation account as we read it in the Bible. Here's what I see as the bottom line: There is no need to try to reconcile evolution with the Creation account because contrary to popular belief, it is a mere theory with little or no evidence to support it as fact.
My Cup Overflows
Evolution and Creation cannot be merged. One says that natural processes over billions of years without external influence (ie. God) has produced all we see today. The other one has at it's core an all-knowing, all-powerful, omnipresent God that is supernatural working and creating. The God of the Bible is so far beyond what we can wrap our brain around that to even begin to attribute His perfect and orderly work in Creation to the earthly, imperfect process of evolution, I believe is degrading to God's person. He took 6 literal days to create everything and rested on the 7th day. He did all of this as a pattern for man, not because He was tired. He could have created it all in 6 seconds and not rested at all, but it was for us that He did it that way. Viewing Creation in the right way necessarily reflects on God and brings Him the glory He properly deserves. There are 2 very good websites that you might find helpful if you desire more study on this debate: The Institute for Creation Research (icr.org) and Answers In Genesis (answersingenesis.org). Evolution may be the biggest lie perpetuated upon this earth and has kept the many on the wide path to destruction going blindly on their way.
Leslie Ambrosio
I think God's word is completely reliable. If He says it took six days, then it took six literal days. Otherwise, how could we depend on anything else He said?
Mike Acke
You CANNOT! The bible is very clear. Exodus 20:11 AMP For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it [set it apart for His purposes]. Christians should not try to reconcile God's word with the evolutionary theory created by Charles Darwin to destroy the very faith/religion they believe. Either God's word is trustworthy from the very first verse or none of it is.
Fanny Essamuah
Man is a soul, living in a body which is the flesh, and has a spirit. So your body is the outfit for your soul. God is a perfect God and he does not need evolution to perfect his creation. Whatever he does the first time around is GOOD!!. You can either take the Genesis story or take the evolution story, but you can't merge the two. It's either you believe God or you don't Matt 6:24 says you cannot serve two masters. the evolution story discredits the creation story.
Jordan Fuller
You have a great question friend! To answer your question directly, it's certainly possible that God could have used "evolution" as a process for creating life. That's not to say that that's all He used and nothing else, or if He even used it all. Rather, God could have used what we call "evolution" to make small changes in an organism here, a small adjustment there, etc. Evolution can coincide, at least in a partial sense, with the Biblical account of creation if it's described as a process, not an origin. Regarding the "evolution of man," it's a very far stretch to say that evolution can explain the origin of man. The human body is the most biologically and biochemically complex organism in the whole world! Evolution is a simple process, and simple processes do not equate to complex machines. There are tons of processes that go on within the human body that require a significant number of interacting working parts just to carry out a single function! If I may give you some advice, it's to first be in prayer about how to answer this question in your own life and to be able to instruct others in the same way. God is our Creator, and He's left us a whole world and universe to explore what He's created! Studying and exploring the intricacies of life and nature is a wonderful expedition you can take in your life, if you choose to. I would even consider that an act of worship, for we are wanting to be fascinated by God's powerful hand shown through creation and worship God as Creator! Romans 1:20 definitely points us to God, and all of Job 38-39 is God's way of saying to us, "Who do you think you are? I, the Lord, made everything here!" Also, if you are wanting to find out further information on what science has to say about creation, evolution, etc., be wise in your pursuit of this. Don't take anything for granted; follow the evidence where it leads, even if it takes you to an understanding that you may not have previously have had. However, you must read both sides of the "issue", and get the perspectives from every angle. God has left us plenty of "fingerprints" behind of His work in nature and life, and we should discern them with logic, reason, and an open mind. Good luck and may the Lord direct you in all your ways!
Anonymous
A Christian with degrees in Bio-Chemistry, Physics, and Engineering writes:
The more I learn about this universe that we live in, the more I realize that we really don't know anything about it at all. I do know that science will never discover anything that God did not think into existence...and He thinks about you and me. WOW!
If you want to read about Einstein's theories of General and Special Relativity you will learn that time as we understand it is a function of gravity and/or velocity. So, 6 days or a million years is a matter of perspective. God's perspective or ours. You are familiar with the doppler effect. I train's horn coming toward you has one pitch, a train's horn going away from you has a much lower pitch. It is two different perspectives of the same pitch.
