I recently moved to college where I have encountered many more conservatives then I have ever been acquainted with before. Myself, I am extremely liberal, and while I have no problem with other people's viewpoints I find it a little unsettling to be surrounded by so many individuals with believes that are so different from mine. One area where our ideas differ is in the sphere of religion. I was raised Catholic and while I still attend church, I would definitively not say that I agree with all of its teachings. Most of my conservative friends, however, put a huge importance on God. They also overwhelmingly reject the theory of evolution. Of course, I am not saying that all conservatives reject that theory, only that those conservatives I am acquainted with at my school mostly do. This, however, I find very troubling. It is is strange in the face of so much archeological evidence people can tell me that evolution did not occur; that the earth is only a few thousand of years old. Heck, I even had one friend tell me that there isn't any concrete evidence supporting evolution!
From one angle, I see where my friends are coming from. They were raised very christian- tough to believe everything in the bible. As such, they are unlikely to believe anything that goes against their viewpoint. Instead, they shut it out as nonsense. That is a perfectly normal human response. After all, it is hard to believe something that goes against everything that you have been tough. In my friends minds believing in evolution equates with not believing in God. I just want to simply point out that it is possible to believe in God and an earth that is billions of years old. Heck, that is my belief. If you believe in a God that is all powerful, what is there to stop him from creating a world where evolution occurs? Maybe, not everything in the bible is literal. While I believe that the old testament is simply fairy tales, it is possible that it is just representative of some other events; maybe it is a metaphor. It is possible for God to exist, the old testament to be true and evolution to be a fact! They do not need to be mutually exclusive.
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