NoGods Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 Did you believe in evolution as a christian? If you became a christian and believed in it, did you stop until after your de-conversion? When I was 13, I learned about evolution and natural selection. It was truly one of the few "light-bulb" moments I had in school. Hearing about it for the first time made so much sense. I was fortune enough to live in a place that had lots of fossil beds that I had access to (at the time) I saw the layers, I held the animals made of "rock". I knew they were old and I knew they had not lived for a very long time. Learning about evolution made this even more fun and interesting. At the age of 15, my family became christians. Bible is the literal word of god christians. I was taken with them into it and really had no choice I guess, though my mother would say otherwise. At that point I had to take my belief in evolution and converted it in to bible beliefs. I did a lot of OT reading trying to find the secrets of god's creation written in it. I never could and just ignored the whole thing. What I came to was this: -Yes the earth was old as science says, as there was way too much evidence to support it. -The Genesis 1&2 account was real but the days where millions of years each. - Natural selection did allow amimals to change to cope and survie. (YWHW was great that way!!!!) - Man was not affected by selection. - Dinosaurs lived and died before man was created. - The fall of satan killed them (am I really typing this?) - All bipedal apes found were deformed monkeys. - I stopped thinking about it so I could cope. The last one was hard for me as I LOVED science. Most Christians do not and don't care and believe anything others tell them. Things I never could reason out: - Where did Cain's wife come from. - If god was so powerful, why did he not just create EVERYTHING all at once. - Where did god come from (literally, not the concept) My doubts about Christianity started as a senior in high school, but I did not stop believing yet. I kind of ignored my doubts and the church for 5 years or more, but still proclaimed to be a literal bible believing cross carrier. How was it for you? Note to ant believers that may read this: The above list was what I used to cope with the overwhelming evidence for evolution. I do not believe this any more. Evolution is real, it works so get over it. Also, science was not my reason for de-conversion. It was the lack of morality found in the bible itself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mling Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 My parents are very liberal Christians, and my dad is a scientist, so this was never an issue for us. It was taken for granted in my house that evolution is true. He's playing a God father figure to a little girl, now, and whenever he shows her pictures of apes, he says they're relatives. I only ever asked one science question that he answered with "Because that's how God made the world," and that was "Why does having mass make something have gravity?" (I was in 4th grade or so). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mriana Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 I believed in Evolution as a Xian. There was no reason not to believe that it was the most accurate explanation. In the Episcopal Church the Bile is not the literal and inerrant word of God. It is also liberal and doesn't denounce science just because it disagrees with the stories in the Bile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator buffettphan Posted January 27, 2011 Super Moderator Share Posted January 27, 2011 I also believed evolution was true. I was raised catholic and attended catholic schools. We were taught that the biblical creation story was a myth. At least the catholic church got THAT right -- eventually. Of course a lot of bible-belters don't consider catholics to be christians, but that's another topic altogether... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
par4dcourse Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 As soon as I was old enough to understand the scientific concept as opposed to the fundie description of evolution, yes. It made too much sense to dismiss on religious grounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MagickMonkey Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 For most of my christian life, I did mental gymnastics in order to not believe in evolution, but I had to admit that it made a lot of sense. I was raised as a Buybull-is-gods-inerrant-word type of christian. I may have started believing evolution just prior to my deconversion, but I don't know if I could really be called a christian or just a theist at that point. The theory of evolution was certainly the first serious challenge to my faith. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Margee Posted January 27, 2011 Moderator Share Posted January 27, 2011 I believed in Evolution as a Xian. There was no reason not to believe that it was the most accurate explanation. In the Episcopal Church the Bile is not the literal and inerrant word of God. It is also liberal and doesn't denounce science just because it disagrees with the stories in the Bile. This is so funny because I thought all churches preached like the fundamentalist church I was involved with for years. I am now only learning about evolution! I am quite sure that this alone will help me on my new path. If anyone has a fabulous site to point me to, on this topic - I would so appreciate it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ouroboros Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 Did I believe in evolution as a Christian? Mostly not. I believed that scientists must be wrong somewhere, but I couldn't say what or why. And the reason was that I was certain that the creation story must be true. I had no evidence, not real reason but faith. I learned about evolution in school. Since I was brought up in a very secular country, it wasn't easy to be a believer in Creationism. I was the only one in my class. After I lost my faith, I started to study evolution more and realized how well established it was with facts, evidence, research, and repeated experiments. Evolution isn't just a good guess or just a belief, it's well rooted in real truths. It sucks that I spent so many years with my head in the clouds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mriana Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 I believed in Evolution as a Xian. There was no reason not to believe that it was the most accurate explanation. In the Episcopal Church the Bile is not the literal and inerrant word of God. It is also liberal and doesn't denounce science just because it disagrees with the stories in the Bile. This is so funny because I thought all churches preached like the fundamentalist church I was involved with for years. I am now only learning about evolution! I am quite sure that this alone will help me on my new path. If anyone has a fabulous site to point me to, on this topic - I would so appreciate it! No not all and it was one of the reasons as to why I joined the Episcopal Church after I left home- they weren't fundies, but it was also my path out of the Church too. If Xians churches don't all agree and don't all preach the same thing, then there is something very wrong with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator buffettphan Posted January 27, 2011 Super Moderator Share Posted January 27, 2011 If anyone has a fabulous site to point me to, on this topic - I would so appreciate it! Margee, I really like Jerry Coyne's "Why Evolution is True" (book, website, blog, newsletter, youtube videos). I think he's interesting, entertaining, funny -- not to mention damn smart! Plus he's a cat fanatic -- a real plus in my book! Here's a picture he recently posted: http://jerrycoyne.uc....edu/about.html http://whyevolutioni....wordpress.com/ Also, I think this series of videos is good too. http://www.youtube.c...19F146277A3EDFD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PinkSugar Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 nope. i was taught that evolution was a complete myth, carbon dating was false, god created the world in 6 sun goes up and down days, etc. my first real biology course in sophomore year was a turning pt in my deconversion, i had never learned real facts about evolution before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scitsofreaky Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 While I'm fairly certain my parents and all of the churches I attended were/are YEC, none of them ever talked about evolution directly. They drummed the story in genesis into us, but my only sources for evolution were all the science books (ie, dinosaur books) I read (which my parents either bought me or checked out of the library for me) and I just assumed they were correct. So I guess that as a little kid I believed in both without really thinking about how they weren't compatible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galien Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 I never cared, still don't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Droptail Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 I was reared in fundamentalism, and young-earth creationism was introduced and taught to me from very early on at fundie school (the only one I went to until university!). I think I was aware of the concepts of old geological age and evolution also at a young age, but as I showed my curiosity about those, my parents would suppress it; my youthful interest in astronomy went by the wayside as I was influenced to take up a 'safer' hobby in mathematics. When I went to university (a christian one, nonetheless), I pretty quickly understood that evolution was true and a fundamental part of our biological understanding, but I didn't really know much about it until last winter when I took a biology course (during which I recognized that I was deconverted). So, yes, for my last few years as a christian, I believed in evolution, though I didn't understand it well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Margee Posted January 28, 2011 Moderator Share Posted January 28, 2011 If anyone has a fabulous site to point me to, on this topic - I would so appreciate it! Margee, I really like Jerry Coyne's "Why Evolution is True" (book, website, blog, newsletter, youtube videos). I think he's interesting, entertaining, funny -- not to mention damn smart! Plus he's a cat fanatic -- a real plus in my book! Here's a picture he recently posted: http://jerrycoyne.uc....edu/about.html http://whyevolutioni....wordpress.com/ Also, I think this series of videos is good too. http://www.youtube.c...19F146277A3EDFD Wow - thanks to nogods and buffettfhan for some good info! I will definitely spend the weekend looking into this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deva Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 You can't accept evolution and be a fundamentalist Christian -- I know I could not. However, you can be a liberal Christian (such as Episcopalian) and do it. They don't harp on creation/evolution, whereas the fundys won't let you forget that its a total contradiction to the sacred King James Version of the you know what. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mriana Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 I luvz dis pic, so I stolez it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Margee Posted January 28, 2011 Moderator Share Posted January 28, 2011 You can't accept evolution and be a fundamentalist Christian -- I know I could not. However, you can be a liberal Christian (such as Episcopalian) and do it. They don't harp on creation/evolution, whereas the fundys won't let you forget that its a total contradiction to the sacred King James Version of the you know what. God Deva - how the hell did I get wrapped up in fundamentalism for all these years? EVERYTHING was taken literal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hereticzero Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 As a Christian, I thought evolution was a hogwash until I went to college and studied astronomy for a semester and then evolution 'clicked' and made sense and I've been a believer of it ever since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilentLoner Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 Did you believe in evolution as a christian? If you became a christian and believed in it, did you stop until after your de-conversion? When I was 13, I learned about evolution and natural selection. It was truly one of the few "light-bulb" moments I had in school. Hearing about it for the first time made so much sense. Pretty much the same with me. I was 12 and in the fifth garde the first time I hear about it and it just made so much sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalidasa Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 I believed in evolution. It was the only thing that made sense to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foolish girl Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 oops Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foolish girl Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 I believed in Evolution as a Xian. There was no reason not to believe that it was the most accurate explanation. In the Episcopal Church the Bile is not the literal and inerrant word of God. It is also liberal and doesn't denounce science just because it disagrees with the stories in the Bile. This is so funny because I thought all churches preached like the fundamentalist church I was involved with for years. I am now only learning about evolution! I am quite sure that this alone will help me on my new path. If anyone has a fabulous site to point me to, on this topic - I would so appreciate it! Here is a quicky for you hotstuff... ( I posted and deleted one a minute ago, in case anyone was paying attention..I had added the wrong video! ) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyjj Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 I tried very hard after my (first) conversion to believe in the whole Adam & Eve thing - at the price of some fierce cognitive dissonance. I came to faith at a Charismatic independent non-denominational church most of whom beleived in YEC. However I had just completed a degree in Physics (having covered Geophysics too) and was well aware that YEC couldn't be true. What was I thinking? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MagickMonkey Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 I believed in Evolution as a Xian. There was no reason not to believe that it was the most accurate explanation. In the Episcopal Church the Bile is not the literal and inerrant word of God. It is also liberal and doesn't denounce science just because it disagrees with the stories in the Bile. This is so funny because I thought all churches preached like the fundamentalist church I was involved with for years. I am now only learning about evolution! I am quite sure that this alone will help me on my new path. If anyone has a fabulous site to point me to, on this topic - I would so appreciate it! Here is a quicky for you hotstuff... ( I posted and deleted one a minute ago, in case anyone was paying attention..I had added the wrong video! ) Damn good video. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts