"If I knew I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself." - Mickey Mantle (attr)

***

Evolution vs Christianity - Does Evolution Contradict Christianity?

"Sin and Faith

If the evolutionary account of human origins is true, then there was certainly no literal Fall from Grace — no Adam and Eve disobeying the Christian God and no Original Sin. But without Original Sin and expulsion from the Garden of Eden, then there is no reason to think that anything called "sin" (which is supposed to be disobedience to God) suddenly entered the world. If sin instead "evolved" into our ancestors through the natural development which God set into motion, why would God hold us accountable? A naturalistic development of sin should mean that insofar as we are "naturally" sinners, we simply are what our creator caused us to evolve into being...

Literalism vs. Metaphors

It's difficult to argue that a metaphorical Fall required a literal death and resurrection. One might argue for a metaphorical death and resurrection, but few if any Christians believe in that and doing so would mean rejecting some very important, orthodox facets of Christian theology...

Within the framework of evolution, sin does not appear to have any tangible, real existence. We are supposed to have sin, but did Neanderthals? Homo Habilis? Homo Erectus? Is is possible to logically argue that this "sin" was dependent upon some specific piece of genetic code which evolved into our species? There is evidence that other primates, like chimpanzees, not only have rudimentary rules within their groups but also an awareness of when they are and are not following them. Are chimps sinning? Did Jesus die for them, too? Should we be sending missionaries to them in zoos and jungles?...

Souls & Evolution

Where could souls come into play during the evolution of homo sapiens out of earlier hominids and primates? Did Cro Magnons have souls? Neanderthals? Homo Erectus? Why or why not?

What would make one hominid species so special that it would have a soul and not another hominid species? If they did have souls, were they saved without Jesus? If they weren't saved, then the Christian God is cruel and capricious. If they were saved without Jesus, then there's no reason for me to need Jesus...

Why, in fact, was there a process of evolution at all? Why all the time, death, and suffering over millions of years of so many species now extinct? Was it just to create us? The entire Neanderthal line apparently developed and ended without direct impact upon our eventual development — and for what?

Christianity actually seems to make more sense within the framework of a cosmology that reads Genesis literally in at least some ways, particularly when it comes to the special origins of humanity. One word of caution: saying "God works in mysterious ways" is an essentially meaningless answer to all of this. All it serves to state is that "I don't know either, but I still believe.""