I seem to be drawn to controversial topics lately, so today I'm going to write about EVOLUTION.

I think that evolution is the heliocentrism of the 20th century. Take a second to mentally unpack that sentence and you'll figure out my view pretty quickly. Before I can really dig into any discussion about Christians and evolution, I have to first mention another topic: Taking the Bible literally.

TAKING THE BIBLE LITERALLY

You can't always take the Bible literally. Here's why:

"If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell" Matthew 5:29-30

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple." Luke 14:26

"So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself. The chief priests picked up the coins and said, "It is against the law to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money." So they decided to use the money to buy the potter's field as a burial place for foreigners. That is why it has been called the Field of Blood to this day." Matthew 27:5-8

"With the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood." Acts 1:18-19

There's all kinds of other instances, but those are just a few off the top of my head. You can't always take the Bible literally, but you can sometimes take it literally. That is a whole different topic, but what it boils down to is that the amount of the Bible you take literally (how you interpret scripture) is something you have to work out for yourself, with God, with your conscience, with careful study, etc. Now, out of context, you can use the Bible to justify anything, so I'm not in any way saying that all interpretations are equal. We must interpret responsibly. We must carefully study the scriptures ourselves and also look to our faith traditions and our spiritual leaders to help us. But my point is that everyone interprets the Bible at least a little bit differently and we just have to acknowlege and be respectful of that. Just because some people (or some denomination), interpret the Bible differently, does not necessarily make them heretics. Just be respectful and stop being arrogant. Stick to your convictions, but do so with humility. Acknowledge that you don't know everything and you are not always right. You'd think that this would be common sense, but I swear that some Christians just don't grasp this concept.

Moving on to evolution. Did God create the world ex nihilo (ie "out of nothing") in 6 days, 8000 or so years ago? I honestly don't know for certain. Do you? Do you really? I am not a scientist and I am in a fortunate position where I don't need to come down hard on one side of this debate or the other. But if you are a Christian and a scientist, you pretty much have to make a determination. I've heard arguments for each, but I've heard better arguments for evolution. Would it surprise you to know that there are a fair number of Bible-believing, Jesus-loving Christians that also wholeheartedly believe in evolution? (There is also a slightly lesser known group that don't believe in evolution but do believe that the earth is billions, not thousands of years old).

I am not, dear friends, trying to convince you to become evolutionists. I don't consider myself to be one, but I am open to that possibility. Here's the thing: the Bible is not a science text book. It was written thousands of years ago in a completely foreign culture. I'm not saying that it's not true, but truth and accuracy are different things. Here's the other thing: Thomas Aquinas stated that God wrote two books, scripture and nature and they cannot contradict each other. Think about that. If you are a Christian, you have to believe that God created the world and that he created the scripture. Therefore, if they seem to contradict each other, the problem is with our understanding of one or the other. If you choose to ignore the evidence that evolution occurred (and there is evidence), that's fine. But you aren't necessarily being more holy. You are just putting your understanding of scripture above your understanding of nature. I don't think that the Christian who decides to agree with the evidence for evolution and re-examine his understanding of scripture is doing anything wrong either.

Why do Christians react so strongy to evolution? I mean, who really cares how we formed thousands (billions, whatever) years ago? How does that really affect our present reality? Well, number one, it shakes up our understanding of scripture and that's difficult. But it's good because anything that's worth believing in is worth questioning so that you come out stronger on the otherside. Number two, we do have a real problem if such a theory can disprove the existence of God. It can't. Trust me, they are not mutually exclusive. Don't be afraid of evolution. By all means, disagree with it if you must, but don't fear it. It can't hurt you.

Finally, because evolution has been used as a weapon by atheists against Christians, wouldn't it be better to neutralize it rather than continually fighting against it (and no offense, come across looking like idiots while doing so)? Instead of responding to "there is no God because there is evolution" with "WRONG. There is no evolution because there is God," say instead, "actually plenty of people believe in both God and evolution and here is why..." See? Completely neutralizes a pointless argument so that the discussion can become more productive. I just wonder, why do we so often insist on our own narrow view of things that don't really matter much theologically, even after those things have become a serious stumbling block to other people coming to Christ? People think that Christians are arrogant and narrow-minded. Those are not good things to be. Stick to your beliefs, but do it with humility. Things would be so very different if we could start doing that. All I'm asking is that you please think about it.