Evolution

This is my fourth article concerning the Evolution/Creationism debate. This time, I'm going to try and focus on the bigger picture here and address the root causes for the misunderstanding, rather than going back and forth on individual pieces of evidence.

I'll start off by saying it's an unfortunate state of affairs that people out there are still confusing a page in the bible as a source of scientific truth. The bible is a complex religious document written by human beings. And as such, you have to take care to carefully interpret the meaning behind what's written, instead of just picking out phrases to support a "theory" based on a highly anthropomorphized "seven days of creation".

Don't get me wrong. I'm not putting down the Bible. I too consider myself a Christian. The spiritual and moral significance that the Bible carries is undeniable to it's followers.

But science and religion are two totally different realms of truth. Science is based on observable fact, while religion is based on belief and faith. Each must be evaluated separately. You can't form a scientific theory on the basis that you believe God created the universe. I'm not saying it's wrong to believe that God created the universe. I share your belief that it's not some accident that we're here. But your theory can't just be "God created the universe." That's not a theory. Theories are based on observation and tests. By definition, you cannot observe or test for God. If we could, there would be no need for faith. And therefore, by definition, Creationism is not and cannot ever be considered a scientific theory.

I think the main reason why creationists choose to propagate their religious belief as science is that they feel threatened by a theory that they feel eliminates the need for God. Galileo saw the same kind of controversy over his heliocentric model of the solar system. The Catholic Church at the time condemned his theory as heresy because the bible stated "the Lord set the earth on it's foundations, it can never be moved." (Psalm 104.5) Galileo argued that it did not contradict the Bible, taking St. Augustine's position on scripture, which was that you cannot read every passage literally.

Sound familiar? The exact same thing is happening today with the evolution.

A wide range of modern, established sciences, including anatomy, physiology, microbiology, biochemistry and paleontology all point to the conclusion that present life on this earth evolved through natural selection from a common ancestor. I don't take this theory to be totally infallible, but to date, the scientific community agrees that this is the best theory we have to logically explain the origins of life on the earth.

But, just as Galileo's model of heliocentrism, didn't place mankind as the center of the universe, evolutionary theory doesn't place mankind as the center of the biological universe. According to the theory, we like other lifeforms, evolved over great stretches of time to our present-day state. One can see how this can be very frightening to some people, and misunderstood as an attack on their belief in God.

But why couldn't God have used evolution as the process for creating life? Wouldn't creating all life, or the entire universe for that matter, from a small, yet specific and fundamental set of laws and forces be a more elegant and God-like way of going about things than an anthropomorphized week of creation?

I'll end with a quote that is just as relevant today to the evolution debate as it was four-hundred years ago to the heliocentric debate:

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use." - Galileo Galilei