First of all I just wanted to make a brief apology to Bluejay, as I feel that I may have made my response a bit too directed at him instead of at the subject as it should be. Secondly I would like applaud him and everyone else that does their best to make these discussions as civilized and intellectually beneficial as possible.
Here's a broad outline of evolutionary thought:
All the evidence (and there's a great deal of evidence) is consistent with the premise that all terrestrial species evolved from a few forms or one, over billions of years, in accordance with the theory of evolution, i.e the laws and facts of genetics, such as mutation, recombination, genetic drift, lateral gene transfer, and the laws and facts of genetics.
Now, here's a statement of religious belief. You may have heard of it, it's called the Apostle's Creed:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord: Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He arose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.
Can you see any conflict between them? No, me neither. 'Cos they're talking about comletely different things. Nor can hundreds of millions of people who have no problem with both statements:
The origins of the apostles creed, which you have cited, are still unsure. However it is generally agreed on that It was not written by the apostles of Jesus as once believed. It is basically a revised version of what is commonly referred to as the "old roman creed". It was used initially during the rise of christianity in rome as well as the rest of the world. Because of the rapid expansion of christianity it was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain uniformity throughout the church.In order to remedy this, church leaders used the "old roman creed" in order to lay a basic outline of what the christians of that day believed. It was later revised around 700A.D. into what we know today as the Apostles Creed. We have to realize that this was used during a time in history when people generally did not question whether or not there was a god, but rather which faith and religion had the real one, or in some cases which had the most powerful one. As a result there was not a large necessity for explaining the origin of the world as it was generally accepted that it was a god or group of gods, the question instead was which one did it.
It is also important to recognize that this was a basic summary of the early christian beliefs and that it in no way limits what christianity teaches.
If you don't believe me then read a history book, if you don't have one then I suggest you check out these websites.
Overview of Christian creeds and beliefsThe Apostles' Creed
I will also give reference to how Christianity and the bible conflicts with the theory of evolution since it seems pretty obvious that that was what you were trying to prove.
Please keep in mind that this post is not an attempt to disprove the theory of evolution, but instead it is to prove that it is in conflict with the bible what many christians believe.
One of the most basic teachings of most christian faiths is that the earth was created in perfect balance and that the sin that the sin of man, originating from Adam, let to the downfall of creation including death. Obviously death is an essential part of the theory of evolution, however since it claims that humans evolved much later in the evolutionary time line after the death of innumerable living organisms. Hopefully you can see how these two time lines don't sync up. This as well as the order of creation accounted in the book of Genesis which also goes against what is largely accepted as plausible by science. Which means either or the theory of evolution was wrong, or the infallible, omnipotent God of the bible was wrong and thereby voiding all subsequent biblical entries as not trustworthy because if He is wrong about something so simple as an order of events then what else did He "get wrong".
These are just two examples of conflict with evolution with only one of the many religions in the world. I am not making the argument that evolution is wrong, instead I am making the argument that the evolutionary theory and the bible/christian faith are in conflict with each other. If you would like to see some more information I suggest visiting the following websites, as well as doing some research yourself.
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Some of you point to the catholic church and the fact that it does not take an official position on evolution and how many respected members and leaders of the catholic church have come out and publicly endorsed the theory of evolution. In response to this I would say that I cannot say why it has taken this course of action, and as a non-catholic I can say that it does not affect me or the majority of christians in america who do not follow the catholic church, keep in mind there was a split between the Catholic church and protestants who disagreed with many of its teachings. Also it is an institution run by human beings(although based on the words and teachings of God) and is thereby subject to corruption as well as human error. If I had to guess as to the reason behind Catholic churches position I would assume that it is because they foresee evolution as the eventual victor against Intelligent design in the public's mind, however this is purely speculative and irrelevant as their decisions do not affect my faith nor the truth of the bible either way.
Once again, I ask that you PLEASE keep in mind that this post is a response to claims that the christian faith, as well as the bible, are not in conflict and the theory of evolution. I am NOT attempting to prove that the evolutionary theory is wrong and I would ask also that you please read all of my post before replying as it seems to be a habit for some of you to take my words out of context.
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