It’s not unheard of to find Christian Theists working in the biological sciences who don’t see a conflict between evolution and their faith. One of them, Francis Collins, lead the Human Genome Project. Another one, Kenneth Miller, is a professor at Brown University. These people don’t see evolution as devaluing human life. Rather they see it as expressing the grandeur and wonder of God’s ultimate plan. Kenneth Miller also happens to be a passionate defender of the theory of evolution. Here are some nice, bite-size excerpts from a talk he gave in the aftermath of the Dover trial. He gives quite compelling arguments about why modern Intelligent Design theory is false and why Darwin’s theory is true.
Regarding “Missing Links” in the Fossil Record
Demonstrating Common Ancestry Between Humans and Other Apes
Deconstructing Irreducible Complexity
(Also, here’s a more detailed written account of the evidence falsifying irreducible complexity.)
October 3, 2008 at 9:42 am
Hey G, very interesting post.
The argument that I’ve heard from most apologists is that if there was no literal Adam then the rest of the Bible hangs on mere myth. My conclusion, based on their full argument for that, is that I would agree with them. In order for most of the story to be true then it would have to be base on fact.
I think that Jews might have an easier time getting way with believing in evolution because their religious origins could begin with the first “mostly” developed man and woman. From there you could easily derive the notion of an evolving “creation” getting to know its creator. Who know.
My undereducated assumption is that evolution and fundamental Christianity don’t make good bed fellows.
I do find the genetic similarities between humans and monkeys to be very interesting…but I do have a thought that crosses my mind- even though our genetic makeups are very similar, I don’t know that I could just automatically conclude that one came from another. Much in the similar way that the filling of an Oreo cookie has a very similar molecular structure to plastic minus one or 2 elements.
Or if I look at the complexity of the social and work system of an ant colony I have a hard time believing for some reason that over time that complexity just developed….but then again, look at the leaps and bounds that we’ve made in the technological sphere over the last 50 years as humans.
I’m not a scientist though. I’m not ejyoukated in the finer arts so there are probably millions of missing pieces that I’m not even aware of. I imagine that a lot of my objections are probably rooted in my upbringing. Religion good. Science bad.
I think that I’ve said it before, but I think that Christianity is in its next evolutionary stage where the times and understanding have changed enough that many are starting to see that if they are to keep the religion alive then they have to make certain adaptations; and accepting evolution as part of the story is becoming one of them.
Good videos though. Stuff to make the thinker turn.
Good to see you posting again.
October 3, 2008 at 1:38 pm
“…evolution and fundamental Christianity don’t make good bed fellows”
Certainly biblical literalism and evolution are incompatible, but I’d also say that biblical literalism is a relatively recent phenomenon in the evolution of Christian doctrine. Look at Augustine, and you see a completely different take on the creation story. To say that Augustine viewed it as a myth wouldn’t be too far from the mark I think. But of course “myth” has a deeper meaning than us moderners give it credit for.