Former Evolutionists and former Creationists

I live in Poland and there is not so many different people with different theories about origins of life or I just live in an non-biggest town in my country and I just do not know such people.

Of course in the United States or in the United Kingdom there is like every kind of people with different ways of life and thinking.

Today I saw opinions of some scientists (evolutionists) who became creationists and some creationists who became evolutionists. That is crazy.
Probably if I would decide to look for existence of God by reading books of both sides I would never be sure if I have got enough arguments for or against existence of God. Futhermore, I would never be sure which way I should choose to the end of my life.

For now I put my trust in Jesus Christ and I would love to seeing Him coming back and at the same time I wonder if I would start going deeper and deeper into details of evolution and creationism-would I lost my faith or make it stronger or become like "argument for and against" junkie?

Have you ever tried reading at the same time books for creationism and for evolution?

What are your experiences with both sides and how your decisions in this subject affected your life?
Are you for 100% sure about your decision or you are in the middle do not knowing which one to choose?

I'm a person who accepts evolution because of the studies I heave, well, studied over the years. When I had faith as a Christian I believed in creationism. Now I'm an atheist and I'm skeptical of creationism. Also abiogenesis in science deals with the origin of life and evolution is about how different species adapt. Hopefully I'm explaining this correctly and in a manner anyone can understand.

With creationism there are various interpretations by different believers of religions (Abrahamic faiths, Indian religions, etc.) To me faith does not equal evidence. But it's interesting for me to learn what different people believe in and why they chose to believe it.

I fully believe God made everything, including people on earth (and elsewhere). I also fully believe that God can use whatever means He wants. Be it evolution, creationism, or having off world contamination come to Earth and 'seed' the planet ... whatever. I believe God's hand guided whatever way humans came to being ....

For those who don't believe that .... that's fine. Everyone is entitled to the their opinion and there is no way to absolutely prove anyones theory right or wrong. So it's all good.

reply to post by AnnieWolf19


I've heard the arguments from evolution, scientists and atheists.
Anyone who has left Christianity for evolution must have had doubts
and let them rule their minds. In other words they didn't truly believe
in the first place. Because in my mind something would have to change
the love I have for Christ first. How can anything do that ? And you don't
have to look for proof. It's all around and best of all, inside you.

reply to post by Phoenix267


I would like to add and bump this thread. That there are people who believe in creationism and accept evolution. Their views are called theistic evolution. Where evolution is compatible with creation. I have met more Muslims who support that, but only a few Christians.

Have faith all you want, just don't let it blind you from things we can prove otherwise.

Like I'd love to meet Jesus, but then we will have Armageddon or something, so I prefer to not be on a need to know basis...

Is that possible maybe ?

Evolution is a fact, not a theory. You don't have to believe in facts; they're true anyway. You can reject them all you want; they'll just come round at you from behind and bite you in the bottom. This happens to creationists a lot.

There is a theory of evolution. It explains how and why evolution happens (through a process called natural selection). You don't have to believe the theory either, but after 164 years of steadily growing evidence – and absolutely no contradictory evidence that stands up to even casual scrutiny – it's hard for informed people to keep insisting it's not true. People who want to do that have to keep themselves deliberately ignorant. Many do.

Educated, well-meaning people who want to keep believing in God and still keep all their brain cells in one place tend to accept the theory of evolution, but believe that evolution is somehow the work of God.

That works well enough if you don't look at the subject too closely. When you do, you realise it means that God is either just a very clever organic chemist or the author of a defective creation.

Truth is the ultimate enemy of faith.

To me, they can both coexist as a mutual belief.

What we must understand is that most creation myths are all related in their details. What we must understand about that is that creation myths are also told from the point of view of those who first told the story. Basically, they're metaphors, and most of them mirror the Big Bang is some respects.

What I have come to realize is that there could possibly be a Creator, we don't know enough about the universe to give a yes or no answer to the question of whether or not there is or was a Creator that was an intelligent being.

I was raised as a Christian, but even as a child I could never believe the "New Earth" school of thought, there's just to much scientific evidence pointing otherwise.

What annoys me the most are the people that dismiss all scientific evidence to the contrary of their beliefs as "God put that there to test our faith". Why, if God exists, would he not produce more evidence supporting him? With that belief, it's like saying that God doesn't want you to believe in him.

I believe in Evolution, anyone who's studied the subject, no matter to what extent, would have to believe in it's existence.

In short, I don't believe in God, but I am open to the possibility.

reply to post by randyvs


Your words puzzled me a lot. Especially this line "something would have to change my love for Christ".

Well, your love for Christ and your own experiences with His influence and miracles in your life definitely must be stronger than any atheistic, skeptical argument.

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR PERSONAL VIEWS ON THIS SUBJECT.

For me that would be quite hard to live life without Christ. If I would become an atheist for sure I would have to choose-"if I want to be an atheist filled with empathy or be a rebelious person who does not want to work for society's good."
Some people might say "Oh, you do not have to change your beliefs, if that helps you- stay there". But this is not helpful at all, because I know that those people actually think that my belief in Christ as Creator and Savior of the World is ridiculous.

Well, I'm just wondering "if i would go deeper in evolution studies-would i loose my faith in Christ or rather keep it without becoming Theistic Evolutionist".

For me Bible has its own rules-which are clear for people, when Holy Spirit will reveal it before them and science has its own rules.
Maybe, when people realize this difference, they look for a spiritual answers about purpose of their lives from God, not looking for answers about it in science.

