With the publication of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859 Britain set out upon the long downward course of evolution of Christianity. Christianity declined first amidst Protestants and Non-Conformists only later followed by Catholics who did rather well after the collapse of Protestant Christianity.
Still, as many as 48% of Britishers claim to be Christians. Their leadership however is generally faithless and has one of the largest number of atheists in Europe. Part of the reason that the more educated classes take up Darwin's evolution text as their new gospel is of course the obvious desire to avoid moral concerns about concentrating wealth and power. In effect they have signed off on Marx's judgement that religion is the opiate of the masses, although in the U.S.A. presently real opiates are of epidemic scale.
There is an historical lag between deep philosophical examination of issues regarding religion in the masses that cannot be concerned with such affairs. They tend to look toward their leaders for good opinion to follow. If the leaders are rather airheads as they often are (General Hindenberg of Germany bragged that he had never read a book in his life), and cannot learn good opinion, then the people as well may be badly informed. In the United States Democrat party atheist militancy has saturated politics such that they too have given up Christian faith to a large extent as well as the political paradigm of the founders in preference for evolution.
It is not that Darwinian evolution is necessarily false or that Christians must claim it is so. Instead the problem is that evolution is just one hypothetical way of considering ontology and a Universe that may be a Multiverse. Evolution theory does not require that Christianity be falsified, it is the case the unphilosophically minded people with a hatred of Christianity wish it to be the case that Christianity and God must be wrong ideas if evolution is to be true.
One might compare Evolution theory to a computer operating system and people as bits of data within it that have discovered the architectural principles of the operating system. Some wish that to mean that no other operating system could exist or be dual booted within a computer. Yet it may be that the operating system exists within a greater operating system itself, or that the operating system functions as a holographical and optical system made of photons that haven't anything at all to do with computer hardware-perhaps they are unintended beams of light cast on the shadow f a cave that work logically because of nothing more than a great coincidence in nature, or maybe some clever kid made hand signals in front of a laser beam that generated the effect of an operating system...etc
God transcends anything in physics in a way larger than the way the Higgs field is prior to and transcends any particle-waves within it comprising the solid-state Universe. People in fact misunderstand what time is commonly; it is an emergent characteristic of the phase changes of particle-waves within the Higgs field and is local.
God may have created the Universe in seven seconds fully evolved, much less seven days or 13.2 billion years. The Universe could be said to have been created in under a second with an explosion of energy followed by an inflation, yet no one really knows that for sure nor what caused it. There are a zillion theoretical courses and those may nicely fit within the Chinese puzzle box criteria of greater containing causes. It is fun and profitable to be authoritative yet being accurate is also important.
There are many ways to interpret the Bible too that don't run into obvious Biblical contradictions. Even John 5:39-47 has a parable from Jesus that mentions hell, yet today there are many Christian leaders in denial of that, of of course they are also in denial about the need to reform to become a priesthood of believers.
King James version-
Still, as many as 48% of Britishers claim to be Christians. Their leadership however is generally faithless and has one of the largest number of atheists in Europe. Part of the reason that the more educated classes take up Darwin's evolution text as their new gospel is of course the obvious desire to avoid moral concerns about concentrating wealth and power. In effect they have signed off on Marx's judgement that religion is the opiate of the masses, although in the U.S.A. presently real opiates are of epidemic scale.
There is an historical lag between deep philosophical examination of issues regarding religion in the masses that cannot be concerned with such affairs. They tend to look toward their leaders for good opinion to follow. If the leaders are rather airheads as they often are (General Hindenberg of Germany bragged that he had never read a book in his life), and cannot learn good opinion, then the people as well may be badly informed. In the United States Democrat party atheist militancy has saturated politics such that they too have given up Christian faith to a large extent as well as the political paradigm of the founders in preference for evolution.
It is not that Darwinian evolution is necessarily false or that Christians must claim it is so. Instead the problem is that evolution is just one hypothetical way of considering ontology and a Universe that may be a Multiverse. Evolution theory does not require that Christianity be falsified, it is the case the unphilosophically minded people with a hatred of Christianity wish it to be the case that Christianity and God must be wrong ideas if evolution is to be true.
One might compare Evolution theory to a computer operating system and people as bits of data within it that have discovered the architectural principles of the operating system. Some wish that to mean that no other operating system could exist or be dual booted within a computer. Yet it may be that the operating system exists within a greater operating system itself, or that the operating system functions as a holographical and optical system made of photons that haven't anything at all to do with computer hardware-perhaps they are unintended beams of light cast on the shadow f a cave that work logically because of nothing more than a great coincidence in nature, or maybe some clever kid made hand signals in front of a laser beam that generated the effect of an operating system...etc
God transcends anything in physics in a way larger than the way the Higgs field is prior to and transcends any particle-waves within it comprising the solid-state Universe. People in fact misunderstand what time is commonly; it is an emergent characteristic of the phase changes of particle-waves within the Higgs field and is local.
God may have created the Universe in seven seconds fully evolved, much less seven days or 13.2 billion years. The Universe could be said to have been created in under a second with an explosion of energy followed by an inflation, yet no one really knows that for sure nor what caused it. There are a zillion theoretical courses and those may nicely fit within the Chinese puzzle box criteria of greater containing causes. It is fun and profitable to be authoritative yet being accurate is also important.
There are many ways to interpret the Bible too that don't run into obvious Biblical contradictions. Even John 5:39-47 has a parable from Jesus that mentions hell, yet today there are many Christian leaders in denial of that, of of course they are also in denial about the need to reform to become a priesthood of believers.
King James version-
"19There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: 20And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, 21And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. 22And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; 23And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 24And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. 25But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. 26And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. 27Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: 28For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.29Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. 30And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. 31And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."
Because theologians are specialized they tend to lag far behind development of philosophical investigations examining cosmology and scripture. Cosmological-Biblical hermeneutic requires substantial learning that would not be professionally supported, and atheists tend to discard any way of thinking that would determine that Christianity is not necessarily in conflict with cosmology and evolution.
