I was reading another thread and the following statement was made: It got me thinking Most all "christians" I know say that evolution is contrary to the christian belief. Is evolution not considered to be contrary to Islam?
I dont know if Evolution theory is necessarily 'contrary' to a Judeo-Christian world view Many Christians might be 'Theistic Evolutionist' thinking. The idea being that God created life indeed but did so through the evolutionary story with Genesis being a sort of 'metaphorical time period'. This is also true with Muslims like Paintballer and others. Its not the they 'reject' or contradict the Korans version of the Genesis account but they would say it was intended more as a 'poetic metaphor'. Traditionally speaking - Jews, Christians and Muslims all have the 'Genesis' creation week story though. Evolutionism is crap but its not necessarily 'contradicting' as long as you force it to reconcile somehow. Usually 'metaphor' is the way.
It's only the more fundie type xians who dismiss evolutionary theory. In Islam, it's the same, although perhaps more tend to believe in the literal truth of the creation stories because of lack of education etc.
From studying both religion and evolution I've found extremely little in the way of contradiction. In concept, it's relatively non-existant, unless you incorporate such into your interpretation. The only real contradiction I can think of at the moment is the story of Adam and Eve, taken literally of course. Regarding to Islam specifically, I know Muslims who believe in evolution, and I know some who don't. Usually, those who don't are only because they don't truly understand evolution. I think it reall just depends upon your personal translation of religion, how exactly it is that you define it.
Well, most religions have evolved. Islam is not one of them. Islam has no high leader, no group who can use it for personal benefit, thus there is no room for corruption. Muslims believe that Christianity and Judaism were originally the word of God in full accordance with their own beliefs; unfortunately, they have been modified and are now impure. A key indicator that Islam has not changed is by looking at Islamic countries; their civilizations are not as advanced as the western world because it is governed by Islamic law which does not change, unlike how other religions advance with society. This is great for a religion, but not so great for a government.
Ah, the Imams you are referring to are part of the Shi'a. The majority of Muslims, including me, are Sunni and do not recognize Shi'a as Islamic. In (Sunni) Islam, the Imams are scholars who study the religion, but they do not hold political power in the same way the church does.
Well, in the modern world, this is the closest thing. But what I'm talking about is the power held by the church as early as the 4th century until the seperation of Church and State. I don't want to insult your intelligence by further explaining the church's previous positions, but any questions or further detailed inquiries shall be happily answered.
