Many YEC organizations say that if evolution is true, the truth of almost the entire Bible is undermined (not to mention it's authority). Would you agree or disagree with this statement? Why?
I would like to make a comment on the original question. It seems to me that the "problem" is simply accepting what God said He did when He created the universe. There is a reluctance to let the recorded text of Genesis 1 speak for itself without reading something else into the words of the Hebrew text. Just let the words speak for themselves. Either you trust God when He speaks or you trust men when they say God is wrong -- that He really meant something else, other than what He said. Either way, you are placing your faith in one of these two.
If God is wrong or misleading here in Genesis 1, then where else in the Bible is God wrong and misleading? Young people in our world today are asking this exact question! When they hear their parents or church leaders say that Genesis 1 doesn't really teach what the words say, they take this one step further— “Then why should I trust the gospel accounts either?”
I believe this is one reason why young people are leaving the church. Theological inconsistency. When one generation compromises what God clearly says in one area of His Word, then the next generation has an open door to compromise the rest of God’s Word.
These are interesting comments, and remind me of something I have heard discussed by some theistic evolutionists: divine guidance of evolutionary processes. I am still rather unsure as to what exactly is meant by this (and to be fair, many [if not most] theistic evolutionists reject this concept or view it with skepticism), but this belief could potentially be used to guard against deism (as it makes an overarching justification of divine intervention). Alternatively, this belief could be a tacit admission of the reasonableness of intelligent design, but I will advance that statement tentatively (as I am not a theistic evolutionist).
At any rate, I would be interested in hearing people's thoughts on this concept...
Absolutely. Strict Darwinian evolution (which itself seems to have evolved somewhat, although I am not qualified to distinguish the changes on behalf of other readers) mandates that the changes within species are random. The existence of God is predicated on the (quite reasonable) assumption that the universe is planned and therefore not random. If the processes in the universe are random as evolution requires, then Christians must become (or at least place more emphasis on the principles of) deists rather than theists.
The first thing I thought of when I read this prompt was the impact of evolution on people's perceptions of the Bible. Evolution may cause people to see the Bible as unreliable or fake, because it contradicts what the Bible says. This causes people to mistrust the Bible and may make sharing the Gospel more difficult. Creation science, on the other hand, upholds the perception of the Bible as reliable; and can be an opportunity to grow one's faith or show someone the truth of the Bible.
How do you think the creation/evolution debate impacts people's perceptions?
It's been suggested in previous posts a couple of times that evolutionary interpretations of Genesis can be a slippery slope. I think it is a very slippery slope, not only in terms of what else might be reinterpreted, but what would be true if evolution were true.
I think if evolution were true it would undermine the authority of the Bible. There is a connection between evolution and death. If evolution happened, then death happened. Death plays a very important role in evolutionary theory. "Survival of the fittest" means nothing without "death of the unfit."
In the Bible, sin is the cause of death, and death came by Adam (Romans 5:12; Genesis 2:17; Romans 6:23; James 1:15). Therefore, there must not have been death before Adam existed. But evolution would have happened before Adam, and therefore death would have happened before Adam. This is a contradiction.
This doesn't just undermine the authority of Genesis. It undermines the authority of the entire Bible. First, Romans and James could be considered no longer reliable because of the previous verses.
The most central part of Christianity is the gospel. Jesus, true man and true God, came down from heaven, lived a perfect life, then suffered and died but rose from the dead to save us from our sins. Why would we need to be saved from our sins? Because sin leads to our death. If death weren't caused by sin, then Jesus came for nothing.
Now, there are multiple things that could be defined as death. Namely, spiritual death and physical death. It has been proposed that maybe sin only causes spiritual death. First, recognize that God created everything "very good." I think we can all agree that death in any form is "very bad." I would argue that both types of death came upon man because of the sin of Adam and Eve. I think that this is also present in Christ's death upon the cross. Jesus suffered not only at the hands of men (physical death), but gave up his spirit (spiritual death). Take a look at more from Romans, and then at Revelation. Revelation shows how in a way, heaven will be a place like before sin entered the world (Revelation 22:2). And that means no more death.
