Can a Christian believe in evolution and do Christians believe neanderthals were human?

[jinglebelly]

Just curious

I think the majority of Christians do believe in evolution. I do know an atheist who doesn't believe in evolution because apparently to her it doesn't make any sense.

Yes, I am Christian and think evolution looks pretty solid as a theory, TBH I hadn't actually thought about neanderthals. I guess they were not "human" in the genetic sense but if they were intelligent thinking beings then it makes sense to think of them as human.

I also think all of the religions are worshipping the same God.

I think it is called 'Intelligent Design' isn't it? When you believe that God created people via evolution?

I don't think the Bible should be taken literally.

I'm not religious, but I don't see science and religion being incompatible.

I did however once work with a fellow physicist who didn't believe in evolution and thought we were all very silly. She was raised in a conservative area of Indonesia.

Yup, I believe in Jesus and Diplodocus. As for the neanderthals, I don't know what their relationship with God was, but I am sure arrangements will have been made. After all, there are plenty of hints in the Bible of there being other sentient creatures (angels) who have their own relationship with God and we're not told the details- why should we have to keep track of everything?

Another Christian who doesn't have a problem with Evolution. Haven't really given much consideration to the Neanderthals, but its given me something to think about, thank you!

Another Christian who believes in evolution here! We had a straw poll in MN religion section a year or two back - I think it came out about 3/4 of the Christians believed in evolution, and 1/4 didn't. Though there were some grey areas in the middle with ID or very God-led evolution....

As to Neanderthals, I believe there is now a possibility that they will be classed as a subspecies of Homo Sapiens, as there's a question of whether there was some mixing of the two when Homo Sapiens expanded out into areas where there had only previously been Neanderthals. And, if the two "species" did interbreed, then they can't be different species, pretty much by definition!

To my mind, if they were self-aware then they could have a meaningful relationship with God just the same as Homo Sapiens could.

Christians believe all KINDS of things, and pretty much all of them believe different stuff to the others.

Muslim/Christian/Jew/hindu etc are very poor guides to what individuals believe.

You do need to define your terms a bit though. Lierally everybody who is not a dribbling idiot believes in Evolution as it's a demonstrable fact - we can see it happening, natural selection is creating drug resistant bacteria etc.

What some people disagree about is what the starting point of this was and how much it applies to humans.

i.e. The Origin of Species

Where do Adam and Eve fit in with evolution if humans evolved from apes?

They don't. It's a myth - a story which explains things in a way which is not literal.

are neanderthals not neanderfals and so not human?

but yes as RC I belive in evolution as does the church.

der neanderthals

adam and eve are a biblical story and so represents the creation of Man without necisarily being factualy correct.

tomhardyismydh - but Adam and Eve didn't evolve, they were made

A bit of a hijack, but cory, I really like what you say about us not having to keep track and about angels.

I didnt say they did?

sorry x post

If you believe in God and etc - then you believe God is omnipotent, so there is absolutely no problem in believing that the way things go is incomaptible with an omnipotent God.

Why can God not have caused the Big Bang,evolution and etc? I KNOW God exists. I KNOW because that is what I believe. I do not expect others to share my belief.

Even if I'm wrong, I've picked a good bloke to follow - who can think Christ was wrong??

Does the RC church accept that the bible is not completely factually correct?

Yes, has done for centuries as far as I know.

I belive so jinglebelly, they do to an extent. but dont ask me how. It has something to do with modern and scientific explination that has developed, ie the earth is flat type thing and its accepted that an explination was given at the time of writing that is acceptable to knowledge at that time.

MDS - at that link, Brilliant!

I'm an atheist and an archaeologist, and the archaeological record shows that Neanderthals were likely to have had funeral rites (which implies the belief in an afterlife) and the ability to plan for the long term in terms of tool use, migration etc.

The most recent archaeological theory leans towards the annexation of Neanderthals (as in being 'bred out') rather than their extinction so I am leaning towards Neanderthals as fully human.

Oh right, interesting. I think there are a lot of mis conceptions among atheists as to what the majority of Christians believe.