Does Evolution Require Atheism? Options

[Tung]

Well does it? Most religious people and hardcore scientists today are often incline to believe that atheism and evolution are rigorously intertwined. According to the majority (us), we are thought to believe that if one is to accept evolution as the explanation for life on Earth, it usually leads that person to become an atheist.

The problem I have with this assumption is that I don’t agree with it. Contrary to popular belief, evolution actually doesn’t explain anything about the origins of the universe, the world, or life in general. You can say Evolution is more of an explanation on the development of life.

I personally believe a person can accept evolution as an explanation for the advancement of life, and the diversity, while still being able to believe that the Earth and life were first caused by God. Therefore, there’s no reason why a person can’t be a theist and at the same time accept the theory of evolution.

Thoughts?

[NoSex]

Evolution has several different theories on how the universe came to be, such as he big bang, matter always existed, etc.

Actually, the Theory of Evolution is purely post-life and biological in nature. It is not an all encompassing concept (exactly). The theory does not even posit an idea on the beginning of life, let alone on the beginning of the universe itself. The only thing that the theory addresses is the movements of biological populations (the mechanism that case variations to arise in the alleles in a specific population over a specific period of time).

Further, your evaluation of the supposedly mutually exclusive natures of creationism and evolution fails miserably because of your pigeon holed ideal of creationist thought and, at the same time, your broadening of evolutionary biology. Creationism (aka Intelligent Design) isn't bound to the text of the Bible (or the ideas of Christianity for that matter). Deists, for example, believe in a impersonal, mechanical sort of god. Also, as I had stated before, evolution only relates to the movements of already living populations.

So, essentially, belief in evolution, although it certainly encourages an atheistic "world-view," in no way makes belief in creationism impossible. The two ideas are not mutually exclusive.