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Creation vs. Evolution

Feb 19th, 2009
by Michael Krahn.

dinobible.jpgThere are two topics that Christians are known to obsess over and spend much of their lives refuting and then promoting their own interpretation of: eschatology and evolution.  I’ve never spent much time on either one, but I got to thinking about creation and evolution last night and I wrote some notes. What I present here are thoughts about why I haven’t spent my life trying to prove or disprove various theories.

In both cases, I think God is free to act as he chooses. Whatever the ultimate truth is about these two issues, I don’t expect it to change the course of my everyday life very much.

I believe in God. I believe that he had a hand in creation. However he chose to act in the process is fine with me.

I believe in Jesus. I believe that he was the Son of God, that he lived on the earth, that he was crucified and came back to life, that he ascended into heaven, and that someday he will return in like manner.

I already live – and will continue to live – in the light of the hope of these two beliefs.

I am not threatened in the least by the prospect of the majority of the theory of evolution being proven to be true. One of my favorite authors, Madeleine L’engle, when asked what she thought about creationism versus evolution, said:

“‘I can’t get very excited about it. There’s only one question that’s worth asking, and that is, did God make it? If the answer is yes, then why get so excited about how?’

As far as I can see, evolution seems to be more logical at this point. I really don’t think God put fish and skeletons of fish in the mountains of Nepal to test our faith. But if I should find out tomorrow that it was neither creationism nor evolution, that wouldn’t affect my faith because it’s a peripheral issue.

The main issue is, did God create it? That’s all that matters.”

That sums up my feelings on the issue rather well.

Questions:

If you believe in a literal reading of the creation story, how can a literal, 6-day creation roughly 6000 years ago be reconciled with a fossil record that indicates that life began long before that?

If your belief is based on modern Darwinism (that non-living matter became living matter and eventually became life as we know it today) how do you account for the lack of transitional evidence in the fossil record?

That should be enough to get us started.
Extra reading:

Can You Believe in God and Evolution?

Mark Driscoll’s sermon notes on creation and evolution theories

P.S. I still think Edgar’s post is a good one, but perhaps it’s not in a format that encourages discussion.

Posted in: Evolution.

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  • Dan Hamm

    I’m interested in what everyone thinks of the Big Bang Theory, and the Large Hadron Collider that was built in Geneva to prove the theory. Here is a good Youtube video about it. At 11:25, the scientific creation story is explained.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6uKZWnJLCM

    I realize that even if this test is successful, all it is does is prove that it’s possible. It doesn’t prove that it has actually happened.

    My question is, if proof can be found that everything can be created from nothing without the hand of God, how does that make you feel?

  • Matthew Burkholder

    I think Christian’s have been focused on the “debate” for so long because people have hijacked “science” as a weapon against theism. Carl Sagan, Greg Graffan, Bill Maher, Fat Mike, Richard Dawkins…

    The list could go on and on of people promoting a false “absolute” atheistic philosophy.

    Christians fall into the trap of rejecting the good science all together in an attempt to combat atheism.

    The debate however, is necessary. Exposing the illogical leaps people make (Christian, skeptic, atheist) should be just as present in scientific discussions as it should be in philosophical ones.

    It is hard however, when one like myself enjoys discussing the implications of the Big Bang, only to be greeted by Christians with a look of disgust. Which is why I mostly avoid the conversation with Christians. Non-Christians however, find the discussion interesting and beneficial… “you mean, you believe in dinosaurs??”

    “The main issue is, did God create it? That’s all that matters.”

    So lets focus on meeting the “new atheism” with precision, intelligence and clarity. The answer shouldn’t be to just be quiet.

  • Mary Bergen

    Here’s what I think about the Big Bang Theory: God spoke and BANG it happened!!

  • Dan Hamm

    Mary,
    So before God spoke and created the earth, did he just hang out in the darkness all by himself? Doesn’t the story of Genesis state that on day one God created the heavens and the earth? So if neither existed before day one, where did God take up residence and where did he come from?
    I’m not down-playing your beliefs at all, but you can’t just come into an intellegent debate and throw out a mindless statement like that. You have to be prepared to share some serious insight or answer some difficult questions. That is what I consider a true believer. One who can defend WHY they believe what they do.

  • Andy Doan

    How it happened isn’t as important as that it happened. If it didn’t happen then we wouldn’t be here to discuss the finer details of it after the fact.

    Random chemical accident or the work of a magic man from beyond stars? For as much as it actually effects my day to day life I could care less!

  • http://willohroots.wordpress.com Will Hapeman

    Dan, I am in. first of all there is debate about Evolution amoung evolutionists. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SP0807/S00001.htm
    Please remember, we think God created time and is above and beyond time, so the what was He doing Before question just kind of goes away.

  • Damon

    In regards to the question “fossil record that indicates that life began long before that” (6000 years ago)….Wasn’t death a result of Sin which Adam brought about?
    From the time Adam sinned we can work out roughly that it was approx 6 to 10 thousand years ago. So in saying this what are the fossils of once living things that apparently “indicates” death before sin millions of years ago?. Maybe it’s the so called “scientists” who have it wrong and it is usually the ones that don’t even believe in God or the bible anyway. For the record I am a concreter and believe me when I look around at a lot of other concreters not all of them know how to lay concrete.