God and science

This is something I posted in my blog, but I wanted to post it somewhere else so I could get feedback from other members on my ideas.

I've come to a conclusion (well, conclusion for me, pretty much only a theory in the big picture though) regarding creation. The Bible would have me believe that in six days God created the entire world basically as we know it today. He said "let there be light" and there was light. He created man out of clay, and there was man as we know man to be right now. I believe, like some others, that the Biblical story of creation is not meant to be taken literally, but it is more of an allegorical story told to the early Hebrews because that's a concept they could understand and comprehend.

Now my understanding of the creation story merges God and Darwin's theory of evolution, along with the rest of the scientific world. Many people say "If you're a Christian you can't believe in evolution," but I don't think that's true. I think it is neccessary and reasonable to see God's hand in evolution.

My belief is that God created the parts and circumstances that were neccessary for life on this planet to come into being and evolve. Through God's will, the Earth was created (big bang theory doesn't disprove God, it actually could help my understanding because I would say it was God's will for the big bang to occur and start the process of life on Earth) and through God's will and awesome power life began. God's will and power, I believe, is behind all the evolution throughout the history of the Earth. I look outside and see God's hand in everything. In the beauty of the sky, the oceans, the animals, the trees, everything in nature is beautiful in its own way and this is because nature is a creation of God. People say that God can't exist because we have proved how volcanos erupt or how things are made up of atoms and chemicals; I say that God created the means possible for those things to happen. Proving a thunderstorm is not God literally shaking things up in the heavens does not diminish the fact that it is because of God that the things which make up that thunderstorm came to be.

If you take a literal interpretation of the Bible, you couldn't believe this idea. But if you start to think "outside the box" so to speak, and look at the Old Testament for what it is--for the most part, a history lesson in the form of stories, laws, ceremonies, and teachings that applied to a people who lived thousands of years ago--you will begin to understand that you can indeed merge God with the concept of science and evolution. No I do not believe that Adam and Eve are literally my first ancestors (though that story is dear to me and important to further my understanding about my religion), but I do realize that the early Hebrew people would not have been able to grasp the concept that apes somehow turned into men.

What are other people's ideas about this. Do God and science go hand in hand? Can they? I really believe that they do, and I'd like to know what other people think.

Do God and science go hand in hand?

Not if its a christian god, or a god that belongs to any religion for that matter.

If you think of god as the life force that makes seeds germinate, humans think, etc.... Then there is a possibility..

Science changes, religion stays the same. Religion lags behind in a sense.

Originally posted by Faisca
Now my understanding of the creation story merges God and Darwin's theory of evolution, along with the rest of the scientific world. Many people say "If you're a Christian you can't believe in evolution," but I don't think that's true. I think it is neccessary and reasonable to see God's hand in evolution.

Darwin's theory was disproved many years ago, get over it. Are you saying that you don't agree with Gregor Mendel and DNA. It's easy to disprove something when it goes against your beliefs. The sick don't find it that easy when they need a cure.

Why not if its a Christian God? Why can't the Bible stories be just that, stories to explain complicated things to a culture who couldn't understand. I don't see why God couldn't have created the means for everything to come to an end. Talk about atoms, I say God created them. It doesn't even have to do with evolution, if you say evolution has been disproved. It has to do with things that happen in nature and in science. I don't see why God couldn't have created everything that was needed for scientific processes to happen.