Potoooooooo

In looking at the postings on this site, I have noticed that some Christians (and I guess some Muslims and Jews) Claim that the story of genesis correlates perfectly with Evolution and each enhances understanding of each other. They have said that full understanding of ancient Hebrew show that these stories were not meant to be taken literally and that the Author(either God or the Humans he inspired )were just using terms humans of that time could understand. It kind of sounds (to me at least) that the people making the claims are trying to shoe horn modern science in to the bible or vice versa.What is the opinion of Biblical scholars on this?

Malachi151

This kind of misses the point really. The theological Christian opposition to evolution doesn't really stem from a reading of Genesis.

See my article on this subject:

http://www.rationalrevolution.net/ar..._evolution.htm

The real opposition comes from the idea of an undirected process developing into the existence that we see today. The issue is not what happened at each step, its the Darwinian notion of "random mutation" and "natural selection", as opposed to "God's direction".

Potoooooooo

I am not talking about opposition I am talking about Christians (and others) who say the bible supports evolution.

Malachi151

Well I am saying that this is impossible. Most likely these people don't know what they are talking about, or they aren't talking about Darwinian evolution.

There isn't any way to have unguided evolution and God directed evolution, they are mutually exclusive.

You can ask these Christians if they mean that the Bible is describing a process in which God played no part, and see if they say yes. If so, then fine, I guess that they beleive that God played no part in the development of life, and if they think that the Bible says that, then fine.

I am saying that the theological opposition to evolution has nothing to do with a literal interpretation of Genesis. People didn't even literally interpret Genesis 500 years ago.

The conflict has to do with whether the process is unguided or directed by God.

Potoooooooo

They didnt?:huh:
How did they interpret it then?

Malachi151

I can't say that no one did, but Biblical literalism really took off in the 1800s.

Potoooooooo

So what did they belive about the origin of humans , life , thee earth etc before that?

lpetrich

I don't know why Malachi151 claims that, but the fact is that it was universally considered literal history before then. Simply check on how old people thought the Earth was. Archbishop Ussher is well-known for his calculation that the Universe was created in 4004 BCE, but he was far from the first; the Septuagint's authors calculated around 5500 BCE, and some medieval rabbi calculated 3761 BCE.

Some pagans believed that the Universe was older than that; Diogenes Laertius in his Lives and Opinions of the Eminent Philosophers stated that the Egyptian god Ptah (Hephaestus) revealed philosophy about 50,000 years ago, and St. Augustine in his City of God snorted at Egyptians who believe that the Universe is 100,000 year old instead of less than 6000 years old.

Potoooooooo

So back to what I was trying to ask. Do Christians(and others) who claim that the bible supports evolution, and that this can be clearly seen if one know enough ancient Hebrew , have a leg to stand on?

davidbach

I am not sure that this is relevant, but I have come across some way outs (Church of Christ) who wanted to tell me Noah (Utnapishtim?) only had a relatively few species in the ark. What we see today "evolved" from the rescued animals after the supposed flood.

No comment adequately describes that level of (gullibility, delusion.....choose your own word)!

David.