On a Goole blog about creation and evolution someone asked some basis questions about this sensitive matter rgarding the relationship between faith and evolution. Here is my answer. I am a catholic christian and biology teacher and I have studied a bit in the matter. My view is, that evolution is a scientifical theory, and nothing more or less than that. There is no hard proof and the theory has many flaws. I don’t have to be a christian to come to this conclusion: during my biology sties in Utrecht, the Netherlands (www.uu.nl) my professor in evolutionary biology admitted that the theory has more uncertainties than certainties. We just don’t know very wel what happenend, from a scientifical point of view, and is is hard to find evidence for a lot of evolutionary hypothesis, and most of the time practically impossible. For instance: there is no way in proving scientifically that men evolved from a common ancestor that we would have with the apes. It is only supposed by many ‘believers’ in evolution. And even the idea that species would have evolved from other species is not proven. It is mere speculation.
From a scientifical point of view, I have no problem with speculation, on the condition that speculation is not being presented aks factual information. This happens often and it is not scientifical. From a religious point of view, there is no doubt in my mind that God exists. I relate to Hem every day of my life and I have had to many experiences of his existence and his personal love for me and for all people, as well as for the entire creation, that I don’t find it
reasonable anymore to doubt his existence. And if He exists, I can’t think of Him otherwise that of the first and final cause of all existence as we know it. The history of philosophy has often affirmed this existence of God, although it has been denied also. But there is also the history of revelation, written down by especially Jews and Christians throughout the ages, with compelling testimonies of God’s action in history and in the lives of nations and
groups of people as well as individuals. In the center of this written account is the bible. This is not a scientifical book, but a coolection of ancient texts that have one thing in common: the affirmation of God’s existence, creator of heaven and earth, and His love for mankind. So there is much evidence that God exists, although it is nod scientifical evidence, because God is not a thing or an energy that we can measure; He goes beyond our level of perception and
reasoning. He is the cause of things and the intelligence ‘par excellence’ after which we have been created. He is God and we are ‘only’ humans. As intelligent, self conscientious species, we are made after his image, in the sence that we have the personal characters of God: a free will, the ability to think about life and about ourselves, intelligent communication and abstraction, to love and to relate to other persons, and even to God, by prayer and spiritual life.
When you have to confront this belief, which is rather a certainty then a speculatiuon, with evolutionary biology, their are a few things that come to my mind:
- It is far from certain that we should interpret the first chapters of the bible in a very literal way, as if it is a factual historical account of the things that happened at the beginning of time, in six days as we know our days by now. It is also not certain that these creation accounts have no historical value at all and are mere poems or song texts for liturgical use by the jewish people. The latter is more or less certain: these are texts that were used in a liturgical
context,so for worship; and not in a sort of scientific context. But I don’t agree in evacuating any historical, factual, meaning of the texts. Biological science as we know it know dates from about the end of the middle ages (although Aristotle can be considered a biologist already), and these texts may be a thousand years older that biological
science. So it is not evident that we would have to interpret them literally, as if the bible is a biology handbook. - When we consider God as a creator, it comes to my mind that God is beyond time and space, and not made up of matter or energy. Theology and philosophy make a clear distinction between the transcendental reality (the reality of God and ‘the things of God like heaven, angles, etc.) and the immanent reality (the cosmos, time, space, matter, energy, biological, human and if there is any, extraterrestrial life). And it is clear from scriptural thought that God gives to his creation a certain independence in development. Normally, God does not intervene ‘directly’ in creation, because creation is good enough to go its way according to natural laws that guide it. This is the wisdom by which creation is made, according to the psalm, number 104. This relative independence leads in the end to the human race, that is free to choose, in every
day life, but also in its relationship with its creator. We are, for instance, free to believe or not. And to act morally good or bad. God has great confidence in his creation, and also a lot of patience with us: He does not fall from heaven in anger when I forget about Him for a while. He respects our freedom. On the other hand, creation depends on God in its existence. If God would only for one second not love us and all universe, it would sort of collapse into non-existence. So
from a theological point of view, as well as from certain philosophical stand points, it is evident that God is the creator, and THAT the world in which we live is created by one transcendent, personal and loving God. - A quite different question is HOW EXACTLY God did it. One thing is certain: he did it ‘ex nihilo’, ‘from out of nothing’. This is confirmed by revelation (the bible), philosophical thought (although not necceseraly hte case) and by the big bang theory, or at least not with spoken by science. What happened afterwards is object of further studies. Bible studies: how do we have to interpret the biblical accounts for creation, what historical value to attribute to them; and from a scientific point of view: cosmology, geological history, posihle explanations for bioldiversity
and it’s coming into being on earth. - From a philosophical point of view, it is impossible to think of reality, both divine and earthly as having more then one truth. If truth is trugh, then, eventially, there can only be one, that includes many truths that only apparently may contradict, because of wrong assumptions or conclusions. So if there seems to be contradiction between evolutionary theory and creational beliefs, their must be something wrong in one of them or in both. Maybe we think of God as a sort of technical engineer that made up molecules. This is not the case, because God is not a natural cause, but a supernatural cause of existence. Maybe we think of evolution as a automatic process where their is no God needed. Then we are in the
field of atheistic evolutionary thought, which is not any longer biological thought, but a philosophical or even theological assumption. And it is even more difficult to proof the non-existence of God then to prove evolution. - So the best thing in my mind is to let theological thought and biological evolutionary thought develop and let them try to relate to each other, without confusion between transcendental an natural causes for life, nor seperation of the two approaches for finding truth. The intermediate level of thought between biology and theology is philosophy, and it is important to be very careful in not mixing things up. The philosophical enterprise in these questions must be of a very high quality.
Conlusion
- Their is not real contradiction between Christian, biblical thought on creation, their are only paradoxes; things that seem to be in contradiction: they need further thought and examination.
- Evolution is only a theory, very popular for the moment, and maybe true, but we don’t really know for certain; and it denies in no way the idea of a personal God, creator of heaven and earth, supernatural cause of our existence. The two concepts may go well together.
- Believing in God is reasonable, because their is a lot of historical, factual evidence for his existence and is love;
believing in evolution is acceptable as far as we realize that many questions remain unanswered. So I personally would advise people to take a moderate position in which both beleefs in God as the creator of heaven and earth evolutionary biology are treated with respect, in a common, but different quest for truth.
Vincent Kemme
Technorati Tags: bible, creation, evolution, genesis, science
