Evolution does NOT preclude Christianity

Why is this important? 46% of Americans believe in creationism, that man was created by God without evolution. 32 % believe in theistic evolution and 15 % believe in evolution without any divine intervention. 2/3 of church-goers don't believe in evolution and 25 percent believe in theistic evolution. A large group of Christians see a conflict between their religion and evolution. For this reason, they reject evolution. This presents a problem. Evolution is easily the best description of the development of life on earth. 97% of scientists accept evolution as scientific fact. When someone rejects evolution, they reject the probable truth. Why is this a problem? Because Christians reject the truth based a misplaced sense of “duty” to reject anything that appears to conflict with the Bible. This creates MASSIVE tension between Christians and non-Christians. It makes Christians look ridiculous and it alienates Evolutionists from theism itself. http://www.huffingtonpost.com... http://www.people-press.org... But is there actually a conflict? Let's take a look. God wrote two books Speaking as a Christian, God gave us two revelations. One is what we call the Bible, the accounts ranging from ancient Jewish tradition to the early Christian church. Some believe this book to be the ACTUAL word of God and some believe it be the INSPIRED word of God written by humans. The other revelation is creation itself. “The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” -Psalm 19 A Christian accepts that God is the direct author of the physical world. A Christians also accepts that the Bible is either directly from God or inspired by God. These are two things a Christian must accept. A Christian must also accept that both Creation and the Bible (with God as the source) are some form of truth. As both of these sources are true, a Christians accepts that these truths CANNOT contradict. If they appear to contradict, one does not disprove the other. The problem doesn't lie in the source material (Earth or the Bible) the problem lies in our interpretation of it. There I said it. Interpretation. Interpretation is the slippery-slope of any discussion about the Bible. But we must interpret the Bible, there is no other choice. Taking the Bible completely literally is an interpretation in itself. A 2011 Gallup poll found that 3 in 10 Americans interpret the bible literally. However, 49% of Americans believe that the Bible is inspired by God, but, it is not meant to be taken completely literally. http://www.gallup.com... Evolution is an interpretation of the physical world. The most knowledgeable people in the area accept that it is the TRUE interpretation. If there are 2 works authored by God, both unshakable truth, and there is an inconsistency, the problem MUST lie in the interpretation. If there's an inconsistency, we must closely reexamine BOTH interpretations. To reject evolution (because of a paragraph in Genesis) is to ignore one of God's revelations to mankind. Does a Christian need to accept the old testament literally? In general, it a Christian belief that Jesus brought about the New Covenant. Jesus says in Matthew 5:17: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.“ Paul's commentary in Hebrews 8 may be helpful: 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. 8 For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel ....11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” [Jeremiah 31:31-34] 13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away." St Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430 CE) has been extremely influential in the theology of what we call Christianity. Here is what he had to say: “It not infrequently happens that something about the earth, about the sky, about other elements of this world, about the motion and rotation or even the magnitude and distances of the stars, about definite eclipses of the sun and moon, about the passage of years and seasons, about the nature of animals, of fruits, of stones, and of other such things, may be known with the greatest certainty by reasoning or by experience, even by one who is not a Christian. It is too disgraceful and ruinous, though, and greatly to be avoided, that he [the non-Christian] should hear a Christian speaking so idiotically on these matters, and as if in accord with Christian writings, that he might say that he could scarcely keep from laughing when he saw how totally in error they are. In view of this and in keeping it in mind constantly while dealing with the book of Genesis, I have, insofar as I was able, explained in detail and set forth for consideration the meanings of obscure passages, taking care not to affirm rashly some one meaning to the prejudice of another and perhaps better explanation.” — De Genesi ad literam 1:19–20, Chapt. 19 [408] The accounts in Genesis were not always taken so literally by Christians as the Fundamentalists do today. Augustine lived in the 4th century, and he spoke of this very problem. Augustine believed that accounts such as Genesis were written to make sense to the people of the day, and are not meant to be literal truth. How could it be literal, observation of the physical world contradicted it. The friction caused by the apparent contradiction between evolution and the Bible is astonishingly similar to the friction Galileo faced. The Bible states: “The LORD reigns, he is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed in majesty and is armed with strength. The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.” -Psalm 93:1 “He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.” -Psalm 104:5 The Church, naturally, rejected the thought that the Earth moved around the sun. To say that “science” contradicts the scripture debases the entire Bible. Since the Bible is ultimate truth the science must be incorrect, right? Galileo was a devout Christian his entire life. He wrote: "[In] St. Augustine we read: 'If anyone shall set the authority of Holy Writ against clear and manifest reason, he who does this knows not what he has undertaken; for he opposes to the truth not the meaning of the Bible, which is beyond his comprehension, but rather his own interpretation, not what is in the Bible, but what he has found in himself and imagines to be there.' " "This granted, and it being true that two truths cannot contradict one another, it is the function of expositors to seek out the true senses of scriptural texts. These will unquestionably accord with the physical conclusions which manifest sense and necessary demonstrations have previously made certain to us." Galileo did not see his discoveries as contrary to the Bible, but contrary to specific interpretations of the Bible by people. Today, it is (almost) universally accepted by Christians that the Earth does in fact, move. This doesn't debase the scripture because it is not what is important in the scripture. The Bible is not a science journal. A Christian must accept that God is all-powerful. He could pull off Creation in any way he chooses. As Christians, faith is not dependent on the technicalities of creation. I apologize that my argument is a little disjointed and unsourced. I wrote the majority over the last hour. I will try to do better in the next round.