Do you believe in evolution?

little-me wrote:

According to this article, Palin believes dinosaurs and men existed at the same time- about 6000 years ago. Interesting.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-pa...

It's more proof that she is, beyond the shadow of any doubt, unfit to be VP or president.

Court of Popular Opinion wrote:

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King James wrote a book? Really? What book did King James write that would have any bearing on this discussion?

Court, King James authorized and funded the translation of the bible because of complaining Puritans because they thought the other bibles used by say, Henry the VIII were too corrupt. Dee had brought up the fact that something written by someone she doesn't know "wasn't good enough". That is the bearing. This is also the bible, that added up all the years from Adam and Eve and all the stories, and that is where they came up with the world being only 6000 years old.

I was brought up on the King James version. The newer NIV is a little easier to read perhaps, but there's something a little more "traditional" about the older version.

In the end, it doesn't really matter to me who translated it, the Bible is the Bible- it's a good book that tells us about Jesus and about how to keep our society safe (no stealng, lying, killing people, etc.).

I still believe in evolution.

Amazarak wrote:

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Court, King James authorized and funded the translation of the bible because of complaining Puritans because they thought the other bibles used by say, Henry the VIII were too corrupt. Dee had brought up the fact that something written by someone she doesn't know "wasn't good enough". That is the bearing. This is also the bible, that added up all the years from Adam and Eve and all the stories, and that is where they came up with the world being only 6000 years old.

Sorry, Facetiousness does not show through sometimes in writing,:)

Arctic49519 wrote:

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It's more proof that she is, beyond the shadow of any doubt, unfit to be VP or president.

Joe B believes in eating human flesh and drinking human blood (Transubstantiation). Does that make him unfit as well?

Offering My Truth wrote:

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I am against infant baptism because baptism symbolizes a person's commitment to the faith. Babies can't make that kind of commitment. If parents want to a commitment ceremony to symbolize their commitment to raising their child in the faith, that works. But to suggest that a child can make the commitment himself is ridiculous.(Sorry about using the word "commitment" so many times!)
As for circumcision, don't even get me started on that ritual genital mutilation. Oops, too late...

OK, just curious. I don't believe that it is a commitment, but it is a sign and seal of that which God has given\done for us, the washing away of our sins. I believe that preaching is much more important because it is the chief means of grace. Sacraments are just visual rituals for weak humans to perform to be reminded of God's grace.

Melissa_CA wrote:

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I'm not trying to attack you but if you believe the world was created in 6 24 hour days then how do you explain dinosaurs? And neanderthals? I was raised Catholic, got all my sacraments, yadda yadda, but never really bought the whole creationism thing and everytime I tried to ask someone about it they would just blow me off because they couldn't explain it either. It just doesn't make sense to me.

I don't have the time to type it all out, but take a look at answersingenesis.com

For those open-minded enough, there is some very interesting reading. It even shows how science and God\faith can co-exist and agree.

The short answer is the Flood.

Constitutional Mark wrote:

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OK, just curious. I don't believe that it is a commitment, but it is a sign and seal of that which God has given\done for us, the washing away of our sins. I believe that preaching is much more important because it is the chief means of grace. Sacraments are just visual rituals for weak humans to perform to be reminded of God's grace.

I was raised in a Baptist home, and baptizing babies was unheard of for the fact that they do not understand. Only when you accepted Jesus in your heart were able to be baptized. Just a little bit of difference there again in the different philosophies of religion.

But then, these "ceremonies" or "rituals" is what the church was supposed to be getting away from. From say the Pagan beliefs, with their rituals, and statues. But every church you go into has a statue or some form of picture of Jesus in it. And all of the rituals to go along with it. Now how is that not paganism? Not to mention all of the religious holidays coincide with the pagan holidays. The winter solstice, spring equinox, etc.

Constitutional Mark wrote:

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I don't have the time to type it all out, but take a look at answersingenesis.com
For those open-minded enough, there is some very interesting reading. It even shows how science and God\faith can co-exist and agree.
The short answer is the Flood.

The Flood. I was waiting for that to be brought up. There is actual evidence of a large flood that happened in Mesopotamia. But it did not cover the world. Just the world as they knew it. But then, did God really tell Noah to build the Ark? Or was this story handed down as folklore by the survivors. Maybe this was their only way to answer those unknown questions.

I believe science and religion HAVE to co-exist. Otherwise we get nowhere.

CHAD wrote:

<quoted text>LOL!
Hey, does anyone know how to make my 93 Thunderbird evolve into a Ferrari F50?

Sure...it's easy...Take about $900k and look for a used one...:)

little-me wrote:

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I totally agree! I believe in evolution, but I just can't see how things got started here without a little divine help.
I think it's interesting how human evolution seems to be a very slow process, yet due to increases in food supply, at least in Europe and most of North America, people are a couple inches taller than they were a mere 100 years ago.

Interesting topic. Okay, here is so far where I am at with this. When I read the question, my first thought was absolutely not. Because I am a person of faith that was my initial reaction. However, after reading the posts so far, I can see that yes, evolution is in fact, real. When you are speaking about how things over time do evolve and change due to environmental factors, etc. it makes sense. So at this point I guess I am right where you are with believing that there had to have been divine help in the beginning. I just cannot subscribe to the idea that humans did, in fact, evolve from apes. But I do think that there does have to be an evolutionary process otherwise we would not be as sophisticated as we currently are as humans. Does that make any sense? It's all just my opinion.