I would like to make a comment on the original question. It seems to me that the "problem" is simply accepting what God said He did when He created the universe. There is a reluctance to let the recorded text of Genesis 1 speak for itself without reading something else into the words of the Hebrew text. Just let the words speak for themselves. Either you trust God when He speaks or you trust men when they say God is wrong -- that He really meant something else, other than what He said. Either way, you are placing your faith in one of these two.
If God is wrong or misleading here in Genesis 1, then where else in the Bible is God wrong and misleading? Young people in our world today are asking this exact question! When they hear their parents or church leaders say that Genesis 1 doesn't really teach what the words say, they take this one step further— “Then why should I trust the gospel accounts either?”
I believe this is one reason why young people are leaving the church. Theological inconsistency. When one generation compromises what God clearly says in one area of His Word, then the next generation has an open door to compromise the rest of God’s Word.
These are interesting comments, and remind me of something I have heard discussed by some theistic evolutionists: divine guidance of evolutionary processes. I am still rather unsure as to what exactly is meant by this (and to be fair, many [if not most] theistic evolutionists reject this concept or view it with skepticism), but this belief could potentially be used to guard against deism (as it makes an overarching justification of divine intervention). Alternatively, this belief could be a tacit admission of the reasonableness of intelligent design, but I will advance that statement tentatively (as I am not a theistic evolutionist).
At any rate, I would be interested in hearing people's thoughts on this concept...
Absolutely. Strict Darwinian evolution (which itself seems to have evolved somewhat, although I am not qualified to distinguish the changes on behalf of other readers) mandates that the changes within species are random. The existence of God is predicated on the (quite reasonable) assumption that the universe is planned and therefore not random. If the processes in the universe are random as evolution requires, then Christians must become (or at least place more emphasis on the principles of) deists rather than theists.
The first thing I thought of when I read this prompt was the impact of evolution on people's perceptions of the Bible. Evolution may cause people to see the Bible as unreliable or fake, because it contradicts what the Bible says. This causes people to mistrust the Bible and may make sharing the Gospel more difficult. Creation science, on the other hand, upholds the perception of the Bible as reliable; and can be an opportunity to grow one's faith or show someone the truth of the Bible.
How do you think the creation/evolution debate impacts people's perceptions?
It's been suggested in previous posts a couple of times that evolutionary interpretations of Genesis can be a slippery slope. I think it is a very slippery slope, not only in terms of what else might be reinterpreted, but what would be true if evolution were true.
I think if evolution were true it would undermine the authority of the Bible. There is a connection between evolution and death. If evolution happened, then death happened. Death plays a very important role in evolutionary theory. "Survival of the fittest" means nothing without "death of the unfit."
In the Bible, sin is the cause of death, and death came by Adam (Romans 5:12; Genesis 2:17; Romans 6:23; James 1:15). Therefore, there must not have been death before Adam existed. But evolution would have happened before Adam, and therefore death would have happened before Adam. This is a contradiction.
This doesn't just undermine the authority of Genesis. It undermines the authority of the entire Bible. First, Romans and James could be considered no longer reliable because of the previous verses.
The most central part of Christianity is the gospel. Jesus, true man and true God, came down from heaven, lived a perfect life, then suffered and died but rose from the dead to save us from our sins. Why would we need to be saved from our sins? Because sin leads to our death. If death weren't caused by sin, then Jesus came for nothing.
Now, there are multiple things that could be defined as death. Namely, spiritual death and physical death. It has been proposed that maybe sin only causes spiritual death. First, recognize that God created everything "very good." I think we can all agree that death in any form is "very bad." I would argue that both types of death came upon man because of the sin of Adam and Eve. I think that this is also present in Christ's death upon the cross. Jesus suffered not only at the hands of men (physical death), but gave up his spirit (spiritual death). Take a look at more from Romans, and then at Revelation. Revelation shows how in a way, heaven will be a place like before sin entered the world (Revelation 22:2). And that means no more death.