# Christians who believe in evolution

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-believe-in-evolution/354347>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [April 26, 2006, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-believe-in-evolution/354347 "2006-04-26T19:40:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![baronsabato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed655f/32.png) [@baronsabato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/baronsabato)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-believe-in-evolution/354347/21 "2006-04-27T18:59:33Z")

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Pretty much what other posters have been saying: the story of the Fall represents our human capacity to sin and our nature to turn away from God. It’s an allegory and a myth, but a very true one at that. I don’t see any conflict between this and the fact of evolution.

The significance Jesus’ sacrifice and death is a tricky one to comprehend, even if you’re a young earth Creationist who thinks Adam and Eve existed 6,000 years ago. I’ve spent some time reading about different theories as to the atonement, and I still don’t know if I really “get” it yet. However, I have been moving away from substitutionary atonement to the Christus Victor theory, which was held by most Christians for the first millenia or so. Essentially, Jesus submitted himself to the world, allowing the powers and principalities of this earth to mock him, beat him, and kill him, exposing all that is evil, and with his resurrection, Christ conquered the powers that sought to destroy him, defeating death and showing us Christians the way to becoming closer to God.

It’s more complicated than that, but it’s the one that makes most sense to me.

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**Author:** ![Iris\_Rings](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d78d45/32.png) [@Iris\_Rings](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iris_Rings)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-believe-in-evolution/354347/22 "2006-04-27T22:14:58Z")

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The pope endorsed evolution, as did the last pope.

Anyone who has studied the history of biblical texts knows there are many sources and those endorsed took a lot of flack from the earliest days. The bible was originally a library of suggested reading material, not a codification of the entire faith. And it’s content has changed every century for two thousand years, so it’s fair to say some more changes are yet to come.

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**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-believe-in-evolution/354347/23 "2006-04-29T21:21:19Z")

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> [@](#):
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> **Acqua Minerale** : But they are not seperate entities. Jesus was fully human and fully God at the same time. How can the human apect sin without the God aspect sinning.

I don’t know. I don’t understand how a being can be fully human and fully God. It is a mystery.

Maybe the man Jesus had a choice about accepting or rejecting the Incarnation. It could be that that is what his time in the desert was about.

I will never have the answers or explanations.

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