I was a fierce opponent of the theory of evolution, but last year I decided to stop be ignorant and read Darwin's Origin of Species. So I bought the book and read the whole 500+ pages. And guess what - this book is an astonishing piece of scientific art. Right now I don't believe in the evolution of species. There is nothing to believe- it's a fact. Forget about all other religions and eccumenistic bs. Guys, the real question everyone face in his heart all the time is - how do we cope with the theory of evolution? Because once accepting it all the Bible validity starts to collapse! The genesis looks like a fairy tale to me now. Especially the chapter 2, which looks a total fairy tale thing. So from there I'm facing basically three ways to go.

The first way is to say, for God anything is possible - you gotta believe (baby). However, this is not a valid argument. All religions in the world are saying that. How do you know that you are not deceiving yourself? Imagine that you are a Buddhist, Hinduist or a Muslim or Jehova Witness. How are you going to get to the "true"? Don't you need to question the validity of your  "Bibles" first, especially if there are huge open arguments to make you think in that direction? So I'm sorry, but this is leading to nowhere ...

The second way is to say Old Testament is just fairy tales it's not completely valid. It's made of stories. Even some orthodox priest are preaching that e.g. Bible is a set of stories - it's not a holy book made only from the word of God, etc. However, here there is a big BUT. Compromising the validity the Old Testament and more precisely of chapter 2 of the genesis makes the whole New Testament idea of coming saviour to save our souls from the origin sin absolutely purposeless. So this doesn't look to be the way ...

The third way to go is to say - ok, this was a simplified narrative to explain the ancient people about something that has happened on metaphysical level. Something I do not understand completely, but it happens to the soul or whatever. In other words evolution and orthodox coexistence in the way I accept the theory of evolution and the whole teaching of the Orthodox Church, knowing that many of the fairy tales there are related to the metaphysics. A compromise and a state of agnosticism ... That's myself now ... I pray and hope with all my heart that someday I will have the explanation of the Chapter 2 of Genesis ...

So how do you guys cope with that? Anyway some day we will all find out the true ... 

This is how I see it drsteehlhammer8. If Evolution (ie MacroEvolution) is true and we came from Apes over millions and billions of years and life (ie a single cell) can form from non living matter in the sea through a lightning strike, reproduce and over time fight each other for the fittest to survive etc, then there simply is NO GOD at all period. We are just a happy accident and so are all the other creatures in this earth. You can chuck your Bible and your Church in the bin. God, Angels, Satan, Adam and Eve, Noah and the flood etc are all fairytales. Baboom. However if the opposite is true then Charles Darwin himself was right when he said "He finds it highly unlikely a complex organism like an eye can form slowly through natural selection". It is one way or the other. There is no middle ground and there can be no mixing between the two so that they are both true. Keep studying brother and don't accept things as fact without proof. Thanks.

The Bible is not a fairy tale but the History of Revelation of God in His creation the man and is understood only through the interpretation of the holy Fathers of our Church.

There is no incompatibility between evolution and the Bible, simply some scientists cannot understand without the Faith that man was created by God himself.

I suggest that you study with the help of your spiritual father the Six-Day Creation of the Great St. Basil, where, after presenting too much scientific evidence on Creation in the Bible, it finally concludes that we Christians are not so concerned with how the World became but Who did it and Why!

Evolution doesn't have to be in conflict with Genesis. God gave us the gift of reason with the expectation that we would use it, and thus, the fact that there is a lot of evidence for evolution means that it probably has in fact occurred.

The problem arises when people try to use science and the Bible to answer questions that they were never supposed to answer in the first place. Science can only explain what it can observe and measure, so it may be able to come up with a comprehensive explanation of how evolution works, but it can never even attempt to explain why the universe has been made in such a way to make conditions for evolution favorable or how humans possess a soul that serves no evolutionary function. Likewise, Genesis was meant to reveal truths about creation, but not scientific ones. The creation story shows that creation is orderly, humans are made in God's Image and Likeness, marriage has been blessed by God, and other truths such as these; it is very likely not God literally explaining how He made the universe.

Ultimately, though, spiritual truth is much more important than any scientific truth could possibly be. Whether or not evolution really happened doesn't have too much of a bearing on one's personal life, but the discovery that one has an eternal soul ought to dictate a great deal of one's life. So, for me personally, I accept the idea of physical evolution because there seems to be a lot of evidence for it, but it is not anywhere as important to me as the spiritual truths of the Bible.

Thank you friends for your thoughts on that matter. I think that this summary salimoo gave of the evolution theory is pretty simplified and this is quite dangerous that many of us are thinking in that way. The point is that as long as the micro evolution is accepted together with mutations, gene inheritance, and the higher survival rate of the better adapted species, can drive naturally the macro evolution by accumulation of the micro changes and it is a matter of time. From that it does not follow that I need to throw my Bible and there is no God Creator. Even Darwin finished his book by the following sentence:

"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone circling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved."

