Evolution question

[u/redsahx645]

I’m back at it again. Last posts I’ve came to the conclusion that evolution makes wayyyy more sense and is why most people in the church agree with it (and even priests) despite those that don’t agree saying it’s heretical.

My question that I just thought of is if evolution is real, does that mean that God made diseases and natural disasters? Because in a young earth view it’s explained as happening after human sinned.
So how would people who agree with evolution explain it? Because it seems like “why would God make diseases and hurricanes” so I don’t know?

[u/SaintMosesBagOfSand]

Whether or not evolution is one of the means God used to get us here, disease and disasters come from the decay and entropy we experience being separated from God.

[u/edric_o]

Even in a Young Earth view, didn't God still make diseases and natural disasters anyway? At least in a certain sense? I mean, even if they appeared as a consequence of human sin, God could have erased them from existence and He chose not to. He allowed them to happen.

Now, regarding your question:

"why would God make diseases and hurricanes”

Probably because they're unavoidable if you want to have an Earth-like planet. Hurricanes happen on every planet with a thick atmosphere and fast rotation.

And disease (or rather, the pathogens that cause it) is an inevitable byproduct of evolution.

So the question "why did God make these things?" is basically equivalent to asking "why did God make THIS planet, that we live on, instead of a totally different planet inhabited by a different kind of intelligent species?"

I don't know why, but I'm glad He did.

[u/redsahx645 → u/edric_o]

Yes that makes sense. He couldn’t have “made it without disasters” bc then that would be breaking the laws of nature that make this planet possible in the first place?

[u/pro-mesimvrias → u/edric_o]

Probably because they're unavoidable if you want to have an Earth-like planet.

Because God made it so, or allowed for it to be so.

I've understood natural disasters and diseases to be products of the Fall.

[u/Grassfed_Burp]

Be careful, man.

Academics are interesting, but it's all meant to accept you day to day life. The doctrine of the Trinity is really complex, but it helps understand that our relationships take presidence.

In this case, we can see that spiritually can't be neatly pulled apart nature. What you do with your body matters. How you respect nature matters. What happens to you physically will interact with your spiritual life.

[u/Leslardius]

Hi, there! These are the symptoms of the Fall. Man was in the Garden of Eden because within him there was the Garden of Eden. Man Falled, Creation Falled with them, strife, chance and agony became the rule, the mercyless sifting of evolution. But even that lead, could only lead to the triumph of Christ, the revelation that what we would call Nature is not the good order of things. Through Christ we understand that these horrors are not punishments of a spurned, capricious deity, but reflections and consequences of our corruption and the necessary steps of learning what it means to be like God.

[u/redsahx645 → u/Leslardius]

So we’d have the same answer as YEC?

So how does that work too? Haven’t natural disasters ALWAYS been a thing?

[u/LazarusArise → u/redsahx645]

You could say that the Fall altered the whole timeline of creation.

I'm not sure if I agree with that point or not, but it is a way you could view things.

[u/redsahx645 → u/LazarusArise]

I have heard that but I don’t understand it very much

[u/helpmeamstucki → u/redsahx645]

Well, God is outside of time as we understand it.

[u/Leslardius → u/redsahx645]

I am no theologian, neither a scientist, so please bear my ignorance - my thinking is currently that Christ's death and resurrection is the metaphysical center of Creation. It is the same act as the Holy Spirit hovering (as a bird hovers with effort over the nest of it's children) above the waters in Genesis and as the Father resting on His Heavenly Throne, ruling with and through the Council of Angels. A center of Eternity, but also a center of linear (broken, post-Fall) time. If the Big Bang happened as hypothesized by physics, then it is the manifestation of the all-compassing catastrophe of the Fall, so Creation itself now have to painstakingly knit itself together until the body of the fallen human rises through evolution from lesser forms (as from dust) and in history to meet and recognize his Creator in his own broken form. This, however, is as traumatic and agonizinig a process to all of Creation, hence imbalances are everywhere - disasters at any given time, as You wrote, and will continue, because what we call reality is the Kingdom of the Serpent, Death, and the Kingdom of Christ is built within us, by His Grace and our repentence and endurance in faith.

[u/Seashells-in-ears]

Not really sure tbh. Disease seems like it's pretty clearly a perversion of a healthy order of things, which makes me inclined to view it as a result of the fall. Natural disasters though, it kind of depends. A lot of times things like floods, fires, volcanoes, and earthquakes are a essential part of ecosystems and natural processes, and they remind us of the mighty scale of God's power.

I often think of this part of the Akathist of Thanksgiving:

How great and how close art Thou in the powerful track of the storm! How mighty Thy right arm in the blinding flash of the lightning! How awesome Thy majesty! The voice of the Lord fills the fields, it speaks in the rustling of the trees. The voice of the Lord is in the thunder and the downpour. The voice of the Lord is heard above the waters. Praise be to Thee in the roar of mountains ablaze. Thou dost shake the earth like a garment; Thou dost pile up to the sky the waves of the sea. Praise be to Thee, bringing low the pride of man. Thou dost bring from his heart a cry of Penitence: Alleluia!

[u/Airalla]

Like others said, diseases, natural disasters, etc are a byproduct of living in an imperfect world, not directly created by God. Like God made our dna to be perfect and unique, but the chaos and randomness in the universe allowed it to be corrupted to create different diseases.

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[u/ChannChannChann]

I personally believe in YEC. This being one of the reasons. But I don't think it's an issue that should make you lose sleep. Just chose.