"How were humans created?"

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Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

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According to the Bible, God created male and female in his image, fully formed as they still appear today. Genesis 1 is actually the first of two different creation stories in Genesis, but regardless of the differences, how well does either story comport with modern science and what we understand about human development?

Christian Answers:

  • Special Creation - Humans were created in the image of God, but not in the biological sense. Humans are not animals, but share qualities with both animals and God. Qualities that separate animals and humans are speech, creativity, love, holiness, immortality (spiritual), and freedom. The mentally retarded that lack things like creativity or speech are the result of our fallen world. Evolution is false. "... it seems almost blasphemy to consider Adam sired by a shambling ape." (Answers in Genesis: Man: The Image of God)

  • Special Creation and Maybe Guided Evolution - Adam and Eve were real people and the first humans to have souls, but their bodies may have been the result of evolution. "Concerning human evolution, the Church ... allows for the possibility that man’s body developed from previous biological forms, under God’s guidance, but it insists on the special creation of his soul."  "While the Church permits belief in either special creation or developmental creation on certain questions, it in no circumstances permits belief in atheistic evolution."  "The story of the creation and fall of man is a true one, even if not written entirely according to modern literary techniques." (Catholic Answers: Adam, Eve, and Evolution)

  • Guided Evolution - "... all life on earth is the result of the evolutionary process (descent with modification), but in various places God guided or influenced this process." "The extent to which God guides the process, and the extent to which the evolutionary process is a result of unguided chance plus natural selection, however, remains an open question." ("Theistically Guided" Evolution as God's Incarnational Work)

Diest Answers:

  • Diestic Evolution - The creation of the universe was instigated by a God, but this God has not interfered since. Humans hold no special place in creation. (Wikipedia: Deistic Evolution)

Jewish Answers:

Muslim Answers:

  • Varied Beliefs - Islamic views on creation are also wide ranging. Many attempt to reconcile their scripture with modern science, while others insist on traditional Quranic interpretations. (Wikipedia: Islamic views on evolution)

Secular Answers:

  • Naturalistic Evolution - "The central idea of biological evolution is that all life on Earth shares a common ancestor, just as you and your cousins share a common grandmother. Through the process of descent with modification, the common ancestor of life on Earth gave rise to the fantastic diversity that we see documented in the fossil record and around us today. Evolution means that we're all distant cousins: humans and oak trees, hummingbirds and whales." (Berkeley.edu: Understanding Evolution)

  • Abiogenesis - Evolution does not provide an explanation for the origin of the first replicating organism that gave rise to the diversity of life. Abiogenesis is the name given to what may have been the first spontaneous generation of "life" on Earth. (Wikipedia: Abiogenesis)

  • Addressing Misconceptions About Evolution - Many evolution deniers hold misconceptions about what evolution is and how it works. These misconceptions prevent them from accepting the scientific consensus. (PBS: The Biggest Misconceptions About Evolution, And What We Can Do About Them)

  • Belief in Evolution Spans All Religions - Evolution is not a faith-based position. There is no singular scientific "faith" movement that advocates for evolution. Almost all religions across the world have a subset of adherents that accept evolution as true. (Wikipedia: Acceptance of evolution by religious groups)

Referenced Verses:
Genesis 1:27