Note that the Darwin himself was not an atheist and did not believe in the origin of organisms from non organic chemistry. I think very little number of scientists fully believe in that concept. The point is that evolution is not something that is necessarily evil and atheistic and if we accept it we are not necessarily denying the Bible and the church. 

Regarding the st. Basil the great, I'll definitely add that book in my reading list for this year. I am of course open to any interpretation that will make sense with the complete picture of physical and metaphysical world. 

Now the argument that science and religion are completely separated and have different incompatible areas is known to me and I used to be a supporter of it. Science is basically giving us the facts and religion the purpose - agreed. To give the purpose the religion is giving some events descriptions which the science does have the power to validate. So now I'm not actually very convinced that this is good argument to hold... 

If i may participate in the conversation. Evolution is a natural phenomenon, a fact, that is random DNA mutations that may lead to an organism with better survival odds that adapts to its environment and dominates. What i don't believe is that such changes accumulate and eventually lead to a new species. And even so, that what once was a cell, eventually evolved into a human. Why i don't believe it? First of all because our entity is not just our DNA. The human and the ape are 99,9% similar in their DNA. If all our entity was coded in our DNA, the ape should have created 99,5% of what we did all these milenia. On the contrary, the ape (and every animal) is very probably in exactly the same state as it always was. The difference? This 0,05%? I don't accept it. It's God's breath, that he gave only to human after making him with his hands, while the rest of the creation, he just "said and was done"(Genesis). 

Coming back to evolution. As we said, it is a natural phenomenon, a fact. But to say that it eventually led from a single cell to man is not proven. And it is difficult to prove because human life span is so small and all so far human history is not enough to give birth to a new species, or at least so far. We can exptrapolate and say that eventually this is what is happening but it is no more a scientific fact but a hypothesis. Also, the theory of evolution as it is used by atheists, pay atttention please: Doesn't conclude that "there is no God" but takes it for granted. It is its foundation. It is as if we say: Let's take for granted that there is no God. We see 3 animals, an ant, a dog, a human. Which is more complex? A human. So, since "there is no God", the only conclusion is that the ant evolved into dog and finally into human. So you see, there is no God. 

This is not right. You cannot use as foundation a hypothesis, to proove the hypothesis. WIthin the same concept, if you come to my kitchen you will se a big black cauldron and a hypermodern pressure cooker. "Since there is no creator", the only thing you can hypothesize is that the cauldron evolved into the pressure cooker. Just a minute please.....what...if...somebody simply created both the cauldron and the pressure cooker?

I hope i am not too confusing, i cannot write better english.

It doesn't make any sense to compare the DNAs like that, because this is not a contextual comparison, but quantitive comparison of the DNA basis. It's like to compare two books by counting the number of repetition of 4 words in each.

So you basically are biased that the theory of evolution is a false invention of the atheists and satanists and you just ignore anything related to it? Do you actually plan to get know the study of evolution of species better by reading Darwin's Origin of Species? 

If you refer to me I have already replied. I do not know who is behind the various theories or specifically the theory of evolution, nor do I care. If I had time to waste I would read about How the world was created, but at the moment my life is too short and I choose to read about Who made the World and Why! So Darwin is not even in the realm of my imagination to read while on the contrary there are stacks of Patristic texts that I have to study and try to apply to approach God.

If you were refering to me, not at all! I did not say at all what i m quoting from your message. I said that evolution is a real phenomenon. What i don't believe is that through this phenomenon, inorganic molecules gave rise to a human. This, i believe, is a false extrapolation atheists make to support there is no creator. 

By the way, as an interesting fact, most of my professors (biomolecular scientists) are very devout! One of them has completed a Ph.D. in Theology as well. Another one became priest (and continues to be scientist). And generally speaking, i think in the field of molecular biology - biochemistry, there is a considerable percentage of devout scientists.

As regards the DNA comparison, it is not as simple as "counting DNA size". According to this paper (1st sentence of Synopsis), humans and chimpanzee have 98% identical DNA sequences. Not just "amount of DNA". It is as if two 500 pages of books, having identical text inside in all but 10 pages. 

What most people don't realize about Darwinism -

Darwinism Deconstructed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkAQS8hP_R8

Darwinism Annihilated https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU_QXhKgp8Y

π. Νικόλαος Χατζηνικολάου - Ἀπαντήσεις σὲ ἐρωτήσεις γιὰ τὴν ἐξέλιξη

http://users.uoa.gr/~nektar/orthodoxy/tributes/nikolaos/2014-02-06_erwthseis_gia_thn_exelixh.htm

Thank you for the videos! I can't wait to watch them when kids are asleep.

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts!

Unfortunately, currently I don't have time for any further contribution on that very interesting topic... I really think that we shouldn't hide and avoid those discussions. 

The Orthodox do not need to prove anything. Orthodox believe in the Most Holy Trinity and in Jesus Christ the Son of God according to the Orthodox Creed. Believe and all!))