Hi everyone! I am a high school student studying in a Christian school. In my bible class, we learned about YEC, OEC, and EC. Out of the three, I agree with old earth creationism because I think that some parts in the Bible are not entirely in line with evolution, but parts of it are, I am still a little confused about how people believe in YEC, OEC, and EC read the Bible differently because sometime the Bible could contradict their idea. Thank you! Stay safe and have a great day!
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Maybe you could clarify which parts of the Bible you do not think are “in line” with evolution?
Here is an article that explains some of the differences in how different views approach things:
Thank you so much. The article is very beneficial. The part that I do not think is “in line” with evolution would be common ancestry.
Also, in the article, the paragraph about OEC It said that God miraculously created new species at key moments in the history of life. I have never heard that before, which I found interesting to me and want to read more about! Is there any article that talks mainly about that? Maybe you can share it with me? Thank you!
Why?
The Bible only says that God created all living things. It does explain how. Why shouldn’t a common ancestor be part of how God created living things? Where does the Bible conflict with this?
One thing which is not in Bible is this idea of God as watchmaker or intelligent designer, let alone the idea of God as some kind of sorcerer or necromancer. The Biblical description is that of a shepherd. The Shepherd does not design his sheep. The Shepherd watches over them and guides them. And that is the EC view.
A little bit of detail is given in the case of man in Genesis 2, but the literal treatment of this is unwarranted because of the disagreement with Genesis 1, and is theologically problematic anyway.
I am talking about taking Gen 2:7 and Gen 2:21 to mean that God used some kind of necromancy to make golems of dust and bone. It is hard to understand why such monstrosities would have anything to do with human beings in any way whatsoever. Since the order in Gen 2 doesn’t even agree with Gen 1 this cannot be taken so literally in a consistent manner even if you wanted to. Instead I would suggest that Gen 2:7 simply means God created man from the stuff of the Earth according to the laws of Earth, then provided the inspiration (divine breath) to bring the human mind to life. And Gen 2:19 means God made other living things from the stuff of the Earth in the same way. As for Eve there is certainly a bone deep connection with Adam, but that is all. None of this is enough detail to refute comon ancestors or evolution.
This would be the wrong place to look for such an explanation. The EC view is that new species evolved in the way that science has discovered and God’s role was that of a shepherd while this happened. Perhaps sending a big meteor when a planet full of dinosaurs didn’t appeal to Him, just as He sent a flood when mankind’s first civilization went in the wrong direction.
Do you mean that you believe that the Bible teaches God crested Adam and so we could not have evolved and that we all came from him?
This is called progressive creationism and if you want to learn more about it, you should probably check out an old earth creationist website. Here is one. Reasons to Believe is another good website.
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Thank you!!!
Thank you for your response! I am not sure if this is a correct way of saying this and I hope this won’t offend anyone’s opinion. I believe that evolution did happen but at the same time, I do not believe human’s ancestor was anything else. So I think we are all made in the image of God. The reason why I believe in OEC was more because I am not fully convinced by the other two. Please correct me if this is wrong. I would love to learn more from people here!
I don’t get offended by other people’s questions about theology and science. When you say you believe in a old earth does that mean you still believe in a 6 day creation?
You seem to believe that Adam and Eve was real people. I do too. But in a different way. Do you believe animals evolved or was they all created full functional a long time ago? Were they created on the same day as Adam , the sixth, and over time they have evolved a little bit. Like one horse evolved into many types of horses or do you believe that all four footed hoofed mammals was one and from that we had deer, moose, horses, goats and ect.?
When it says Adam was made in the image of God what does that mean to you? Does it mean Adam physically looked like God? Or does it mean Adam was made intellectually like God? Or emotionally? Lots of people believe “in the image” to mean various things. After work I’ll be able to respond some more.
This may be an over-generalization, but I think there is a principle at work here which is close to accurate; here is my observation if helpful… though others may further qualify or correct this impression… but it certainly appears to me that…
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those who embrace YEC, when considering scientific questions, generally default to what the Bible says as the starting point of truth on scientific matters, and thus reject anything in “science” that contradicts the Bible… their interpretation of it, at least. They also believe that the Bible is to be trusted if and when it speaks to questions of science or history. If science and Scripture appear to conflict, it must be science that needs to be re-interpreted.
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those who embrace EC generally start with a commitment to science as the starting point of truth on scientific matters, and reject anything in Scripture that, if interpreted literally, would contradict science… thus they would allow alternate (metaphorically poetic) interpretations, but if Scripture and science actually appear to conflict, it must be Scripture that needs to be re-interpreted.
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I am not as familiar with OEC, or their proponents, but my impression is that philosophically, they seem to come down in the middle between the other two… it seems that, in those areas where science and scripture appear to conflict, they don’t necessarily “default” to preferencing one or the other, but seem to take each question on a “case-by-case basis”, sometimes allowing science to modify our interpretation of Scripture (as in questions of age of the universe), sometimes allowing Scripture to modify our interpretation of science (as in questions of evolution).
I believe that animals did evolve over time, and they weren’t made like how they look right now. So I think evolution did happen. Adam and Eve were real people too, and they also did evolve a little. Humans are just emotionally like God because to me, it is not convincing enough to believe that all animals evolved except for humans.
Thank you so much for explaining all three of them to me. I really appreciate it. I definitely have a better understanding of this topic now than before!
Where do you put those who think, with respect to science, that the truth that comes from the reality of the data in the Bible cannot conflict with the truth that comes from the reality of the data in God’s creation, and that if there appears to be a conflict, that it is their interpretation of one or the other or both that is in error?
I believe that all things evolved. Humans are animals. We are animals made in the image of God. I believe that image is that we evolved to the point God could reach out to us and share his wisdom. He can’t do that with anything else. You can teach a dog some things, but you can’t teach them like us.
Some things to consider is that if we were made in the image of God, then what does it mean when humanity was then told, Adam and Eve has become like us?
When reading genesis 1-11 it skips past history really fast. Thousands of years in a few pages. Then in other stories in the Bible in the same amount of pages we only move forward a little bit. If genesis is mythological in nature it means that it does not have to fit the same narrative expectations as other stories. To me it’s set up as a way to explain Gods role in our lives, setting the stage for the messiah, and many other things. When Gensid was wrote, it is believed to have been written by Moses sometime shortly before his death and another took over writing the Jewish history.
We see these few things again and again.
God chooses a few people tied to the Jewish line as his people.
God directs them towards a paradise.
God picked Abraham and guided him telling him of a paradise, a promised land.
God picked Noah and kept him safe until they ended up in a safe place.
God picked Moses and lead him towards a promised land.
God picked David, Saul, and Solomon and lead them all towards a promised land.
So knowing those narratives helps me look at genesis and look for these patterns and sort though the mythological nature for a more realistic interpretation.
God chose a man and a woman and lead them to a paradise and he was teaching them righteousness vs unrighteous. They rejected it eventually and decided to do what they thought was good and bad verses Gods plan. So in a satirical sense, they became like God. Much how God was sarcastic towards Job.
It becomes even clearer when we see the evidence from anthropology, history, and science showing where we came from.
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