Currently Reading The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey
Due to lack of time, I’ve not written the things I have planned to write here yet. That said, I am going to post something here that I wrote a few months ago. I never took time to fully edit it, so it may contain mistakes.
So here goes, I look forward to your comments.
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Evolution?
There have been times in the past when the church (Bible) and science conflicted on issues, which the church felt would destroy faith, and thus was afraid of. Heliocentrism (the idea that the sun is at the center of the galaxy, as opposed to the earth) is a VERY good example. Ask Galileo how that went! (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliocentrism )
Science eventually won out on heliocentrism and the church did not suffer.
I believe that evolution may or may not be true and that if it is, it will win and the church will not be hurt. We should not be afraid of evolution. Please remember this point as you read.
I think that Christians have two great concerns about evolution.
1. If God made us, then we are important and special and have intrinsic value. If we are just mere accidents of chance, then our very existence as both individuals and as a species is trivial. A trivialization of an individual’s existence can lead to deep depression, a failure to contribute to society, and a lack of concern for fellow man which leads to a survival of the fittest mentality. A trivialization of the human species in general leads to all sorts of extreme actions and views. It can lead to a belief that a human life is no more important than the life of a tree. This seems extreme, but we all know of examples of actions based on such a line of thinking. Many Christians feel that a great deal of the crime that exists in our society is a result of people believing that neither they, nor their fellow many has any intrinsic value.
2. If God created the universe, then He has a unique insight into the way the universe functions. This unique understanding gives credence to any direction He may have given us on how we should conduct our lives. This direction we believe to be in the Bible. The Bible is not to be followed because God will be angry with us if we don’t, but rather because it is the instruction book from the maker. To give a specific example: I do not believe that promiscuity is wrong simply because God will be angry with us if we are not celibate and monogamous, but because God made the universe in such a way that everything works best when intercourse is restricted to a man and his wife. It just works best that way, because God made it that way. If we say the universe just came together by accident, then we open up the idea that society can change the rules by which it is governed. Many Christians believe that people, especially young people, are making decisions with their life that are based on the idea that they are just an accident, and that no one really knows what is best.
As believers, we truly do need to stress to people that God does love them, that each person is very special to God, and that God does know the best way for us to conduct ourselves as individuals and as a society, and that violation of God’s directions will lead to suffering and destruction. These basic principles (expressed in that run-on sentence) are key to the Christian faith, and can exist with our without creation, but they certainly do make more sense right now if we acknowledge that God created the universe.
Going on with the topic of evolution, let me pause a moment to share my personal problems with evolution:
1. I do not believe that there is any evidence of interspecies mutation. In other words, I just do not believe that there is sufficient evidence that it is ever possible for a dog to mutate into a cat. I do believe in inner species mutation. Take enough St. Bernards and let them run loose with each other for an inordinate amount of time, and you just might get a chihoua. Maybe. =) But NEVER a cat. (Again, remember, I admit I could be wrong, that is ok, I just haven’t seen enough proof for my mind yet.)
2. I believe the numbers and I don’t like the odds. The statistical odds against some of the most basic, even inner species, mutations that are required for evolution are staggering! While I do believe in a young earth (read on for explanation of this) even if I was willing to give billions of years, I still don’t think all of these could have happened by accident. The odds are just too high. I know that some wild ideas have been developed to cope with this, but those haven’t been proven either.
3. Finally, I do not believe that genetic mutations benefit the animal in a majority of cases. I think the evidence will bear out that most genetic mutations actually harm the animal. Some do benefit the animal, however, then we get back to point number two. If only one in a thousand mutations benefit the animal, and we need several billion to turn a fish into a lizard (and we probably need more than that), then we have a real problem. I think the fish would be much better off just staying in the water and learning to knit. Remember, animals don’t “mutate on purpose,” they just mutate at random, and the mutations that benefit the animal become mainstream because the animals with these beneficial mutations live longer or are stronger than their counterparts, and thus the “fittest” procreate more. It is really very complicated for the poor fish.
Personally I do not believe in evolution. I believe in the literal seven day creation. However, I believe that as we look at evidence of things we cannot actually see, we often actually look past creation into the pre-created earth in the mind of God. God may have actually evolved the world in His mind, and then spoke it into existence, with all of the evidence of the evolutionary process of His thinking up the world in His mind fleshed out instantly in the created version that we live in now.
