When the Apostle Paul Debated Evolutionists

People are shocked — shocked, I tell you — when they are told that particles-to-piccoloist evolution is religious in nature. Objections ensue that it is science and there are no gods involved. Like the dishonesty of atheists denying that atheism is a religion, they use only one definition of religion and ignore the rest.

Further jolts to many is that not only is evolution an ancient religious belief thousands of years old, but that the apostle Paul debated them in Acts 17:22-34. Yes, the Epicureans were predecessors of Charles Darwin.

Made at Break Your Own News, background image St. Paul Preaching in Athens, Raphael, 1515

Also involved were the Stoic philosophers who apparently had some acceptance of gods. Stoics believed that salvation is mastery of one's emotions. (In my studies, several self-control concepts are echoed in Proverbs and other places in the Bible and are more fully realized than in Stoic ideas.) Epicureans essentially said that their founder set men free from the belief in gods. This echoes modern evolutionists who claim that Darwin and others use "science" to free us from belief in God. All groups are greatly mistaken, as there is one God who made us, he is our Redeemer and will be our Judge.

Science, which simply means “knowledge,” is observable and repeatable, but molecules-to-man evolution is neither. Although evolution is often touted as science, it is really a religious system that is held with frenzied fervor by its adherents. At the same time, this origins model is borrowed by other secular religions, and even many Christians yield to mixing this religion with their own (knowingly or unknowingly). This brings us to an interesting question: What would Paul say about evolution?

Finish reading at "Did the Apostle Paul Speak Against Evolution?" A related post is "Would Paul the Apostle Debate Modern Evolutionists?"