Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Bush: Bible, evolution not at odds
afp ^

Posted on 12/09/2008 12:32:05 AM PST by marthemaria

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President George W. Bush said in an interview Monday that the Bible is "probably not" literally true and that a belief that God created the world is compatible with the theory of evolution.

"I think you can have both," Bush, who leaves office January 20, told ABC television, adding "You're getting me way out of my lane here. I'm just a simple president." But "evolution is an interesting subject. I happen to believe that evolution doesn't fully explain the mystery of life," said the president, an outspoken Christian who often invokes God in his speeches.

"I think that God created the Earth, created the world; I think the creation of the world is so mysterious it requires something as large as an almighty and I don't think it's incompatible with the scientific proof that there is evolution," he told ABC television. Asked whether the Bible was literally true, Bush replied:

"Probably not. No, I'm not a literalist, but I think you can learn a lot from it." "The important lesson is 'God sent a son,'" he said.

(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bush; bushandgod; evolution; science
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 281-292 next last
To: GiovannaNicoletta
Good Post.

Getting people to doubt the literal Word of God is the oldest trick in Satan's arsenal.

President Bush and all who agree with him do so at their on risk.
21 posted on 12/09/2008 3:54:01 AM PST by ScoochDude
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: marthemaria

I don’t look to Jorge for wisdom and advice.


22 posted on 12/09/2008 3:56:16 AM PST by BufordP (Had Mexicans flown planes into the World Trade Center, Jorge Bush would have surrendered.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GiovannaNicoletta
You have to know God personally to understand His Word. If somebody claims that the Bible is "not literally true", then they are revealing something about themselves.

Yes, they are revealing that they are celebrating God's great gift to mankind of unique self-awareness, intelligence, curiosity and enlightenment.

Either God has constructed an elaborate logical mirage known as science or - just maybe - somebody was creating tall tales to explain unfathomable earthly concepts 1500 years ago.

I believe the earth is older than 6000 years and revolves around the Sun. That's what God gets for blessing a bum like me with rational thought.

23 posted on 12/09/2008 4:27:52 AM PST by MNSlim
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: MNSlim
That's what God gets for blessing a bum like me with rational thought.

Eating from the Tree of Knowledge are ya?

24 posted on 12/09/2008 4:41:54 AM PST by cerberus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Hanna548

It’s called “theistic evolution.” I think this hypothesis states that God created the world using evolution as a means to an end.


25 posted on 12/09/2008 4:43:59 AM PST by Marauder ("I won't be wronged, I won't be lied to, and I won't be laid a hand on." - J.B. Books)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: cerberus

Let’s make it FOUR
and a bravo 4 Pres Bush
(he looked good at the A-N game!)


26 posted on 12/09/2008 4:50:21 AM PST by aumrl (EDUCATE, EDUCATE, EDUCATE.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: MNSlim
Yes, they are revealing that they are celebrating God's great gift to mankind of unique self-awareness, intelligence, curiosity and enlightenment.

Well, now, exactly whose definition of self-awareness, "intelligence", curiosity and "enlightenment" are you referring to? Adolf Hitler's? Karl Marx's? Al Qaeda's? The "self-awareness, intelligence, curiosity and enlightenment" of fallen mankind has led to some of the worst atrocities imaginable. Man, apart from God, is ignorant, unwise, foolish, and gullible. Making a statement such as "the Bible is not literally true" is proof positive of all that God has said about the pitiable, sin-sick, doomed condition of man apart from faith in Him.

just maybe - somebody was creating tall tales to explain unfathomable earthly concepts 1500 years ago.<.i>

Are you referring to Scripture? I'll go back to what I said in my previous post - apart from the revealing work of the Holy Spirit, it is impossible for man to understand the Word of God. If you are referring to Scripture, your describing it as "tall tales" underscores my point.

I believe the earth is older than 6000 years and revolves around the Sun. That's what God gets for blessing a bum like me with rational thought.

God certainly gives you free will to believe what you want - even if it is contrary to His Word. There will be, of course, a day of accounting when you will have to explain to Him your rejection of His Word, but, until then, you can believe whatever you like. As far as "rational thought" goes, serial killers do what they do based on their definition of "rational thought". The "rational thoughts" of fallen mankind are frightening indeed.