Here is an analogy. If you look at a computer program’s source code, as you read it, you may start to get the idea that the writer started by writing a very simple program, and then slowly transformed it into a more and more advanced program. This is most likely the truth. The programmer did do that. However, what he finally released as executable code was the finished product as you see it. He didn’t just put out the basic code on the computer and it just happen, by chance (possibly because of frequent crashes of Microsoft Windows that corrupted the hard drive) to mutate into the much more advanced program you now have. Yes, there was a process of development, but it was all pre-delivery. I believe if there is any evidence of evolution it is “pre-creation” within God’s mind.
This is also my view of the problems of an old earth versus young earth. The physical earth that exists (we won’t get into existence right now) is young. Some measures of age show this physical age, while others actually delve into the pre-created earth which is as old as, well, God! (God is eternal, so the lengths of time are limitless. Some bounds of time were obviously inserted when He created the universe and time itself, which the universe was inserted into.)
To put it simply, and be a little silly on purpose, we are literally a figment of God’s imagination.
What is exciting about this is that I believe that if we could really study earth’s origins, we can actually study the inner workings of God’s mind, or at least part of it!! You have to realize, however, that for a Christian, the purpose of science is to learn more about himself and his world in order to learn about the God who created him and his world. Many scientists are either atheists, or conduct their work in an atheistic manner, and therefore their outlook and the results of their work is very secular. They learn for the sake of learning, out of pure curiosity. There is nothing wrong with this, but you must appreciate that they won’t have any interest in God in their study.
Perhaps these scientists will prove us all wrong. =) Every Christian today is perfectly comfortable with heliocentrism, and any apparent contradiction to this in the Bible is quickly overlooked or explained away. It is the fact that the evidence for heliocentrism is so obvious to even the must unlearned child that makes this easy. I am sure that someday the evidence for or against evolution will be the same.
Oh, and how about an opposing example? Look up spontaneous generation (Aristotelian abiogenesis, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_generation This is a good article that also touches on the origins of life in general from non-organic origins). Scientists (though very primitive) really did believe in it, and really taught it to people. It sounds so stupid now that it is just a joke.
I look forward to the day when evolution is either as clear as heliocentrism, or as stupid as spontaneous generation. Until then, let’s just all get along and look at the facts, and not make more or less of them than the facts themselves warrant.
Oh, and what about the problems I presented for Christians if God didn’t create the universe? I don’t have the answer to that. I claim ignorance. Currently I haven’t been convinced of the obviousness of evolution, so I stick to creation as I know it. I have faith in and trust my God, the God of the Bible. I know that if evolution is proven, then God will not cease to exist. My only word of caution is this. If you decide to allow yourself to believe in evolution and dismiss the seven day creation account of the Bible, be careful. Many Christians quickly move from that on to dismissing many other parts of the Bible. If we start picking and choosing what to accept from the Bible, then really we have no anchor and are as adrift as the rest of the world. You too could end up as one of those people making choices in your life based on the idea that no one really knows what is best, and that we can just change the rules that govern society as we think best. Every boat swings on its anchor, and we can lengthen or shorten the rope, but without any anchor at all the boat will be completely out of control until it runs aground or sinks.
Posted 8/14/2006 10:48 AM
2 Comments:
To comment on my own writing:
I wrote this some months ago. My feelings have actually changed quite a bit since then.
Mainly I think that the “evolution vs. creation” debate misses the entire point of the Gospel.
That said, I heard some men recently that expressed the whole issue in ways that just amazed me. They truly expressed my feelings.
I knew they were on the right track when one of them was asked (basically) “Does God exist?” and his response was basically this:
“To ask if God exists is not a logical question because God is not an object.”
Wow! Now THAT is my kind of thinking!
They were on a recent NPR show: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5617850
I hope to get and read their books soon. From what I heard on the above show (and I must admit, I have not heard the entire show yet) they seem to have seen their way past the debates to the real point.
Posted 8/14/2006 11:05 AM by ThinkingOnTheEdge
Here are the books I hope to read:
The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
by Francis S. Collins
God’s Universe
by Owen Gingerich
Coming to Peace With Science: Bridging the Worlds Between Faith and Biology
by Darrel R. Falk, Francis Collins (Foreword)
Francis S. Collins & Owen Gingerich are the two guests on the NPR show I mentioned above.
Posted 8/14/2006 4:19 PM by ThinkingOnTheEdge
