Reconciling evolution & Christianity

[Aftereightsaremine]

Am not sure if this has been done before but, i have been watching The Incredible Human Journey on Eden (sky) this week & though I accept scientific discoveries & the evidence that we came out of Africa I am finding it hard to reconcile that with my Christian faith & what the Bible says.

I feel I am being torn in two by different yet equally compelling camps. Having said that I think that evolution is also a miracle....

How do other Christians deal with this?

Yes I believe there will be some form of afterlife, but I believe that the part of me that will get to it will be my consciousness. I don't think that I need anything different from my consciousness to be the bit of me that is potentially eligible for an afterlife.

Traditional Roman Catholic teaching says that a soul is something "extra", that God puts into people at or around conception. But Protestant teaching has always been more vague about just what a soul is, beyond the fact that we have one

Right, but biology says that 'soul' in its everyday sense - consciousness, conscience, the sense of being you - is an evolved property of the human brain when it is alive. It does not leave a 'bit of you that is eligible for an afterlife',

The two ideas are quite incompatible.

I guess that fundamentalists know this, and that is why they defend the idea of literal creation.

My DD was writing about her thoughts on the afterlife recently for RE and came up with something along the lines of (paraphrasing), that her mind was in her physical brain, so when that was gone.... if she went to heaven how would she know if she'd got there?

If conciousness (and conscience, come to that) are emergent properties of our brains, what is the 'soul' that can survive? Or do you think they are something 'other'?

I don't see the problem - Why can't my consciousness be plonked into a new body in the afterlife? Like a download.

AMumInScotland, I don't think science would have a problem with your download plan. We can't do it but it doesn't seem unreasonable that it could be done.

I'd struggle more with "is it still you?" because it would be like a photocopy of you.

I think heaven has always relied on the 'extra bit' cos it could actually be moved from one place to another and additionally be immune to any kind of damage from a violent death.

Another question might be, which conciousness? The one I posessed at 20 (well, that's the last version which would get in) - or the one I have now - or the one I might have as a demented 90 year old?

Grimma - exactly.

Did your DD's RE teacher say 'that is a very profound question and mysterious paradox that science cannot answer' or did she say 'you are right there is no physical way in which consciousness can survive after death, it must be a myth - well spotted.' (I'm guessing something more like the first).

Himalaya - I won't know till next friday (if DD divulges outcome). But she got merit for her last piece on what she thought God looked like - having tried sitting there with a blank sheet until told she had to do something, started off by saying she didn't think about what god looked like as she didn't believe there was one, and then managed to ramble on appropriately, evidently