You may also want to try to get your head around a universe that has more dimensions than we are familiar with. We are familiar with X,Y,Z (position) and time. Obviously, as Christians we know there is a Spiritual dimension even though we may not understand it very well. There may be dozens of other dimensions that don't have an awareness of. We can't imagine the amazing things that God has created or how He did it. But we know that He did.
Again, there will never be a discrepancy between true science and God's Word. Over the centuries, man has made some incorrect assumptions about our world. We now know that the earth is not flat nor is it the center of the universe. Bottom line is, the creation/evolution debate is really pretty irrelevant to our personal relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ. God has created a universe that is so intricate and so vast that we will never come to the end of discovery, and I believe that is exactly what He wants from us. Keep seeking Him with everything you have, even if you happen to be a scientist.
Andrew Troyer
To give an illustration of what we find with those who hold to the evolutionary world view is the following… A person, walking down a path in the woods stumbles upon what looks like an iPhone 5. He bends down and picks it up. It is fully charged and receiving data. It contains multiple apps from the app store and is fully functional. Being a person who holds only to a naturalistic perspective (i.e.: doesn't' believe in the existence of Apple nor any other gadget company) you look at the device and make the claim that it must be a product of evolution. It MUST merely be the combination of minerals from the path along with wind and rain. You determine that with enough amount of TIME and CHANCE such a device could come about naturally. What is amazing is this iPhone illustration is much more plausible than a world view involving evolution. At least with the iPhone illustration we are "giving" the matter (i.e.: minerals, wind and rain) where with evolution you have to come up with your own matter. Unless you hold to the belief that matter is eternal (which no sane scientist would ever claim) evolution doesn't even have the matter in which to "evolve" into what we find in the world today. So the bottom line... no you don't need to reconcile a godless naturalistic world view with the Bible. Nor do you have to create a hybrid view and try to reconcile these 2 world views. These 2 views are not reconcilable. They are opposing world views. Those who attempt to reconcile them (i.e.: maybe God started the spark of life and created the necessary matter… and then evolution took it from there) are going down a hopeless road. Those who then attempt to make Genesis an allegory or merely a "story" for simple minded people are also not being honest with the text of Scripture. Genesis is a historical book. We need to take the type of literature it is and be honest with it is saying. It is not merely a cute story for simple minded people.
EL Mohel Castorena
The roads of Jerusalem (faith) and Athens (philosophy) shall never intersect! 1) God creating man is Faith. 2) Evolution is of man, and is philosophy-The Love of mans thoughts. Albeit a theory, faulty at best. They would have a better chance to disassemble a Rolex watch put it in a box, shake it for a billion years and have it come out of the box together and on time!
Sandee Clement
In my opinion, I think that there is a possibility that God was describing the creation metaphorically. In a similar way that a loving parent might describe something complex to a child which was well beyond their grasp for now. They'd frame the information in a way the child could understand.
Robert McDaniel
The problem with Darwinian Evolution is not what it says about where we came from but what it implies about where we are going. Therefore it is wholly incompatible with the Holy Scriptures. "Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God." Is 44:6
Ron Ray
This question addresses whether or not the information presented in scripture concerning a "day" of creation can be harmonized to an evolutionary worldview. The short answer is no. To understand the Biblical perspective of time in the context of creation, look at the Hebrew word that is used to describe "day". The hebrew word "yom" can mean the daylight portion of a day, a general amount of time (i.e. in my day, etc.) or a literal 24 hour day. To discern the context, look at the information surrounding the word. Anytime the word yom is accompanied by the terms "morning", "evening", or a number, it means a literal 24 hour day. If these words are not present, then yom must be understood in a different context (i.e. To God, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day: translation - time in general). Examine the account in Genesis and you will see the pattern repeated, morning, evening, number, morning, evening, number, etc. Only one of these elements has to be present in order for yom to be understood as a literal 24 hour day. Yet, God emphasized the literal 6 days of creation by inspiring the use of all of these words. Why go through all of this trouble and redundancy when He could have just used "day 1", "day 2".......... "day 6"? Why not just create everything in 6 minutes, 6 seconds, or in the blink of an eye? God did not need 6 whole days to create and then a 7th day to rest. Why would this time frame be necessary since God exists outside of time? Because God is not singular of purpose in anything. Not only does the textual wording of the Genesis account prohibit evolution, it emphasizes intelligent design, and also provides mankind with a pattern for living, working and resting. No where else in human history outside of God's design and plan for mankind is a 7 day week necessary. When man (that includes woman) uses God's design, we are physically and emotionally refreshed each week. More so, we are spiritually refreshed after facing the daily evils all week long. You will also do well to remember that Jesus referred to the 6 days of creation as a literal 6 days. Jesus never referred to the creation as something that happened gradually over a large span of time. This information is recorded in Greek in the New Testament. In the time span of thousands of years in which the scriptures were inspired and related to mankind, the 6 days of creation is literal. Regardless of what any atheist, scientist, Pope or anyone else says or proclaims, we each are called to examine God's Word to find the truth. God's Word is sufficient and complete alone and apart from any individual or institution.
