Believers, do you believe in evolution? (page 3)

NewChapter

Where it all fits together on the timeline in the human evolution... I do not know. That would be one of the missing things that is yet to be discovered or understood. But there is no conflict in reality. The only conflict is in our limited or lacking understanding of one (evolution) or the other (God, spirit, etc)... or both.

And yet you seem so sure. As to the statement that there are many possible theories---there are no theories. A theory is a rigorously tested hypothesis, and this falls outside that context.

For those that believe that humans have souls, AND that we evolved, at what point in our evolution do you think we acquired a soul, and did we evolve from souless ancestors? Was there a moment when a child had a soul and its parents did not? Did we first receive souls as H. sapien, or did earlier ancestors have souls? Give me the details of your understanding---if you believe humans have a soul

NewChapter

Not me. I'm 100% meat.

nuh uh!

tec

And yet you seem so sure. As to the statement that there are many possible theories---there are no theories. A theory is a rigorously tested hypothesis, and this falls outside that context.

You assume i am speaking of a scientific theory? I am not. I am speaking of various ideas and possibilities that some have considered as to evolution and God, and spirits. There are different definitions of theory depending upon what manner you are using it.

Peace,

tammy

Christ Alone

I think it is getting impossible to deny evolution. But, like Psac, I don't believe that evolution is based on random and directionless processes.

FlyingHighNow

To the question of people who believe and who embrace evolution? If God is in the picture, then they might answer you that God or Great Spirit is the one who placed the souls of living creatures. Some people believe that all things have souls. For me, I don't waste time worrying about the when and hows of souls. Life is too short to quibble over that kind of thing from day to day. Life is so full of wonder and details that can be missed when we get too tied up in things that don't really matter.

I remember as a teenager, when I left the Bible behind, I read a lot about reincarnation. I also read about the spiritual evolution of the soul. I figured, at the time, that a soul could evolve physically and spiritually/intellectually as it reincarnated. I figured that it all began as a one celled, simple organism that became more complex and intelligent as the bodies became more complex and complicated. It was just a theory I tossed around. These days, at least for now, I don't much care about that kind of thing. I am trying to learn to experience the gift of presence. That is to enjoy life as we all did when we were children when we could enjoy the moment. As an adult, there has to be planning, learning from the past, etc., but we spend too much time in the recent or distant past or the near or distant future. So we miss out on now. Then life becomes a series of surreal experiences and to me it doesn't feel as good as life did before I turned 18, when I could, without trying, experience the gift of presence every day and night of my life.

FlyingHighNow

We are a spirit... trapped within this flesh.

Not me. I'm 100% meat.

Does that make you a meathead?

NewChapter

You don't worry about it, but nobody that does think of these things has offered an answer. The question is addressed to people that believe that humans have souls, and only humans. At what point were humans given souls? Are our ancestors souless? Can a child have a soul while its parents do not?

konceptual99

So, if you accept that modern man has been around for tens of thousands of years, was contemporary with and shared a common ancestor with at least one other human species (Neanderthals), and has a documented line of descent reaching back millions of years then how do you also accept Genesis and all it's implications.

Man was formed in God's image.

Woman came from Man.

Their creation had a purpose.

They were perfect.

They lost perfection.

They introducted sin and death into humanity.

Their fall from grace brought into question Jehovahs's authority.

Their fall from grace necessitated the establishment of a "seed" that would rise to ransom their sin.

The kingdom

The paradise

Armageddon

....

...

If Adam and Eve are not real in the sense the WTS portray then the whole of the Bible falls down like a house of cards.

It seems to me that trying to square this circle is an exercise in futility and is basically a way of trying not to throw the baby out with the bathwater so as we don't all go nuts for having wasted our time for beleiving such a crock of junk for decades. Sorry if that sounds harsh - I completely understand why we all want to believe that God could use evolution but the only way I am maintaining my sanity is to have the courage to accept this probably is all there is.

DarioKehl

Evolution is like a scaffold.

The "frames" of the scaffolding emerged with Darwin's observations and the generation of the phylogenetic tree. The fact that animals can be categorized in a neat, organized structure based on their characteristics is what got Darwin's gears turning in the first place. Once fossils were discovered and dated, the "platforms" of the scaffolding were added, giving the theory more stability. The phylogenetic tree allowed for a more accurate shape. A "nested hierarchy" of species became clearly visible. Once rock layers were dated and scientists' predictions of transitional species were confirmed (oooh... hello, tiktaalik! a fish with lungs and bony precursors to carpals inside its fins??? in the rock layer predicted??? wow!), this scaffolding was sturdy enough to support weight.

Since then, the "wingnuts" are being added! After the Human Genome project was completed, science moved on to sequencing other specific genomes and guess what happened! The phylogenetic map almost perfectly overlaid the phylogenetic tree that observation and fossils already had in place. Where it didn't overlay perfectly, it actually made the thing tighter. Retroposons, shared pseudogenes and genetic plagiarism are the tightening fasteners on this scaffold. It's solid and sturdy enough to get OSHA approval and cannot be written off as having weak integrity.

still thinking

From my understanding of evolution (which is itself evolving)...death is a fundamental part of life it is not a punishment it is simply a consequence of living. Everything dies.

So everything must have been dying before it evolved enough to have become some semblance of a human...and if that is the case, they must have been dying BEFORE they ever sinned and were able to be punished with death.

Also, with evolution, there was NEVER a first man or a first woman. It just didn't work that way.

Did our distant ancestors still have souls when they looked like this...

And if they did...do the creatures that still look like this have souls?

Believers, do you believe in evolution?

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