But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)

There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. (Proverbs 14:12P

Here God gives us His opinion of man's "rational thought" and "self-awareness, intelligence, curiosity and enlightenment". He doesn't appear to be too impressed at all.

27 posted on 12/09/2008 4:51:36 AM PST by GiovannaNicoletta
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: GiovannaNicoletta

So the sun revolves around the earth and was created after the earth?


28 posted on 12/09/2008 5:04:33 AM PST by MoreGovLess (Seek justice, love kindness, walk humbly with your God (Micah))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: cerberus

Make it 4

His position is the traditional institutional Christian one, from St. Augustine on. If Mr. Bush is no Christian, then there have never been many Christians.

And he is indeed a good and decent man.


29 posted on 12/09/2008 5:05:46 AM PST by buwaya
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: thecabal

Whatever respect I had for President Bush is gone.

I believe he’s a Christian, but what kind of Christian witness is he doing by denying that the Bible is not 100% true? What a disheartening comment to make to your political base. At this low point in his political career, I think he’s looking to obtain favor with the liberal presidential historians.


30 posted on 12/09/2008 5:07:47 AM PST by reaganbooster
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: GiovannaNicoletta
"God tells us that He wrote the Bible."

He used a typewriter. :-)

31 posted on 12/09/2008 5:08:04 AM PST by verity ("Lord, what fools we mortals be!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: GiovannaNicoletta

Will President Bush be more likely to go to Hell for saying this?


32 posted on 12/09/2008 5:09:34 AM PST by Ken H
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: Marauder

All of creation are a means to Gods ends, including all natural processes.

Back in the day it was considered an act of faith to explore these natural processes as a way to understand the will of God. There are a lot of Lunar craters named for scientists who were also clergymen.


33 posted on 12/09/2008 5:10:20 AM PST by buwaya
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: GiovannaNicoletta
39. Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience.

Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking non-sense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of the faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men.

If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods on facts which they themselves have learnt from experience and the light of reason?

Reckless and incompetent expounders of holy Scripture bring untold trouble and sorrow on their wiser brethren when they are caught in one of their mischievous false opinions and are taken to task by those who are not bound by the authority of our sacred books. For then, to defend their utterly foolish and obviously untrue statements, they will try to call upon Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they think support their position, although 'they understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertion.' - St Augustine of Hippo

34 posted on 12/09/2008 5:10:32 AM PST by Oztrich Boy (No Christian will dare say that [Genesis] must not be taken in a figurative sense. St Augustine)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: marthemaria
I believe that Science will ultimately answer every single measurable, verifiable question in the universe.

And, when Scientists solve the very last, final problem they will determine, scientifically, that the reason the universe exists at all is because God created it.

And God will smile.

35 posted on 12/09/2008 5:13:22 AM PST by paulycy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: thecabal
I agree as well.

I think that evolution is the best current explanation as to HOW God made what we see around us.

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)

LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

36 posted on 12/09/2008 5:14:24 AM PST by LonePalm (Commander and Chef)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: reaganbooster

He’s as much a Christian as I am (Catholic), and a better one most likely.

He’s not saying it isn’t true either. He has the traditional Christian opinion (see St. Augustine). Which is not liberal in the slightest.

I thought we on this side had the big tent, wheres that gone ?


37 posted on 12/09/2008 5:14:39 AM PST by buwaya
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: GiovannaNicoletta
Article: US President George W. Bush said in an interview Monday that the Bible is "probably not" literally true...

Well at least we can finally dispense with the "George Bush is a Christian" myth.

Well, pretty much every Christian Scholar agrees that not everything in the Bible is literally true. A great deal of it is literally true, but not all. Doesn't mean the rest is false, since the Bible contains several different writing styles.

As for evolution being compatible with the Bible, I disagree with Bush.

38 posted on 12/09/2008 5:14:47 AM PST by SeaHawkFan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: buwaya

Indeed. God’s glory is on display all around us: why we God give us curiosity and wonder if not to explore and seek truth? Intellect is a gift from God.


39 posted on 12/09/2008 5:15:44 AM PST by MoreGovLess (Seek justice, love kindness, walk humbly with your God (Micah))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: verity

One that has alternating black/red ribbons.


40 posted on 12/09/2008 5:16:04 AM PST by Rebelbase
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 281-292 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson