In case you missed it on BioLogos, here’s Bruce Waltke on Evolution. If we deny it when the evidence tells us it’s true, we make ourselves a cult. That’s how he leads off. Enjoy.
My Books
In case you missed it on BioLogos, here’s Bruce Waltke on Evolution. If we deny it when the evidence tells us it’s true, we make ourselves a cult. That’s how he leads off. Enjoy.
So this guy is clearly not a scientist, although he seems to have drunk the evolution kool-aid. Scientists have gotten to a point where evolution is no longer something to THINK about or question, it is a religion and it’s a catch-all explanation for the way things are (without necessarily having the “data” to do so). While I don’t think evolution is incompatible with Christianity, to say that questioning evolution will make Christianity obsolete is silly (and in my mind) anti-intellectual. (But then that also means I am accusing a lot of scientist of being anti-intellectual; but I think on this front, in a lot of ways, they are. Nature is far, far too complicated to continue to just say “oh, it evolved this way”–at least from my perspective).
And, to insert my credentials for saying such crazy things, I have a PhD in physical chemistry. Biologists may not think that sufficient.
Jamie, you should watch Can an Evangelical Christian Accept Evolution?
Let me preface this by saying I don’t believe it hurts one’s faith a bit if they believe in evolution. I’m perfectly fine saying the earth is billions of years old, or even saying we evolved from primates, and still maintaining a strong Christian faith. That others question this is absurd to me. They can be reconciled and faith and science are not in conflict. If the evidence takes you the path of evolution, then being an atheist is not the only option. I can break bread with a Christian evolutionist all day (I’m one to some degree, though the primate thing is tough to jump on board with personally).
Having said that, I find the recent surge by biblical scholars to speak out for evolution (Waltke, Enns, the Biologos foundation, etc.) extremely ironic. We go through decades of sticking our fingers in our ears and trying to take the Bible “literally,” and then all of a sudden when postmodernism begins to define our current generation we give in to evolutionary theory and try to reconcile the Bible with it. The 20th century told us that science wasn’t the answer to everything, that there were too many ambiguities, that the conclusions of scientists were constantly in a state of flux, and that following some theories to their logical conclusion ended in brutality and inhumane actions (re: social Darwinism). Postmoderns look at this and start to distrust science and see it’s shortcomings (by no means abandoning it, but not placing as much trust in it), and all of a sudden biblical scholars start ardently defending evolution to a generation who throws their hands up and is fine with saying “we don’t know and it really doesn’t matter very much.”
Am I the only one who finds this ironic? Why are biblical scholars always about 30 years behind? Is it really that important to write, publish, teach, and post on a belief in origins that absolutely none of us can know with 100% certainty, using the arguments from the very people postmoderns have learned not to trust as much as our grandparents told us to? Is it that important to know the answer to this question? I’m certainly not an advocate of young earth creationism, but dogmatically teaching and preaching the opposite is still done in the same spirit as the YECs. It’s all very modern, and all moderns will be dead in a few decades. Let’s pick our battles more wisely.
Am I just totally off in seeing this?
Luke: I think that not a few biblical scholars and theologians have thought that evolution was good science and not a threat to Christianity since Darwin’s theories first came up. A bunch of the guys who wrote in the five volume set, “The Fundamentals” thought evolution was the case. Also, Christians have been okay with an old earth all over the world, just not in the media in the US. C.S. Lewis was an evolutionist, Peter Kreeft is too.
Anyway, you’re right about it not being the purpose of the church to preach one or the other. But the viewpoint that science is OK is not new.
Evolution is compatible with a belief in god. It is not compatible with a literal interpretation of the genesis story. There is no squaring that circle.
Heydar (nice, um, name!): I think that’s right. Neither is a round earth or a heliocentric solar system. That’s why we have to rethink how we read Gen 1-3.
Hey J.R.
Have you by chance read the book Finding Darwin’s God? I thought it was a very nice read; the author is Kenneth Miller. He addresses many questions on faith(as he is a devout Catholic) as well as putting forth some of the evidence for evolution. I think it was written in 97 so it excludes the findings of the genome projects, but still extremely well written.