“The heavens declare the glory of God” Psalm 19:1
Huge questions remain about the Theory of Evolution, and many of it’s most basic claims still cannot be proven (See Can We Say, “I Don’t Know?”). So why is Evolution so widely accepted?
Evolution has become a philosophy about the existence of life, and how science allows us to understand it. Many in the scientific community accept the implications of Evolution, even though they lack the evidence to support it.
Evolution has become a philosophy of life that extends into almost every area of our technological, modern society. As the impact of science has affected more areas of our lives, this Philosophy of Evolution came along with it. It’s difficult to think about science without seeing the influence of Evolution. But why is this?
Evolution has become a force that shapes our culture.
Evolution caused a lot of excitement and discussion in the scientific world when it was introduced. It encouraged close observation of nature, and conjecture about how things got to where they are. The intricacies of the natural world began to be studied like never before (See On the Origin of Evolution).
This approach was in contrast to the dominant view of the world in Europe and North America, which came from the Creation account in Genesis. The belief that everything existed because God had created it helped shape a culture where people weren’t encouraged to look for any further explanation.
But then, under closer scrutiny, men and women began to observe many things about the natural world that they had previously ignored. (Dairymaids were using fossils to weigh butter.) Because the idea of Evolution had made them look, Evolution also became the most obvious explanation for what they found.
Now the Theory of Evolution provided a way for some to suggest that God had worked in a different way than seemed to be described in Genesis. Others, who did not believe the Bible, suggested that God had not been involved at all. This scientific view created room to say that belief in God was unnecessary.
Since Christianity was the dominant belief system in Western Europe and North America at the time, it had an overwhelming effect on Western culture up to that point. When Evolution allowed people to challenge the basic claim of Christianity, it began to change the culture Christianity had helped form.
Too often, Christians and leaders in churches have reacted with suspicion or distain to those who showed real curiosity about the physical world. But God created us with a desire to know and understand.
The atheistic philosophy of Evolution provided an outlet for that desire, and the questions it creates. But that doesn’t mean it is true, or that it can lead to the right answers. Those questions, and the answers they require, can be best understood from God’s perspective, given to us in the Bible.
After all, he’s the one who created us to be captivated by the possibilities of what he made.