Shropshire Star

It is possible to be Christian and an evolutionist at same time?

In this debate between creationists and evolutionists I would like to add these few comments.

Published

It is understandable that people become atheists when they see how religion, probably since Stone Age times has been, and still is, used by the state as a means of controlling the people.

We are fortunate to be living in a country and at a time when we are able to have freedom of thought. The recent TV programmes about the Gunpowder Plot have brought home the horrors of state control.

I do appreciate that we live in a very beautiful world but it is also very cruel – we admire the lion but imagine the agony of the gazelle as it is torn to pieces and the hare in the eagle’s talons.

Scientists have always been ready to accept new evidence and they do admit their misconceptions. We are learning all the time as new discoveries are made, but the basic idea remains – we have evolved.

Hominids have been discovered with human characteristics dating from different eras.

They died out possibly because they were unable to adapt to changing climatic conditions or else they were superceded by a superior race. This occurred when modern humans eventually caused the extinction of the Neanderthal race about 30,000 years ago.

I understand that fairly recently a hominid was discovered,dating from a very distant time, having characteristics both human and apelike. Not quite the ‘missing link’ but close.

Please could we see an end to this interminable debate as no-one is going to change his or her mind. Also could we accept that it is possible to be a Christian and at the same time to be an evolutionist.

Renee Webster, Wall-under-Heywood