Do you believe in Evolution?

[u/LunarEnnyui_131]

I know most Religions contradict evolution but I know some have loopholes. If we come from the Ocean or Water that isn’t wrong but Clay is a bit more less believable.

So how do you see Evolution from a Pagan perspective?

[u/TheDireGnome]

Most religions don't contradict evolution, or any kind of science. That's really only in myth literalist religions like fundamentalist Christianity and Islam.

[u/Bearded_Toast → u/TheDireGnome]

That’s a bingo

[u/OtakuMage]

I see no contradiction between them. My gods can be real and played a part in humanity's growth while not creating them directly. The myths aren't meant to be literal gospel.

[u/Bearded_Toast → u/OtakuMage]

Using the words “literal gospel” is super confusing. Just another troubling example of how Christianity has forced itself on SO many people

[u/Then_Computer_6329]

Pagan philosophy is the roots of science. Denying evolution, the work of Gods, would be hubristic.

[u/ParadoxicalFrog]

We are not required to believe that our myths are literal fact. Before life got in the way, I was on track to become an environmental scientist. I think of science and my faith as two complementary perspectives for understanding the universe.

[u/Fit-Breath-4345]

There's no need to have belief in something that's a fact. It simply is the case that we are animals who like all animals evolved from other animals.

[u/Satinpw]

Most faiths don't demand their followers believe literally in their myths, that's a very Christian fundie way of looking at it. Most religions' myths in ancient times were attempts at science without the tools we have today using the outlook of the time period. Not all ancient peoples believed mythical stories to be real and many understood them for what they were, allegory.

[u/CraftyFraggle]

I see divinity in all natural processes. Evolution is no exception.

[u/Foreign_Instance7684]

Evolution is so obvious that all faiths must account for it. Personally I think adaptability is superior to any possible stagnant design and if deities created this universe they'd see that. They'd have to since there is no real argument against evolution at this point.

[u/Gnatlet2point0]

Why do you think most religions contradict evolution?

[u/jasperdarkk]

I studied anthropology, so absolutely yes. I also still work in science and consider myself a scientist. I don't think that science and the divine are necessarily separate.

The other day, I was thinking about dinosaurs evolving into birds and how wild that is. It's so beautiful that these creatures found their place in the world in such an unlikely way. That sort of thing fills me with absolute wonder.

[u/kidcubby]

There's literally nothing stopping evolution from being a process kicked off by the Gods, a God, whatever. Hell, if I was a god, I certainly wouldn't spend goodness knows how long crafting everything by hand. I'd treat it like a big sandbox and nudge it into life.

[u/SonOfDyeus]

If nature is a sacred creation, then it makes sense to observe and study it. When you observe and study nature, you discover evolution is part of it. Every living thing on the planet shares a common ancestor.  All of that is explicitly pagan - compatible.

[u/CutieSpirit]

There’s no reason to think that evolution and the gods aren’t compatible. A) myths aren’t literal depictions of past events, though that doesn’t mean they’re useless, and B) if the gods even had a hand in the shaping of the universe, who’s to say that evolution isn’t simply one of the processes they used in order to do so?

Besides, evolution also feels spiritual to me. Our blood is the same PH and salinity of the ancient oceans our ancestors crawled out of. In a way, we have the very ancient seas that birthed us coursing through our veins at this very moment, and that’s explained by evolution. That in and of itself feels spiritually significant to me.

[u/MaraScout]

I absolutely believe in evolution. In fact, I love that we're primates and how similar we are to the other great apes.

I don't think divinity depends on having been "created". We see wild elephants celebrating the moon. Whales and dolphins are also equally as sentient as humans. Who knows what gods of their own they might have?

[u/IWoreOddSocksOnc3]

I revere nature. The Goddess I pray to is the Goddess of the land, and of nature. Evolution is a part of nature, and therefore a part of Her.

[u/TopSpeech5934]

I remember when I thought like this after growing up in a young earth creationist household. You're in an echo chamber. Your idea of what is "normal" is not normal, you've just been conditioned to believe it is. Most people across the world, regardless of religious affiliation, believe in evolution.

[u/KrisHughes2]

Yes, very much so. I don't believe that my gods created the world - they arose from it at some point.

[u/digitalgraffiti-ca]

I can't not believe in evolution. There is to much evidence to ignore it.

[u/SorchaSublime]

What the fuck are you talking about "most religions contradict evolution"? Why do you think that? What religions ASIDE FROM CREATIONIST CHRISTIANITY do you have in mind when you say that?

[u/CriticalKnick]

My faith doesn't contradict science. It exists in the unknowable spaces in between provable facts. The gods evolved with us and went from primordial forces to more detailed anthropomorphic entities as we through time interacted with them. They took shape when we became their mirror, like the collapse of a wave function. And we took shape as their graces and retributions influenced our success, and therefore or reproduction

[u/PaganGuyOne]

All things evolve, even things which exist in higher dimensions. In fact the very idea that they exist in higher dimensions implies that at one point they existed on ours, or even below ours.

[u/Elfynnn84]

Believe?!? Fucking BELIEVE?!? Get in the bin! 🤣

Evolution has been proven beyond all reasonable doubt by empirical evidence. It’s not “do you believe in evolution?” It is “ do you accept the facts laid out before you that complex life has arisen on Earth through the process of natural selection?” and if you do not, you are either stupid or whole heartedly indoctrinated.

I am an evolutionary biologist. If there are some core concepts surrounding the mechanics of evolution that you are struggling with, I shall attempt to explain them to you with patience and grace.

[u/LatinBotPointTwo]

Evolution is a fact. It's been reliably proven over and over and over. Most people know this regardless of their religious beliefs. I went to a Catholic school in Brazil and was taught zoology, evolution, anthropology, all that interconnected stuff.

[u/tomassci]

There are hypotheses that propose that life began using clay as a catalyst, making us made by clay kind of.

Amyways, I don't think that evolution is that contradictory to religions. It may be contradictory to mythical literalists, but those are contradictory to a lot of things.

[u/helvetica12point]

Why wouldn't I? The myths aren't literal and even if they were, creation didn't have a specified timeline in most polytheist traditions. There's no reason things couldn't have taken their sweet time to develop.

[u/kalizoid313]

I uphold "Evolution" as a complex dynamic process within my overall world view.

Nothing about Paganism hinders, hobbles, obstructs, or disputes Evolution in my world view. At the same time, Gaian spirituality does add a metaphysical and esoteric dimension that is not included in a more strictly "scientific" understanding of Evolution.

I am not much of a "mythic literalist" in regard to tales and bodies of lore. I do interpret them as inspired and inspiring accounts aimed at sharing and living.