Some evangelical Christians have trouble reconciling
evolution and a traditional belief in God as creator
and sustainer of the world, but I do not.
Within the evangelical tribe, I belong to the
Calvinist wing, where a long history exists of
accepting that God speaks to humans through
"two books" (Scripture and nature),
and since there is but one author of the two books,
there is in principle no real conflict possible
between what humans learn from solidly grounded
science and solidly grounded study of the Bible.
Of course, if "evolution" is taken to
mean a grand philosophical Explanation of Everything
based upon Pure Chance, then I don't believe it
at all. But as a scientific proposal for how species
develop through natural selection, I say let the
scientists who know what they are doing use their
expertise and whatever theories help to find out
as much as they can. On the Bible side, I do
not think it is necessary to read everything in
early Genesis as if it were written by a fact-checker
at the New York Times. But as a persuasive
basis for believing 1) that God made the original
world stuff, 2) that he providentially sustains
all natural processes, and 3) that he used a special
act of creation (perhaps out of nothing, perhaps
from apelike ancestors) to make humans in his
own image, the Bible is not threatened by responsible
scientific investigations.
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