Constitutional Mark wrote:

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I don't have the time to type it all out, but take a look at answersingenesis.com
For those open-minded enough, there is some very interesting reading. It even shows how science and God\faith can co-exist and agree.
The short answer is the Flood.

Going off the subject a bit, but furthering The Flood issue. The Flood, the story of Creation and Adam and Eve can all be traced back to ancient Sumeria. Mesopotamia, Babylon.

Actually, in Genesis, you will find two entries on the creation of woman. The first being created equal with man of the dust of the earth, and the second, from Adam's rib. In ancient Sumerian texts, Adam's first wife, created from the earth, was Lilith. Then Adam demanded that she "lay" underneath him. And Lilith, believing she was created equal, did not need to be ordered around, because they were equal. So she left the Garden, and was made out to be a demon. Then God created Eve for Adam, out of his rib. And she would be, I guess, more subservient to him.

Now, both of these verses are in the bible today. Why was Lilith left out?

-LMS- wrote:

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Interesting topic. Okay, here is so far where I am at with this. When I read the question, my first thought was absolutely not. Because I am a person of faith that was my initial reaction. However, after reading the posts so far, I can see that yes, evolution is in fact, real. When you are speaking about how things over time do evolve and change due to environmental factors, etc. it makes sense. So at this point I guess I am right where you are with believing that there had to have been divine help in the beginning. I just cannot subscribe to the idea that humans did, in fact, evolve from apes. But I do think that there does have to be an evolutionary process otherwise we would not be as sophisticated as we currently are as humans. Does that make any sense? It's all just my opinion.

Makes perfect sense. I do not know about divine help, but then, we also do not know otherwise. It is all up for debate still. They are all still opinions.

Amazarak wrote:

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I was raised in a Baptist home, and baptizing babies was unheard of for the fact that they do not understand. Only when you accepted Jesus in your heart were able to be baptized. Just a little bit of difference there again in the different philosophies of religion.
But then, these "ceremonies" or "rituals" is what the church was supposed to be getting away from. From say the Pagan beliefs, with their rituals, and statues. But every church you go into has a statue or some form of picture of Jesus in it. And all of the rituals to go along with it. Now how is that not paganism? Not to mention all of the religious holidays coincide with the pagan holidays. The winter solstice, spring equinox, etc.

Even more than getting away from pagan rituals, the Reformation was getting away from the rituals of the Catholic Church and all the sacraments. Which is why in most Reformed churches there are only 2 sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper.

And don't say every church, I belong to a church\denomination that still teaches and believes any representation of God or Christ is wrong and forbidden by the Second Commandment.

BTW, thanks for being open-minded enough to have an civil and intelligent discussion. I will pick up the book you have suggested to read about evolution.(Have to go back and find it, I'm having a brain fart on it and the author)

I said this is another forum also...

Actually, faith is not always the correct word to use. There is faith and there is reasonable expectation.

We don't have faith the sun will come up in the morning we have reasonable expectation it will based on the fact it has been doing so for billions of years.

Faith is based on belief without evidence.

Since god is based on faith there is no reason to explore god being involved with evolution because there is no evidence of a god...only faith.

little-me wrote:

According to this article, Palin believes dinosaurs and men existed at the same time- about 6000 years ago. Interesting.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-pa...

Yeah she is a whack job. I don't mind a Christian in the white house but I don't want one that thinks the earth is a mere 6,000 years old and that dinosaurs walked the earth with humans. That is just plain nuts and she should be put in a looney bin.

Constitutional Mark wrote:

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I don't have the time to type it all out, but take a look at answersingenesis.com
For those open-minded enough, there is some very interesting reading. It even shows how science and God\faith can co-exist and agree.
The short answer is the Flood.

Since you brought up the answersingenesis site I encourage you to look into www.talkorigins.org if you have an open mind.

Amazarak wrote:

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The Flood. I was waiting for that to be brought up. There is actual evidence of a large flood that happened in Mesopotamia. But it did not cover the world. Just the world as they knew it. But then, did God really tell Noah to build the Ark? Or was this story handed down as folklore by the survivors. Maybe this was their only way to answer those unknown questions.
I believe science and religion HAVE to co-exist. Otherwise we get nowhere.

If you ever watch the penn and teller show " **** " they have an episode on the bible and interview many historians about things such as the flood and how they didn't really happen the way that people think they did. It was quite interesting.

just kill me wrote:

yeah,look at obama,theres your proof!!

DITTO!!!!!!

Mr Wiggley wrote:

I said this is another forum also...
Actually, faith is not always the correct word to use. There is faith and there is reasonable expectation.
We don't have faith the sun will come up in the morning we have reasonable expectation it will based on the fact it has been doing so for billions of years.
Faith is based on belief without evidence.

Since god is based on faith there is no reason to explore god being involved with evolution because there is no evidence of a god...only faith.

Look around you, evidence is everywhere. God created the heavens and the earth and every living thing. Check out the Bible if you haven't already. It's the most published book in the world!