by Tommy Karlas
In the past couple of decades there has been a division not only among Christians, but also between some believers and unbelievers, about evolution and the age of our universe. I know these are probably taboo issues for some, but I think it’s important because there can be radically inaccurate ideas about both. First, let’s look at the age of the universe. There is something like one third of American Christians that believe the universe is only 6000 years old. I think some Christians feel they have to believe and defend that because their faith hinges on a very literal reading of the first creation story in Genesis 1 (God creating everything in six days).
But just as St Augustine said all the way back in the fourth century AD, we must be very careful about that which we hang the hat of our faith on. Because even Augustine back then believed that the first creation story was not meant to be interpreted as literally happening in six days. In fact, the hebrew word for “day” was mostly used to describe a period of time not 24 hours.
The Bible is a massive and diverse piece of literature and each book and verse must be read in context and in the way the authors intended it to be. To me, that is the most literal way anything can be read. The first creation story in the book of Genesis is not to be read as scientific but as allegorical. That doesn’t mean God didn’t really create everything. After all, allegory is an abstraction, but it still points to a concrete reality. Once they start with the first man, Adam in the second creation story, they are then intended to be read as history. Just like when you read the Psalms and Proverbs, they are intended to be read as a wisdom genre. And other parts of scripture are prophetic and law.
For instance, in the first creation story there was light before God created the sun on the fourth day. When looked at as allegorical it makes perfect sense because most people worshipped the sun and other natural things as gods before Judaism (monotheism-belief in one God). This is a way for the author to show the sun is not a god but merely a part of the naturally created order. So because we as Christians do not want to exclude and disregard other forms of knowledge like science, geology, archeology (which often support the Christian faith and the Bible), we should take Augustine’s advice as to be careful what our faith is hinged on.
Next let’s look at evolution. Today there are many scientists whose faith is only strengthened by evolution, not weakened, like Francis Collins (who mapped the human genome) and John Polkinghorne (who discovered quarks inside of atoms). To them it makes more sense that the patient God they believe in would bring life about through natural processes as opposed to an arbitrary snap of the fingers. There are three points as far as Darwinian evolution goes. 1) Natural selection only explains what happens after you already have life (the first single cell organism) and how it evolves from there. It has nothing to say about how the first single cell came to be. And the single cell is the most basic and essential building block of life. It’s where DNA resides, which is the most wondrous and complicated aspect of life.
2) Darwin’s atheism was not because of his theory, it was because his daughter died at a very young age. This terrible tragedy made him lose his faith in a creator for some time. But he himself would have told you that nothing about his theory refutes God. In fact, a young seminary student wrote him a letter thanking him because she’d wondered for so long how God created humans and his explanation was very informative. Darwin was so proud of this letter that he printed it in subsequent editions of “The Origin of Species.”
And 3) even with the probability that we humans evolved from apes, there’s more questions this raises than answers from a naturalistic viewpoint. Because for most of us, it’s easy to step back and look at the difference between an ape and a person. Namely our consciousness, or our awareness of our awareness. Or how about our ability to know we will die someday or even just draw a picture? Has there ever been one animal or ape that can draw a picture, let alone create art or science or do math or reflect on life, beauty, and love? No. Because that’s what it means to be created in the image of God.
There are many things we share with the beasts which are a part of being a biological creature, but being made in the image of God is not one of them. And though none of these issues are anything worth dividing over (though some do), they are important because we do not want to seem overly dogmatic to the true seeker who may believe in these things, as I do.