Lawrence Chiedozi
Frankly I have never seen a conflict between Science and my religious belief in God's Creation. "Research" is just that: attemting to find out or search out things God had created but man had yet to know! Since the SUN which we use to measure "days" was not created on day 1 of God.'s creation, it means that the "God's day"is not the 24 hours we call 1 day. God's "day" could be 1000 or a million or more "24 hour days". This provides a unifying point for evolution and creation theories.
Paul Hsei
Evolution is a nonsence. Simple is that. No godly person should accept it in any form. Anyone who understands the evolution theory knows that all species have to be able to give birth first and then die to have the possibility to evolve. Another words, no birth or death, no evolution! For those bigender creatures, including mankind, one has to ask how the evolution can generate the male and female at the same time to fulfill the need to give birth? If one tries to argue with transgenderism, then he has to explain the reason of the existence of bigender-ness. Transgender certainly is more direct and convenient than bigender to maintain a specie. Bible teaches God can create by His word alone. If anyone does not believe that God is almighty or God requires some tedious process to creat, he might just say he is not a Christian. A true Christian does not need any man-made theory to believe The Lord. This is not just a matter of faith. It is also of logic.
Seth Freeman
The theory of evolution is incompatible with Christianity. Evolution essentially does two things that completely demolish the foundation of Christianity. 1. Scripture teaches that mankind is unique amongst all of God's creation. We alone are created in the Image of God. It is mankind only that has a soul that will always exist. The reason that there is such a stark difference between humans and all the rest of the animals is because of our uniqueness in being made in God's image. We alone can truly appreciate things like art, music, even creating things of our own. We have a moral conscience. We are unique amongst all created things. Evolution necessarily strips this uniqueness away. 2. Secondly, if Adam and Eve were not literally and truly the first two people, then there is no way to account for sin entering the world and our inherited sinful nature. In Scripture, Adam and Eve are always, absolutely always treated as if they were real people. Jesus references them, the apostles reference them. Jesus is called the second Adam, because just as sin entered through the first, so Salvation entered through the second. Adam and Eve as the first created humans are essential to understanding sin and our need for forgiveness. Evolution is the current "best guess" theory out there for people that are not willing to accept that there is a God. It is the only competing theory for our origins, and therefore it will be clung to with great vigor and conviction by those that are not willing to accept that there is a God.
Anonymous
You can't justify evolution. To evolve is being formed from another source. God created Adam from dust, where did dust come from but God. Scientist been proving the existence of God by trying to disprove that He exist. Just know this every scientist has to add something to their research in order for it to work. God just spoke it to existence, and everyday we wake up and look around us, should remind us that God is real.
Jude Allen
The Creation of Man and Woman You cannot justify evolution of man with God creating man. Because God created man, man did not evolve. Gen2:7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
Vincent Mercado
Supporter
In the 1950 encyclical Humani generis, Pope Pius XII confirmed that there is no intrinsic conflict between Christianity and the theory of evolution. In 1996, Pope John Paul II affirmed the same thing.
Anonymous
God said clearly He created all. Evolution is a lie. We can believe a lie willingly. God does not say He used evolution. Don't put words in His mouth, that is very dangerous.
