Christianity and Evolution
Can you believe in both?
One of the biggest roadblocks I had to becoming a Christian was what to do with evolution? My girlfriend believed that the world was created in six literal days because that is what the Bible said. I would constantly argue with her about how she could possibly believe that? What about all the science!? And she would just say that ‘she believes just because that is what she believes”! Super frustrating. But it was true to her. That is what she believed. And she didn’t care much about it either way anyway. To her, God created the world. Fact. Who cares about the details.
But I care! I find it super interesting! And important. So this was a real obstacle to me becoming a Christian, because I knew I could never believe that the world was created in six literal days. So I thought that because I couldn’t believe that, I couldn’t believe in Christianity. I just assumed a literal reading of the Genesis account of creation was a prerequisite of belief.
How excited then, and intellectually challenged was I when I found out this was not the case. That you could believe in Christianity without believing in a six day creation. The first place I came across this was in Roy Williams’ book ‘God Actually’. Now Roy was not only a great Christian, but he was smart, he was normal, and he believed in a four billion year old earth and evolution. Wow! If that position was good enough for him, and he was secure enough in it to write about it in a book arguing about the proof of God, well it was good enough for me too.
Now this roadblock seems silly to me now, and may seem silly to many of the veteran Christians reading this. I am now well aware of the variety of positions held by Christians, and that most sit in the same position as me. But when I talk about this with my non-Christian friends, many still have the same idea that I did back then. That it is a ‘must believe’ tenet. So they don’t investigate any of Christianity’s other claims further as a result. Well I’m here to let those readers know this is not the case.
And this is where I think it gets really interesting. Because once you get this intellectual roadblock out of the way, you can start to see where God’s hand may be involved in your creation narrative. That’s what I really liked about Williams’ book and his analysis. He was able to show the glory of God’s creation occurring through an evolutionary framework. And with it presents convincing arguments that evolution is not a reasonable assumption for explaining life on earth without a supernatural creator involved in the process in some way. It was then, and probably still is now, one of the most intellectually satisfying arguments I had heard of how we got here. And from a Christian! Unbelievable!
Well at least it was to me at the time. And I don’t have time to go into his full argument now (but I will in other posts), but what I found out over the subsequent years (and is the purpose of this post) is that Christians hold a variety of positions on the creation of the earth and evolution. And also, that the holding any of these positions does not make you a bad Christian or a good Christian! It is a side issue. An interesting scientific and intellectual challenge to understand. As long as you understand that God created (and perhaps still creating) and remains in control, you are believing the right thing.
So let me broadly summarise what many great Christians believe (and I will go into more detail on each in future posts):
God created the universe at the Big Bang, when everything was set on its course, including the formation of Earth. God then created life on Earth. And here it diverges.
Some think that God let evolution take its path, ‘hands off’ so to say, as we went up through slime to slugs to apes to humans. This is the position held by the prominent and brilliant Christian scientist, Francis Collins, one time head of the Human Genome Project that unlocked DNA.
Others, and I would say the majority of Christian scientists or those who have a passion for science, believe that God had a more ‘hands on’ approach during evolution. In particular that God was involved in the small discrete steps that seem to be missing in the evolutionary trail or reasonable narrative, such as eyes. They would argue that the random genetic mutations weren’t actually random, but designed to occur or ordered to occur, and propagate, until it becomes a survival advantage. That’s the small steps. But there is also the bigger picture, how did uncomplex become complex. How does slime become humans. It is counterintuitive and against what most of us know instinctively. We know that things left to themselves decay. The great analogy (and I don’t have the source in front of me) is that evolution without God is like a tornado going through a scrapyard and producing a 747.
There is a third divergence on this same line. And that is whether humans were on that same evolutionary line as animals, or a separate unique creation step. Ie, did we evolve from apes? Or are apes the top of the evolution tree and we were a second separate act?
The second major camp is the creationism camp. This is for those that support a literal interpretation of Genesis. A six day creation (six 24 hour periods) and a young (10,000 year old) earth, with all of Earth’s biodiversity created as is. Although many do include in creationism the idea of adaption. Adaption being that there is survival of the fittest within species. But limited to change within species. There is no changing of species, like fish to bird. Think skin colour in humans as adaption to climate for example.
Now the creationists do pull out some good science to support the theory. And I find the science very interesting and intellectually stimulating. But personally I find the other theories more convincing. And I think most of my readers will as well. Although, my current pastor, and one of the smartest guys I have ever met, believes in creationism. As do a few other really smart guys I know.
And here is where I think the roadblock raises its head unfortunately. That creationism is what you will most likely hear preached at your local church by most pastors. And this is where we pick up this idea that if we don’t believe it, that we are not believing everything we are supposed to believe, so can’t believe the other stuff either.
But the truth is, you don’t have to believe in any of these different perspectives to be a Christian. You need to repent (seek forgiveness of your sins and turn to God) and believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, make him Lord of your life, and seek to do his will. Everything else is a side issue.
Just to be clear, there is a distinction with what I have discussed and what is pure naturalism. That being that there is no God and the universe came from nowhere, and so did life, and for no reason. That position is not complimentary with Christianity. Christians believe God created the world and sustains it. The means and methods of how he did that, and continues to do so, are up for debate. There are no prerequisite beliefs here before belief.
You believing in evolution and not believing in a six day creation, are not a valid reason for not becoming a Christian. And I encourage you to continue to pursue your knowledge in these areas, the creation of the universe, the creation of life, evolutionary theory and creationism theory. As I am confident that what you will find as you study these with an open mind is that they all point us towards a belief in a creator God.
