“swarms of living creatures…according to their kinds” Genesis 1:20-24

As soon as we consider that Genesis 1 may not mean the Earth was created in six days, 6,000 years ago, we feel another concern.  Have we opened the door to accepting the billions of years needed for the process of Evolution to take place?

Not long ago, the answer was clearly yes.  The Neo-Darwinist form of Evolution is particularly hostile to those who believe in creation.

But this is not just for scientific reasons, as that version of Evolution has combined with a philosophy that denies the existence of God (See The Origin of Evolution).

Evolution’s ability to create new life remains a theory.

Within the Evolutionist community, there are serious disagreements about how to apply The Theory of Evolution.  While scientists continue to find evidence for evolution on a small scale, no discovery has yet supported the claim that Evolution can form new species.

When DNA was discovered, many initially believed it would provide the answers about the gradual development of new species that fossils could not.  But further research into DNA has shown that when genetic mutations occur, it weakens the species, which is just the opposite of what Evolution predicts.

And the biggest mystery still has not been explained.  No scientist has yet been able to show how life first began out of the non-living material in the universe.  Those who still believe in Evolution are likely to respond, “Not yet, but we will.”

But the recent discoveries in genetics, physics and biology seem to be moving further away from Evolution, not bringing us closer.  At the same time, even Evolutionist admit that a discovery could be made that conclusively disproves the Theory once and for all.

Evolution must now answer the same objection that it has raised against Creationists.  What we observe in the world does not fit with that narrative of how it came to be.  This has left many wondering what the explanation could be.

For many years anyone who suggested anything other than Evolution had their credibility attacked.  But that seems to be changing.  Some academics are beginning to openly discuss the scientific evidence for Intelligent Design, even while denying a personal belief in God.

We are still a long way from having a respectful and open conversation between Scripture and science, but it is starting to happen.  Evolution has become a deeply cultural belief (I will write more on this later).  That means there are new opportunities to talk about it, and to challenge it’s assumptions about who we are.

That is a conversation we need to be part of, but to do so, we need to listen.  And when asked to reconcile the evidence with some of our beliefs, we need to be able to answer, “I don’t know.”