Can Christians Believe in Evolution?
Just last week I came across a few odd pamphlets at my church. They offered an argument for what they called Biblical Creationism. The articles were quite impressive; they featured scientists with plenty of degrees and invited their readers to believe that the Earth is less than 10,000 years old and was created in six days - just like in the Bible. They argue that if the creation account in Genesis is not true - then the whole Bible can not be true.Is it Mischief?
This raises a whole lot of questions for me - the first question I prefer not to ask: Are the people who put these pamphlets together actually Christian? Are they trying to undermine scripture and Theology? A reasonable scientist (even a total amateur like myself) can see straight through the 'scientific' arguments they present. Unfortunately - for those who want to believe what these people are saying - there is no criticism of what they say - there is a certain fear of asking too many questions; and so we find Christians encouraged to disagree with science for no good reason.Already, at the turn of the fifth century Augustine wrote:
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 nonsense 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 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 learned 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.
[1 Timothy 1.7](http://www.pibburns.com/augustin.htm also see http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/postmonth/2008_02.html)If I was trying to undermine the very foundation of Christianity I would try to tell people that they should insist on a literal reading of Genesis. Sadly I have heard people lamenting the fact that their friends or family have chosen not to be Christians because they simply can not reject their scientific understanding of the world. I wish it was easier to gently speak 'truth in love' to these Christians who refuse to hear reason. But there is a refusal to hear anything other than what they already think or believe they should think because they are afraid that if they don't believe Genesis 1 (literally) they might go to hell.
What does the Bible Say?
If you want to take the Bible literally the first thing you will learn is that you simply can not take the Bible literally - especially with regard to Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. Rather than simply believe what pamphlets and preachers say - I encourage people to read their own Bibles for themselves and come to their own conclusions. Genesis 1 and 2 plainly contradict each other (see diagram below)...
It would have been easy to harmonize the two accounts, or reject one in favor of the other - but the Mosaic tradition brings two distinct accounts into the beginning of the Bible. It has only been in the last two centuries that our ideas about how the universe began - and the timescale of it all has begun to make sense. We've made the technological and mathematical discoveries that we need to see this - if the earliest tellers of the story of creation were going to try and explain evolution, DNA and abstract physics equations it would have taken them several books longer than the Bible to get to the point.
The Importance & Virtue of Science
Science is really important - through scientific advance humans have been able to discover the causes and cures for innumerable diseases and disorders. Many of the doctors and researchers were inspired by their faith to find these cures and solutions; many of the hospitals and universities where great scientific advancements are made were founded and funded by Christians because of their faith. In their research scientists are encouraged to dig for deeper and deeper truths about the world we live in and the science of it. Every discovery that is made is subject to wide eyed scrutiny. Scientists are meant to rejoice when their theories are disproved; some even do their best to disprove what they have already proved in order to further their understanding.Some religious groups see the scientific quest for truth as a sort of conspiracy against faith. When your 'faith' prohibits enquiry and starts to believe that everyone in the world is conspiring against you. When someone tells you that any question that undermines your philosophy is in fact a trick of the devil - then you might find that you have stumbled into a cult; propped up by conspiracy theories and a deep suspicion of material, experiential and reasonable truth.
Scripture teaches us that God created the world 'good'; our experience of Jesus (recorded in scriptures) is a physical, material experience: John puts it so beautifully in 1 John 1:1 "We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life..." Scientific, historical exploration and discovery is an exploration of the world that God has created and the world in which God reveals himself to people.
Psalm 19 tells us: "The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours fort speech, and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world..." The Psalmist inspires us to find the glory of God in creation.
Am I a Clever Monkey?
Those who object to evolution most stringently object on the basis that they are not just clever monkeys; they recognize that there is something special about humans. Something sacred. A sense of God in us. Does evolution mean that you are less than all of this? No it doesn't. You are who you are because of what God says about you; because of how God loves you. Not because of your ancestors - or the process by which you were created. Although the Biblical creation stories might not be an exact account of the history of how you came to be - they are a perfect account of the meaning of who you are: Lovingly and carefully "Created in the image of God." (Gen 1:27)The story of evolution does not make humans any less special - humans are special because God has loved them and revealed himself to them. God has given us the ability to see his creation, think about it, reflect on it, find meaning in it; and thoughtfully talk about it with him: "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?" (Psalm 8:3-4).
Not only this - God has sent Jesus to live among us - fully God and fully human - because God so loved the world (John 3:16). Through Jesus God has made us holy; even though we are members of his created order. If the way we were created is through evolution and we learn that we are inextricably related to all other living things - we don't become less holy or special. Rather, creation becomes more holy and special to us as we realize God's love for it all. Because of this I understand Paul's thoughts more clearly where he says:
"...creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God..." - Romans 8:19
Science alone might cause us to end up believing that we are just an amazing collection of atoms and their reactions to each other. But science + revelation shows us that we are not just clever monkeys; we are special to God. Right now we do not fully understand everything we are going through ("Now I know only in part; then I will know fully..." 1 Corinthians 13:12) - our understanding of God and the world is very limited; but faith gives us a glimpse of what God is up to through all of this.
Homo Naledi
The discovery of Homo Naledi and the discovery of other early hominids helps us to understand some of the scientific narrative of how God brought us into being. The most interesting thing about Homo Naledi for me as a Theologian, is that almost 3 million years ago these creatures seemed to have a sense of their own mortality and the sacredness of created life. They seem to have carefully buried their dead in the deep dark recesses of a cave. I am convinced that God delights in creation - in dinosaurs, wales, humans, plants, worms, monkeys and birds; in the perfection of the mysterious chaotic balance in sub-atomic particles. As Job 39:1-4 intones "Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the deer? Can you number the months that they fulfill, and do you know the time when they give birth, when they crouch to give birth to their offspring, and are delivered of their young?" - God keeps a watchful and delighted eye over his creatures. (Psalm 36:6)
I am quite sure that God delighted in Homo Naledi; and I am quite sure he wants us to share in his delight as we uncover the beauty and complications of this world and get to know - through our exploration - more about the glory of God.
Got Questions?
I wish I could say that Christianity gave me quick and easy answers to every difficulty that you and I will ever face. I sometimes wish that truth was always black or white and us humans never had to make any decisions about what was true or what was not true. James says in James 3:17 "But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy." The most interesting thing about this verse is the phrase 'willing to yield' - to have godly wisdom means to be willing to learn; and to learn - you need to ask questions - to ask questions - you need to admit that you are still learning.
For those who are interested in learning more about the relationship between faith and science I highly recommend www.biologos.org if you need some help with scientific responses to the claims that creationist groups make have a look at http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/ And if you want to have an edifying conversation about your struggles I'd love to grow with you.
In the preface to John Wesley's forty-four sermons Wesley writes:
9. Are you persuaded you see more clearly than me? It is not unlikely that you may. Then treat me as you would desire to be treated yourself upon a change of circumstances. Point me out a better way than I have yet known. Show me it is so, by plain proof of Scripture. And if I linger in the path I have been accustomed to tread, and am therefore unwilling to leave it, labour with me a little; take me by the hand, and lead me as I am able to bear. But be not displeased if I entreat you not to beat me down in order to quicken my pace: I can go but feebly and slowly at best; then, I should not be able to go at all. May I not request of you, further, not to give me hard names in order to bring me into the right way. Suppose I were ever so much in the wrong, I doubt this would not set me right. Rather, it would make me run so much the farther from you, and so get more and more out of the way.
10. Nay, perhaps, if you are angry, so shall I be too; and then there will be small hopes of finding the truth. If once anger arise, Eute kapnos, (as Homer somewhere expresses it,) this smoke will so dim the eyes of my soul, that I shall be able to see nothing clearly. For God’s sake, if it be possible to avoid it, let us not provoke one another to wrath. Let us not kindle in each other this fire of hell; much less blow it up into a flame. If we could discern truth by that dreadful light, would it not be loss, rather than gain? For, how far is love, even with many wrong opinions, to be preferred before truth itself without love! We may die without the knowledge of many truths, and yet be carried into Abraham’s bosom. But, if we die without love, what will knowledge avail? Just as much as it avails the devil and his angels!
The God of love forbid we should ever make the trial! May he prepare us for the knowledge of all truth, by filling our hearts with his love, and with all joy and peace in believing!
