How can Christians believe in evolution?
Oct 2nd, 2009 by ljkim
I’m not a scientist, so it really doesn’t matter what I think about evolutionary theory… But I am a pastor and my job is to help people think through things theologically, from a Jesus-disciple point of view. And when it comes evolution there are two things that Christians need to understand: First, according to the Bible, a person is NOT saved on the basis of what he believes about creation and evolution…
In true historic orthodox Christianity, one is not saved on the basis of what one thinks about evolution or politics or health care, or even on whether or not abortion should be legal – but one is saved on the basis of what one believes about…Jesus. This often gets lost for some reason. It’s not that these things aren’t important – they are important – sometimes very important – but they pale in comparison to the importance of loving God and loving people. So if you were to go back in time to Medieval Europe and the people of your church believed the world was flat, that thunder was a sign from God, and that cats could steal one’s breath – you shouldn’t feel the need to correct these false-beliefs before accepting them as people to be loved… One day we’ll know everything – right now every person’s beliefs are filled with errors and half-truths – it’s not our job to correct everything or know everything – but we do want to be right about things that are absolutely important: Loving God as Savior, and loving our neighbors…
Second: what the Bible says about Creation is actually NOT in contradiction with evolutionary science at the moment. Contrary to other Ancient religions, the Bible taught that human beings came from the same material from which every living and non-living thing on earth came from. We are creatures of earth. But that is not all, we have also been uniquely molded into God’s image… Unlike the other creatures that have adapted to survive in their environment – human beings have been given the ability to know and question and seek after truth!
The Notre Dame philosopher Alvin Plantinga argues that evolution makes more sense from a Christian perspective than it does from a Naturalist perspective… Because natural selection works to govern behavior and not beliefs… So (as Daniel Dennett pointed out in his TED Talk) ‘a parasite in the brain of a mouse wants to get into the belly of a cat – so what does it do? It makes the mouse fearless so it will run into the open, so it will get eaten up by the cat.’ Natural selection governs behavior, but it does not necessarily lead to true beliefs – neither the mouse or the parasite (or the cat really) knew what it was doing. So how can we know that our brain is functioning properly in understanding the evolutionary mechanisms of natural selection? How do we know we’re not rats infected by parasites believing we’re biologists? But from a Christian perspective – from the beginning of time, there was a plan… And human beings created from the same matter that is everywhere on earth, were made with the ability to seek and know truth…and even know God.
So here’s all I’m saying: I’m not saying you should believe in evolution – or not. But (Christians) please don’t think that you have to take a particular stand, a priori, closing your mind to people who are genuinely in search of truth (whether scientific truth or theological truth) – God gave you a mind to seek truth for a reason…and ultimately I believe all truth helps you know God better.
Related posts:
well said, pastor.