I waited until Howard replied before responding to this. I do think
Scripture teaches or is at least compatible with evolution.
First, it is a fact that NOWHERE can one find a statement in Scripture that
says
'Animals give rise to animals after their kind.'
or 'Animals begat animals after their kind.'
By this I mean a statement with 'animals' as the subject and 'animals' as
the object. Because of this lack, people who read into the Bible the claim
that the Bible teaches fixity of form are quite mistaken. I have never had
anyone show me a sentence like that above. You can prove me wrong by simply
showing me the Scriptural statement with 'animals' as subject and object.
Secondly, Evolution teaches that the earth and seas brought forth life.
That is EXACTLY what Scripture says.
Genesis 1:11 "And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass,...
Who brought forth the grass? The EARTH did--at God's command. God was not
the subject ofthe above sentence so you can't say that God directly created
the grass, He INDIRECTLY created the grass.
Genesis 1:12 And the earth brought forth grass,...
The earth is the active subject in the above claim.
Genesis 1:24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature
after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after
his kind: and it was so.
The earth once again brought forth the life. It was at God's command but
exactly how that command was carried out is not specified. And notice that
'living creature after his kind' is followed by a list of various kinds of
living creatures, 'cattle, creeping thing and beast. This shows that the
phrase 'after his kind' has the meaning 'of various kinds.
And while I am not a Hebrew expert, I would point out that the words "after
his" are not actually in the Hebrew. The Hebrew simply says
Genesis 1:24 "God said earth breakout breakout living breathing creature
cattle creeping thing beast earth kind so."
The English prepositions are filled in by the translator!
So, I would say that the only reason that English speaking peoples believe
that evolution is ruled out by the Bible is due to the opinions of a
translator in King Jimmy's day. I simply don't find it in the Scripture.
glenn
Adam, Apes and Anthropology
Foundation, Fall and Flood
& lots of creation/evolution information
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm