Evolution: God's Idea?

"Aren't evolution and faith in God incompatible? Can a scientist believe in miracles like the resurrection? Actually, I find no conflict here, and neither apparently do the 40 percent of working scientists who claim to be believers. Yes, evolution by descent from a common ancestor is clearly true. If there was any lingering doubt about the evidence from the fossil record, the study of DNA provides the strongest possible proof of our relatedness to all other living things. But why couldn't this be God's plan for creation?"

~ Dr. Francis Collins

Few Christians I know are even trying to understand how evolution might play into the big picture plan and purpose of God. Many Christians are just straining to get used to the idea of evolution, and many more reject it altogether. When believers get past their initial aversion, get comfortable with the new paradigm, and attempt to look at evolution through the eyes of the purposeful Creator, new and exciting vistas open up on a very large, cosmic scale. Francis Collins, the world’s leading geneticist and an evangelical believer tells us that evolution is clearly true. He accepts it as “God’s plan for creation.”

Where are you on this scale below? Please comment!

o Evolution is not compatible with Christianity.

o Evolution might be true, but I’m not convinced.

o Even if evolution is true, it would not effect Christian theology.

o The evidence for evolution is powerful, and I am trying to adjust my thinking, to understand how it fits into my faith.

o I am comfortable with evolution and common descent.

o I am comfortable with evolution and common descent, and actively exploring how this truth impacts Christian theology.

The Stronghold of Creationism

I will return to the God & Evil series; a post at a friend's site prompted the following ...

I recall a conversation I had with a friend about two years ago. I had recently read Francis Collins’s wonderful book, The Language of God, and I was in the middle of Gordon Glover's Beyond the Firmament. My friend had expressed his astonishment that I accepted the evidence for evolution. I told him that in five years, maybe ten, he too would come to accept evolution, as would most Christians. Wow! How wildly optimistic I was!

I now tell people that I do not expect to live to see the day when most conservative Christians accept evolution, and that it may take another fifty to one hundred years before Christendom abandons its anti-evolution stance. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the publishing of the Origin of the Species. The last time Christians had to adjust to the theological and bibliological implications of unsettling science (following Copernicus and Galileo), the church took 200 years to come to terms. If my 50 year projection is accurate, we're just about on schedule.

Steve Douglas has just posted Why creationists are creationists, an excellent piece detailing the reasons for the solid resistance to evolution in the conservative wing of the American church. I recommend it for those who seek to understand why this resistance is so unyielding. 

Your comments are welcome.

Book Review: The Language of God

I've been reading Francis Collins book, The Language of God. I recommend it for all who are still struggling with the concept of evolution, or for those who want a quick and easy intro to the state of science today as it relates to Christian faith.

Francis Collins is arguably the most prominent evangelical scientist of our day. He was the leader of the Human Genome Project through the 1980s and 1990s. He is an M.D. and one of the world’s leading DNA scientists. In simple and plain language, he gives an overview of the state of cosmology and quantum physics. But his forte is molecular biology, and the science of DNA. He presents a compelling case why it is that Darwinian evolution is accepted fact today among the vast majority of biologists. The evidence streaming in from genetic research is providing mounting confirmation of evolution. Collins writes,

The examples reported here from the study of genomes, plus others that could fill hundreds of books of this length, provide the kind of molecular support for the theory of evolution that has convinced virtually all working biologists that Darwin’s framework of variation and natural selection is unquestionably correct. (page 141)

He goes on to explain that many people are confused by the use of the term “theory”. Evolution is “theory” in the same sense that Newton’s laws of gravity are “theory”. Evolutionary theory underlies the study of biology in much the same way that music theory underlies the work of musicians. We seldom hear people deny belief in gravity. I’ve never heard a musician question the validity of music theory.

With sound reasoning and overwhelming evidence, Collins firmly rejects Creationism, and Intelligent Design. And he does so from the standpoint of a devout Bible believing Christian.

As my blog entries progress, we will visit the significance of evolution in the plan of God. While I will gladly discuss why I believe in evolution, I would much prefer to move on to discuss the meaning and significance of evolution, and the role which I believe naturalistic evolution has played in the plan of God.