People who believe in both God and evolution -- how do you make these two ideas mesh?

No problem.

Do not let the small groups of Atheists and Creationists make you believe that you have to choose between God and humanity's ongoing discovery of God's Creation through Science. This is not true.

Truth cannot contradict Truth. -- Pope Leo XIII

Most Jews and Christians do not take the stories of creation in the Bible literally. We believe the stories included in first 11 chapters of Genesis tell religious truth but not necessarily historical fact.

One of the religious truths is that God created everything and declared all was good.

Catholics can believe in the theories of the big bang or evolution or both or neither.

On August 12, 1950 Pope Pius XII said in his encyclical Humani generis:

The Teaching Authority of the Church does not forbid that, in conformity with the present state of human sciences and sacred theology, research and discussions, on the part of men experienced in both fields, take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter - for the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God.

Here is the complete encyclical: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encycli...

And here is the Address of Pope John Paul II to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on October 22, 1996 speaking of the Theory of Evolution: http://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_jp02tc.htm

Here is an interesting article about Pope John Paul II's opinion in the matter: http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm...

The Church supports science in the discovery of God's creation. At this time, the big bang and evolution are the most logical scientific explanations.

As long as we believe that God started the whole thing, both the Bible and responsible modern science can live in harmony.

Here is a nice list of Christian thinkers in science: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_thi...

The Clergy Letter Project an open letter endorsing the Theory of Evolution signed by over 12,000 clergy from many different Christian denominations: http://www.butler.edu/clergyproject/rel_evol_sun.h...

I suggest you read "New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy" by Robert J. Spitzer http://www.amazon.com/New-Proofs-Existence-God-Con...

http://www.magisreasonfaith.org/

With love in Christ.

The theory of evolution is about the physical world. It doesn't delve deeply into the evolution of the human mind. As a psychologist I have to be a scientist, the evidence is clear and I am willing to take on board on the facts as potential evidence. I am not a biologist though, so a lot of my work, reading and research involves neurology and consciousness. The brain alone is fascinating and the more I learn about it the less I know! How do we think, feel, love, hate and question the universe, what do we do it with? The brain alone? Highly unlikely, it is just an organ. You cannot cut it up and find your memories and feelings inside it. Yet we have them, when did we start having them? Why did we start having them? Because our brains grew and we got richer nutrition? Plausible but not enough for me. The mind exists outside the physical world, it's unexplainable and unclassifiable. If something as obvious as the human mind can exist and yet not physically exist, then I am willing to accept that there are other unimaginable existences and that our scientific knowledge is just a small part of a larger picture.

Of course it could be the human mind that created god! But then that still puts the question of when/where/why/how did the human mind come into existence?

I think evolution has established itself as a fact rather than a theory in any generally accepted use if the word fact.

I'm an atheist, but will readily accept that the fact of evolution in itself doesn't prove the nonexistence of a creator.

Richard Dawkins covers this very well in his book 'The God Delusion'. Read the chapter 'Why there probably is no God'. Note 'probably' not definitely.

God created creation in 7 days, But how long was a day until he created the sun? And that is even assuming a literal interpretation. Which brings us back to 3rd century christianity and the argument between Augustine and Jerome over literal interpretation.

God created the world and all the species. Science, including evolution, explains how He did it. It is a matter of both/and, not either/or.

I just say; "God-Darwin!" works for me...

Actually, I think that primeval earth was God's workshop. His design, and engineering methods found in fossil records, are used today in bridges, architecture, aviation, and so many other aspects of our existence, that by ignoring their substantive contribution to our present living conditions is to commit an application of cognitive denial.

Yes, theory's abound, but if we attempt to discover a true "purpose" in the long-gone fossil history that points to "us" as a species, I am afraid we will be thwarted in our efforts.

I think there is a real purpose to all things that have existed, and that by careful, and deductive reasoning, we can "meld" the theory of evolution, and God together, by admitting the presence of intelligent design within the embodiment all of these extinct entities, and their recent counterparts...How they all work together to form a web of understandable cohesiveness? I haven't a clue...and That, is part of the mystery of your question that has eluded us all.

As far as "God's Role"?, I believe we have not reached the midpoint of the play, the next curtain is as far away as T-Rex.

But if we see all things around us as a mere "time portal", we are at the latest vantage point of understanding...and God might allow us to perceive more, if we are observant!

Great question!

To be frank about this, there is no way - absolutely none - in which science and theological mythology can be combined. Or better put, you cannot use the scientific 'model' to treat with mythology or religion.

You need a separate model, one that deals with mythology and assumes all is myth from the start.

I cannot imagine anyone in a society that is finally enlightened and wise trying to fit god into the facts of the universe.

Yes he created single celled organisms that then evolved. God isn't on the same time schedule and in no hurry. Time to God is different 1 day to God is like a thousand years to man

I'm Catholic and believe that God could have created the process of evolution. Except after the plants and animals, He created Eden for mankind and created Adam and Eve.

I don't believe in evolution. However, my reasons are much more scientifically based than most people would think. People would sometimes even just fail to even believe that, because I believe in God, that I could even possibly have scientific reasons to not agree with the theory of evolution. Many people seen to think in the religious like logic, that if there is no God, than therefore evolution therefore must be absolute gospel truth. People so easily get rutted in their vision and judgment. They easily and frequently limit the range of matters they are even willing to consider to be possibility, not merely by what evidence says or not, but by what they are already persuaded of. Limiting ones own freedom for positive consideration is not something that is only done in religion. Its done with everything in this world, even in science. People in this world are often fluent in only what I call, "dumbsh*tese". Dumbsh*tese is the language people speak, when they even speak the same language, but still somehow seem to have no ability to understand one another whatsoever. This happens because people do that. They limit their range of willingness for positive considerations, by what they have found to be negative in life. It many times even leads to the lack of ability for people to even really know anything substantial about each other, but still, find negative judgments about what they are observing from another person or other people. It may sound abrasive, I do not intend it to be, but the likely enough reason you don't understand this, is that you have you "dumbsh*tese filter turned on in your reasoning. You are limiting your own range of positive considerations. If you don't take personal offence to it, you'll likely find it funny, because it really is how people are with one anther. Thay all speak and think in "Dumbsh*tese".

Christians who claim they "believe" in evolution do not fully comprehend the theory. The try to rationalise by saying god created evolution - clearly BS