Anonymous
Just dealing with the creation/evolution of man, consider two points: 1. If man has evolved, from monkeys, and other things before they, then what does it mean for man to be created in the image of God? 2. If man has evolved, at what point in time did the evolution of the human soul take place? Consider especially that Christ died for humanity: at which point in the line of transitional forms were the hominids "redeemable"?
Jeff Hammond
The theory of evolution eliminates God as a meaningful explanation of origins. He therefore can't even be considered. How strange, the designer cannot be considered as part of the equation. It's just like having a Ford in front of you and saying you have to explain how it exists, but the Ford designers, scientists and factory are not allowed to be included in the explanation. Absolute nonsense! No wonder Peter prophesied that there would be an attack by scoffers in the last day who deny a completed creation, a final judgement, Noah's flood and the 2nd Coming of Christ, 2Peter 3:3-7. Only the Bible can reconcile the different view points. Micro-evolution, the ability to change in accord with the genetic code is seen everywhere - including in the Bible - we have varieties of cats, dogs, humans etc. Macro-evolution is jumping the genetic boundaries - a cat becoming a dog, and a dog becoming a horse, of course. No where do we see macro-evolution fossils, only micro. We cannot accept that science but we reject the atheistic God-denying philosophy of macro-evolution. Furthermore when God created, He created a completed, functioning universe. So, of course it will have the "appearance" of age based on present day processes, while the "actual" age can be very different. e.g. When God created Adam, did he have the appearance of age based on present processes? Of course! He would have looked like a 30 yo man not a baby crawling on the ground. 90% of scientific process indicate the world is very young while 10% indicate it is old. Only the Bible can reconcile between them. What an amazing book the Bible is! Well, why not? It's God's Word!
Anonymous
I have prayed for wisdom and mediated upon this subject quite a bit and it seems to me the thought is circular and leads back to creation. evolution vs intelligent design, is the current debate. There is a scientific term for this creation and it is called terraforming. There are several points I would like to make for you to think about, so I will list them as I go. 1. I would invite you study and read what is available on this subject and what leading evolutionist have to say and decide for yourself if what I am sharing with you has any validity. In the papers you will read they will identify Christianity as their enemy. 2. scientific theory changes almost daily, Consider the leading theory is a variation of Darwin's theory of adaptation. Its base is found in the idea of random mutation over a period of millions and billions of years. this type of time period is not something that has or can be replicated in a laboratory. There fore is just theory' 3. Random mutation is the belief that adaptation due to exposure to environmental pressures and survival of the fittest is the result of life today. 4. If you buy into this what proof do they have that we are the precipice of everything living. We as humans have made light speed advances in technology over the past few years. We have advanced in mathematical theories and medical procedures, we have decoded the human genome and began cloning and growing tissue substitutes and they believe they are on the verge of even greater breakthroughs and advancement and creating life is in there grasp. 5. Over a period of billions of years who is to say that another entity did not evolve into pure energy, or past the need for a physical body or even put life here for there pleasure. 6. Consider that everything in our understanding of life is carbon based, why not silica based or energy based? It is the proof or fingerprint that one material and type of life is found made from the same elements that make up the dust of the earth by one hand 7. Mutation in the DNA level, what is DNA, it is a biological code that communicates what everything will grow into. A biological language of life. consider "and God said"....and it was so is this a coincidence. several scientist have endeavored to mutate DNA and one did it with radiation on corn specimens and found that 3-4 generations out it corrected itself, genetically modified organism do the same thing or they are sterile, He created them to have their life with their seed within themselves. where are the mutations today? 8. consider the chronological order of created life in scripture, It does coincide with all scientific evidence and the appearance of man. If the scripture is as they say man made up and the people alive today are smarter how did the author know so much. 9. scientific theory is based on inference: Webster's says it is the act of passing from one proposition, statement, or judgment considered as true to another whose truth is believed to follow from that of the former. it is an assumption based on an assumption. If enough people say it must be true right? 10. scripture was never meant to be an instruction guide for biology but to lay to rest that spiritual question who am I why am I here and do I matter, what is my purpose. It is meant to be a road map that leads His chosen back to Him. There is none so blind as those who do not want to see, I see his finger prints in everything around me, yet I was blind until He called my name. The spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus the Christ
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