In today’s modern society, we all hear about the clashes in Kansas and elsewhere regarding the ongoing battle between evolution and creationism. Unfortunately, those on any one side often seem unable to compromise when it comes to answering the question about where humanity came from or how the universe actually began - it’s always either evolution or creationism, nothing else. To many, evolution is not compatible with creationism, nor is creationism compatible with evolution. Personally, I wonder, why not…why aren’t these beliefs compatible? Why can’t evolution be a natural process of God’s creation? Why can’t evolution be just another law of nature God placed into existence when he created the world? Why would God limit the ability of his creatures to adapt and change depending on their environments or other genetic factors?
I found a post on Wizbang that addresses this question and I totally agree with its author:
I’ve always been a believer in science. It doesn’t always come up with the answers right away, but it has a consistent record of finding the right answers — eventually — that no other approach comes close to. It’s tangible, it’s logical (if often counterintuitive), and it’s verifiable.
Some have taken science to be their substitute for religion. They sink all their faith and belief in science, and hold the devout (and their beliefs) in contempt. It’s mysticism, it’s self-delusion, it’s fantasy.
On the other side, there are those to whom their faith is all they need. Scientists are godless heretics, meddling in matters Man was not to trifle with and playing God.
Then there’s the middle, where the vast majority of Americans live.
At its core, I don’t think there is anything fundamentally incompatible with Christianity and science, between the Bible and natural history. All it takes is a little application of common sense and logic.
-Snip-
Science, to the devout, is not about disproving God or replacing Him. It’s about seeing how He did what He did, discovering the laws and rules that He set down and then followed. It’s about learning the laws of God that He didn’t spell out in the Bible, but had it written down by Newton and Einstein and Edison and Galileo and Copernicus and Brahe and Tesla and Watson and Crick and Hawking and Ptolemy and Archimedes and uncounted other seekers of truth.
But back to the original point: is there anything heretical in believing in evolution? No. It, like pretty much every other scientific theory or principle, is simply a study of how God works, learning the rules that He set up for His creation. Or it’s simply the way things developed, because it was the most efficient way.
Personally, I believe that evolution or simple adaptation (genetic or environmental) is just another natural law God put into place for the governance of nature and the sustainment of his creation. But that’s not the point. The point is that people should educate themselves and not limit themselves when it comes to exploring our origin. I think people have forgotten that God has put into place universal laws that are easily confirmed through scientific exploration. These laws at one time, were thought of as blasphemy and simply discarded, like when it was first discovered that Earth actually revolved around the Sun. We must not limit ourselves to “popular” understandings, but decide and interpret the data for ourselves and decide for ourselves what the truth is. Frankly, we’ll never know where we came from until we die. But until then, we can always try to understand our creator and the laws he put forth for the governance of his creation.
*Hat tip to Wizbang