Why such a clever scientists like Francis Collins became Christian and not only him among scientists?
Some people can say that they are psychological weak that's why they turned to belief in Christ, some people will never know, what actually changed their views.

reply to post by AnnieWolf19


You don't have to give up your beliefs to accept the fact that is evolution.

In the Bible it states that the earth was created in 7 days, right? So, God must have told whoever wrote Genesis that, if you are to believe the Bible that is. Here's the thing. It also says, In Revelations I think, something along the lines of "In Heaven each day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is a day". Well, when God told Abraham (or whomever it was that wrote Genesis) that he created the earth in 7 days, who's to say that's 7 Earth days?

What you must realize is that much of the Bible is metaphor, especially the Creation and Garden of Eden story. It may be rooted in fact, but it's not the cut and dry facts of how it happened.

Not that I believe in the Bible as a whole, but it has some parts that I believe actually happened.

reply to post by randyvs


Just a quick correction. You don't leave a religion for evolution. Evolution may be a contributing factor to make one question their faith but one wouldn't leave a religion to follow a scientific theory. They would simply become an agnostic or atheist.

reply to post by acuna


Agreed. It would be more accurate to say left Christianity BECAUSE of evolution.
Thanks for the correction.

Reply to post by dave_welch

You cant cherry pick the bible as a true believer, you either take all of it or none. For me, with respect to all i observe eg: viruses, general progression of life, organism reaction to environment, it's hard not to apply evolution as the explanation to how life moves forward.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

I know what i believe from what i have studied.
I know that Our existence was created.

I dont believe God formed man as described in the Bible.

I believe God formed the "singularity" as science would Call it. Within this singularity all Planets, plants, water, trees and life of all kind was already present. And it all came forth as the singularity expanded and became larger. This expansion of the singularity is what we Call evolution.

Creartion and evolution go hand in hand just not at the same time. First we have the creatrion of the singularity, than the singularity evolves by expansion.

Originally posted by randyvs
reply to post by AnnieWolf19

 

I've heard the arguments from evolution, scientists and atheists.
Anyone who has left Christianity for evolution must have had doubts
and let them rule their minds. In other words they didn't truly believe
in the first place. Because in my mind something would have to change
the love I have for Christ first. How can anything do that ? And you don't
have to look for proof. It's all around and best of all, inside you.

I am a former Christian, please spare me the "they didn't truly believe in the first place" rhetoric. That's just you attempting to rationalize your beliefs, which actually shows to me that your love for Christ is not unwavering and that you need justification despite it not existing. When I was younger I believed it all unconditionally. If you asked me there was no doubt in my mind that Jesus was the savior of the world. Then I grew up and started thinking for myself and realized how unrealistic most of those stories and ideas were. Sure I could recite every prayer word for word and knew most stories by heart, and felt emotionally invested, but I had never really analyzed them up until that point. I understood the metaphorical meanings about morality, but thinking outside of the box is precisely what made me change my beliefs. When you can't get yourself to look at your own beliefs with the same scrutiny you hold for other concepts, then it becomes obvious where the problem lies. Essentially it's emotional bias based on indoctrination of children.

Many folks have that emotional connection to one religion or another due to childhood indoctrination, and breaking the cycle is difficult. Unfortunately that type of brainwashing effects people during their most impressionable ages and it's wrong. When a certain belief system is pounded into your head, it is very difficult to break the connection or even think about it rationally, outside of your comfort zone. No, the evidence is not all around us. That's just wishful thinking based on a world view that honestly has no basis in reality, not even slightly. With that said, I don't care if people believe, it's just the self righteous nonsense, and denial of factual reality and science has to end. Treat faith like faith and science like science.

I left Christianity before I even began studying evolution. Before then I swore up and down that it was "just a theory". People just have closed minds to anything that deviates from their childhood brainwashing. Mommy and Daddy would NEVER lie about something like that, would they? After all they told the truth about Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, etc etc, didn't they? It's really a psychological issue and parents need to stop brainwashing children. If parents stopped the cycle of indoctrination, religion as we know it would die. Imagine if they actually all gave their children the right to choose their own belief system instead of having one way shoved down their throat as absolute fact. Christianity and most religions rely psychologically damaging children to ensure they retain their followers. Honestly it makes me sick. If Jesus' love was so obvious and apparent, they wouldn't need to brainwash children into believing it Most people would chose him because he would make his love obvious to them and there would be no doubt. But alas this isn't the case.

reply to post by Barcs

Then I grew up and started thinking for myself and realized how unrealistic most of those stories and ideas were

This is where you're all blowed up Barcs.
See I didn't have to grow up to start thinking
for my self. I was taught to do that from a wee lil boy.
You had to learn how not to believe in God. I'm an exception
to the indoctrination hypothesis. I've explained this before.
You obviously never had any love for Christ and without that
You're doomed.

reply to post by randyvs


Do people who've never heard of your god also have to learn to not believe in it?

The Creatrix created evolution. Who are we to limit the potential of the creator of all?

reply to post by AnnieWolf19

What are your experiences with both sides and how your decisions in this subject affected your life? Are you for 100% sure about your decision or you are in the middle do not knowing which one to choose?

What I am fairly confident in believing on this subject...

Our species did not begin our present journey by falling from a tree and learning to walk upright. The current theory of evolution is as full of gaping holes as...

... creationism, which suggests that our species began a few thousand years ago in a lush garden called Eden... and where this guy and this gal messed up by eating a forbidden fruit.

But, like politics and the two party system, there must be a choice made and utter, complete and blind loyalty to a platform. (gak!)

Truth... whatever it may be, does not require a religion or a scientific theory to be, well, truth. The only mandate is that we have an abundance of arrogance, gullibility and naivety to follow either parade.

My two cents.