What is Evolution, Adaptation, Reformation, Revolution?

Words that describe the effect of God's presence in space and time.

Last year, a computer specialist at NASA was fired for, allegedly, promoting his belief in intelligent design.  Even now a lawsuit is being filed against NASA for wrongful and discriminatory termination.  I find it ironic that someone who worked for an agency of scientific exploration would have such an erroneous opinion on the unfolding of the cosmos and biological life on this planet.  

Intelligent design is the Christian parry to evolution.  It is heralded as a scientific hypothesis for the genesis of the universe and all of reality. 

But intelligent design is false.  

First of all, it is a wrongful use of scripture.  The Bible is not meant to be a science text-book.  The Scriptures contain truth, and there are stories that try to explain natural phenomena.  But it is stupid (yes, stupid) to believe that these explanations are a part of the truth that the Bible imparts.  Anything that appears to give a “scientific” explanation in the Bible was simply the best guess of a less advanced people and culture.  These humans in the past were trying to explain the inexplicable.  Their hypotheses were begotten from a spirit of discovery...they launched themselves into the unknown and tried to make heads or tails out of it.  To be satisfied with their account of the universe and science is an abuse against that spirit of discovery and exploration.  Instead of continuing to find truth about reality, many Christians simply give up and become satisfied with falsehood.  Perhaps they don’t read enough of either to tell the difference between Scripture and science book.

Christians sometimes imagine that the Bible supplied people with the answers to the mysteries of the physical world.  This is not the case.  Instead, the Bible is the revelation of God’s presence in the physical world.  So the Biblical writers were inspired to take the going scientific theories and to demonstrate how God was involved anyway.  The point was our relationship with God.  So, if we are to follow the spirit of the Bible, then we will do the same.  We will accept human knowledge and understanding as a gift from God.  But as we accept scientific advances, let us be diligent in reflecting on the question:  How is God present in this?  (More on that below.)

Second, It is a sin to lie or bear false witness, that is, to say something is true when it is not.  It is also a sin to say something is false when it is true.  It is sin, I tell you.

Evolution is true.

Evolution is a scientific theory.  This means more than you probably think it does.  We equate the word “theory” with “conjecture” or “guess” or “belief” in common parlance.  But a theory is actually much more.  By the time something becomes a scientific theory it has been tested thoroughly.  A scientific theory becomes a theory once it has been proven as far as humanity can prove anything.  A hypothesis becomes a theory once there is enough weight of empirical, testable evidence to say: this is true.

All we know and can observe about biological life points conclusively to the reality that beings evolve, and that they have been evolving for millennia.  If one denies evolution, then one denies the fact that God has created us to be stewards of creation, one denies that God has blessed humanity with the gift of rational minds and discovery--a gift that is unique to humans.  Intelligent Design is the same as saying that microwave ovens harness the power of the glory of God to zap our cold meals with divine electricity to warm them up.  

Here’s the kicker.  It is true that even a theory might eventually be proved wrong and false.  (Bu the burden is to find a better explanation.)  The highest tenet in science is intellectual humility.  Everything can and should be revisited and retested...especially as knowledge and experimental techniques advance.  Built into science is a rejection of the lazy arrogance that believes that one is always right.  Christians could learn a lot from science, especially this: a little humility instead of making an idol out of knowledge.

Now many Christians don’t like the theory of evolution, and they react against it in fear.  The fear stems from a perceived loss.  What do Christians think they will lose if Evolution is true?

Perhaps they worry that Evolution takes God out of the creation game.  If things go along happily on their own, then what is left for God to do?  Do not be afraid.  We often pray, “Give us today our daily bread.”  We say these words to remind us that every bit of food we eat comes ultimately from God.  But even Christians fail to see the truth in this.  We think to ourselves: “I bought this meal.  My daily bread comes from my paycheck.  I worked to earn that paycheck.  I have given myself and my family our daily bread.”  This is true.  But it is not the ultimate truth.  God has worked through the farmers and the stores and your employer and through you so that you could pull together the means to eat.  How did the plants and animals you are eating grow?  How has human civilization survived and developed to such complexity to allow for the confluence of events that have contributed to your quality of life?  Who gave you the gifts, talents and work ethics to get and hold down a job?  God has set up all of the pieces in such a way that the components work together in order to produce the desired result.  It is no different on a larger scale.  

Just because science explains how something works practically or physically, doesn’t mean that God disappears or becomes obsolete or becomes unnecessary.  The challenge of faith is to see God working to support me, even if it seems my hard work and paycheck do it all.  Evolution does not reduce God’s involvement, but rather gives us the opportunity to focus all the more on God’s presence even when God seems absent.  

How wonderful to believe in God when God is visible.  How awesome to believe in God when God is hidden, anonymous, incognito!   

The other fear is that, in evolution, the changes are random.  Intelligent Design, just in its name, reveals our need for reassurance that there is a plan.  In my personal theology, God is entirely and only in what is random.  And God is not in the random to bring order to it, but to make sure it stays random.  God has created things to adapt.  The only thing that makes adaptation necessary is: change.  God is that force of chaotic change in the cosmos...but I will have to blog on that another time.

For now, suffice it to say that Evolution is most certainly true.

And if there is one thing that followers of Jesus should not be ashamed of it is truth.

And that one word unites all of science and all of religion: truth.