Creationism vs Evolution
As a Christian, must we believe in Creationism and why? How does your belief in this area impact your worldview and your view on salvation?
me too, i want to hear thoughts, not arguments
We must believe God. We must believe him per the context of his intention, without private interpretation. We must believe him with respect to the literary types he chose for the written canon. If narrative is transposed with allegory, then my worldview would certainly change. The document that gives life, would instead become a living document that changes in principle rather than application to details. It would give authority to reinterpret outside of intent, and exegesis would hold little value. Just my thought.
The Bible is a living document that has been subjected to interpretation, and is full of allegory. This is pretty well established.
Yes. However, allegory cannot be ambiguously determined or assigned out of convenience. That is why I mentioned transposition. The first step is to be honest to what it is, rather than what fits. By living document, I mean a document whose core meaning is open and subject to change over time. In that sense, I do not understand it to fit that category at all. But your point is well received and agreed with.
I was just having this discussion on Sunday. To me, my views on actual creation interpretation don’t define my belief in God as a creator.
But if we believe we evolved over a long period of time versus created in current form, what impact does that have on us as a human and a believer? A non-believer can believe whatever, I’m more interested in how a Christian’s salvation and worldview is impacted by this belief.
As a scientist, I’ve leaned to believe in scientific fact and I’ve been even more blown away during my education at just how amazing we are and just how amazing the planet is. I can’t deny a creator. I just don’t believe it was done in six days. As a God who teaches us through metaphors and examples all through the Bible, I don’t get why people get so caught up in the literal translation of Genesis.
I’m not really talking here a literal six day creation. I’m really talking about the evolution over time and the instant creation of man. Does it mean anything to be created in His image or did God wait for evolution to take place before He created, or do these even conflict?
Personally, I think there is something to the fact that we can’t correctly link ourselves through evolution even though we come really close. I believe we were created in his image and we change through evolution. I see God in how we evolve. I’m not sure where my belief is in the instant creation. I know we can’t deny evolution occurs but how much evolution takes place can be argued. I think that to me, I just don’t have the answers and will be searching for them for probably the rest of my life. Either way, it didn’t change my belief in God as the ultimate creator. Side note, I’ve heard many argue the meaning of, “In his image”. That’s always a fun conversation.
Is it evolution as defined by science, crossing over from one family to another? or adaptation where we adapt to our environment? Does that matter? I still can’t believe in us evolving from cell to fish to …. human. I don’t see direct evidence of creatures evolving from one to another. That’s where I stand. But does this belief impact salvation and worldview and in what way. That’s the real question.
There’s plenty of evidence, and I don’t see any reason for it to contradict a belief that man was made in the image of a creator. The end result is the image, so what’s wrong with a process to reach that? If you think about it, the evolution of man makes more sense than the arrogant view that we are the image of God. We are not perfect, and we continue to evolve, in more ways than one, including in the biological sense.
So I am hearing that a Christian’s understanding on Creation vs Evolution does not impact their salvation. But I still don’t hear (read) how these beliefs impact worldview.
I’ll be keeping my eye on this one 😉