249: Should Christians Believe in Evolution?

Theology For the Rest of Us | Quick Answers to the Questions About God and the Bible

In this episode, Kenny tackles the question, "Should Christians Believe in Evolution?" First, Kenny asserts the importance of clarifying what type of evolution we're actually talking about. There are many different types of evolution, and making sure that we have clear understanding of our verbiage is essential. The two prominent types of evolution that are being alluded to when we're discussing the topic of the origin of species are macro-evolution and micro-evolution. Macro-evolution is the concept that species evolve into other species, a concept for which there is no scientific evidence, just theory. Micro-evolution is the concept that species change and evolve over time within their own kind, a concept for which there is scientific evidence. Secondly, Kenny then explains the two types of macro-evolution being asserted by people today: secular (naturalistic) macro-evolution and theistic evolution. The secular (naturalistic) form of macro-evolution is the concept that all living creatures today all evolved from a single cell organism over the course of millions of years, without the help or guidance of any supreme being. The secular or naturalistic viewpoint (also sometimes referred to as the Darwinian perspective) generally disregards the existence of God altogether. This view is rightly rejected by most professing Christians. There have been some prominent secular evolutionist that readily admit the lack of evidence and logical arguments for this naturalistic view, however they still embrace it because the only alternative is creation, and they would rather not embrace that view. Here are some quotes supporting this... "Evolution itself is accepted by zoologists not because it has been observed to occur or is supported by logically coherent arguments, but because it does fit all the facts of taxonomy, of paleontology, and of geographical distribution, and because no alternative explanation is credible... The theory of evolution is a theory universally accepted by zoologists, not because it has been observed to occur... or can be proved by logical coherent evidence, but because the only alternative, special creation, is clearly incredible." ~D.M.S. Watson, "Adaptation," in Nature, Vol. 123, p. 233 (1929) [sometimes misquoted and often wrongly attributed to Sir Arthur Keith by many young-Earth creationists] "I suppose the reason why we leapt at the Origin of Species was that the idea of God interfered with our sexual mores.” ~Sir Julian Huxley "I'm an evolutionist because I cannot take the alternative." ~Thomas Nagel "I speak from experience, being strongly subject to this fear myself: I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and, naturally, hope that I’m right in my belief. It’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that. My guess is that this cosmic authority problem is not a rare condition and that it is responsible for much of the scientism and reductionism of our time. One of the tendencies it supports is the ludicrous overuse of evolutionary biology to explain everything about human life, including everything about the human mind... This is a somewhat ridiculous situation... It is just as irrational to be influenced in one’s beliefs by the hope that God does not exist as by the hope that God does exist." ~Thomas Nagel "We should be open to order in nature. Nature is uniquely suitable for life." ~Michael Denton The second form of evolution that Kenny discusses is the concept of theistic evolution. This form of evolution is the belief that God guided and shepherded the process of evolution to help the process achieve the result that He desired. There is no Scriptural evidence for this view, and this view is logically insufficient in many regards,