Does the bible teach evolution? I cut and pasted this from Skeptics bible.

[Cainkane1]

Does the Bible teach evolution?
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree. -- Genesis 1:11
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. -- Genesis 1:24

Notice that God lets "the earth bring forth" the plants and animals, rather than create them directly. So maybe the creationists have it all wrong. Maybe Genesis is not so anti-evolution after all.

But both Luther and Calvin rejected any non-literal interpretation of the creation accounts in Genesis.

At the Reformation the vast authority of Luther was thrown in favour of the literal acceptance of Scripture as the main source of natural science. The allegorical and mystical interpretations of earlier theologians he utterly rejected. "Why," he asks, "should Moses use allegory when he is not speaking of allegorical creatures or of an allegorical world, but of real creatures and of a visible world, which can be seen, felt, and grasped? Moses calls things by their right names, as we ought to do....I hold that the animals took their being at once upon the word of God, as did also the fishes in the sea."

Not less explicit in his adherence to the literal account of creation given in Genesis was Calvin. He warns those who, by taking another view than his own, "basely insult the Creator, to expect a judge who will annihilate them." He insists that all species of animals were created in six days, each made up of an evening and a morning, and that no new species has ever appeared since. He dwells on the production of birds from the water as resting upon certain warrant of Scripture, but adds, "If the question is to be argued on physical grounds, we know that water is more akin to air than the earth is." As to difficulties in the scriptural account of creation, he tells us that God "wished by these to give proofs of his power which should fill us with astonishment."


I cut and pasted this from "Skeptics Bible".

[Gord_in_Toronto]

The Bible (at least the OT) is a collection of tall tales told by goat herders as they sat around their camp fires at night. That any of it relates to reality is an amusing co-incidence.

[Eyeron]

No, it teaches creationism by a creator. Evolution and creationism are anathema to one another, regardless of how people try to rationalize and merge the two.

[Mr Clingford]

The Bible is not a science text book.

I'm not sure what the OP is trying to discuss.

[temporalillusion]

Those same scriptures are used by creationists who advocate intelligent design to establish evolution within a "kind" (whatever that is, no one defines it).

Meaning they accept evolution within boundaries because they have to but still deny common descent.

So no they don't teach evolution.

[MrQhuest]

My brother in law makes that claim. Last time we had that conversation, I was somewhat closeted, and did not push the issue. For some reason we do not talk too much anymore. I'm truly baffled as to how he can make such a claim, not that he has ever been burdened by, y'know, facts and all. Does anyone have any idea what chapter and verse he may be referring to?
MrQ

[lightfire22000]

The Bible is a book. It doesn't teach anything. It reflects its authors' attempts to teach. What they were trying to teach is a whole other question. I don't think the authors necessarily condemned the theory of evolution, but I don't think they taught it either.

[Cainkane1]

I found this at skepticsbible.com

[jasonpatterson]

If the Bible had something that actually had anything to do with evolution directly, I might buy the idea, but this is a little too much.

Amphibians 4:17 - And the Lord spoke, saying, "See before you the donkeys and horses of the world. Their offspring is sterile and unclean, for in begetting a mule, they act to move toward their common father. Let not the horse and the donkey nor the monkey and the man bear young, for it is an abomination to mine eyes."

If you can find a passage that is at least that clear, I'll buy it. (Oh yeah, and yes, I realize that a mule is not a devolved horse/donkey, the idea was that an acknowledgement of a common ancestor would be important.)

[Cuddles]

Originally Posted by Eyeron

No, it teaches creationism by a creator. Evolution and creationism are anathema to one another, regardless of how people try to rationalize and merge the two.

I disagree. Evolution says absolutely nothing about where life came from to start with. That's abiogenesis, and is a completely separate thing. Of course, some creationism is directly opposed to evolution. Claiming that the Earth is 6000 years old and all animals were created exactly as we see them today has rather obvious problems with the scientific viewpoint. However, claiming that evolution happened exactly as science describes, but simply that it was kicked off by some god is not opposed in any way to evolution.

The Bible itself can be taken to support either one of these views. As Gord says, it's a bunch of campfire stories by stone age goat herders, so its hardly surprising it's not particularly explicit about its stance on modern science. The point being that while the Bible certainly does not teach evolution, since the people who wrote it had no concept of evolution, neither does it contradict it. Some people will interpret it one way and some the other, but the actual words themselves are neither pro- or anti-evolution, they just don't address it at all.