What are some christian's beliefs on how evolution effects moral values?

I'm participating in a debate tomorrow, and the question is- "Is the teaching of evolution dangerous to moral values?". Please respond, all who read this. ( I'd prefer christian views, because that's the side I'm doing, but anyone else- feel free to respond also!

Thread moved here from the Proposed New Topics forum.

There is no connection between Evolution and morals.There is certainly no danger associated with teaching the Theory of Evolution.Just really curious in what venue such a silly question could even come up?

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

If someone was brought up with a very simplistic faith that had a view of god something like the ancient Greeks did then the idea that God might actually use a very sophisticated process to "create" life might be seen as being against that faith.If, in addition, the individual only had "moral" behaviour because of the carrot/stick of reward or punishment in the afterlife then those so-called 'morals' might be impacted by anything that seemed to cast doubt on the simplistic faith that the person had.It seems that the situation must be rather contrived before there could be any impact. However, that is exactly the situation that fundamentalist Christians set up.

I didn't mean for it to sound silly- it's just that our teacher posed that question to us for our debate tomorrow. I was just looking for opinions to argue my different sides- it wasn't meant to be posed as a qusetion to be argued upon. Special thanx to NosyNed- now I have evidence for my other side.

To Jar-I didn't mean for it to sound silly- it's just that our teacher posed that question to us for our debate tomorrow. I was just looking for opinions to argue my different sides- it wasn't meant to be posed as a question to be argued upon. Special thanx to NosyNed- now I have evidence for my other side.This message has been edited by RobinBird, 12-13-2004 08:19 PM

I'm still curious because as a Christian I can see no moral connection with teaching evolution?Just what type of course is this?But to start with, what do you think the other side might argue?

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

This is a 9th grade English 1 class- I have no clue what connection it has- maybe that christians would be "offended" that people would try to jeopardize their believes by trying to prove them wrong- (I don't know how that would work either- seeing as I am a christian, and I have no problem w/ it) But maybe you can help me w/ this?
(PS- I have no clue what the other side would argue, either....but maybe I should think about that, huh??!?!

I suppose a Christian might argue that the idea of "survivial of the fittest" might seem to be natural, and could be applied to human society as well as nature ("Social Darwinism"), with negative moral effects. Maybe that is what the teacher had in mind.

I sure think you should. If you can counter their arguments you'll have an easier time than simply saying, "What problems?"I can tell you a few that have come up over time here.You'll hear that if you learn about Evolution you have to believe in Surviival of the Fittest and so you can just do anything you want.So how would you counter that?

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Hi RobinBird,Do you mean arguments like in the thread
here?If so, the "Christian" perspective is most clearly spelled out in messgae 9 by Almeyda.Hope this helps!

.This message has been edited by mike the wiz, 12-13-2004 09:11 PMThis message has been edited by mike the wiz, 12-13-2004 09:12 PM

You could say that if evolution is true and there is no God then there is no reason to not do something immoral if doing that immoral act is in your best interests.

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If you say there no absolutes, I ask you, are you absolutely sure?

But how would one connect the two parts of that? What does evolution being true have to do with thier being no God?The only thing you can say is that the way in which God was thought to have worked turned out to be incorrect as we learned more. Leaping from that to "no god" seems to be a rather large leap doesn't it? Since believers and non-believers alike seem to have no monopoly on doing immoral acts (however you define them) it isn't clear there is a connection between God and immoral acts either.Also the perpetrators should be careful about determining their "best interests". An anarchistic "society" might not be in the "best interests" of very many.It is, of course, an argument for debate. But it seems so very weak that I'm not sure I'd want to go that way.

General Nazort writes:

quote:

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You could say that if evolution is true and there is no God...

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Non sequitor. If evolution is true, God might still exist.

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Dog is my copilot.