My 12-year-old son mentioned something a few days ago, and it has been on the back of my mind ever since. He was chatting with his
classmates and mentioned that his dad was a scientist. One of the kids piped
up with “oh, that means you believe in evolution,” then proceeded to
not talk to my son for a week. It makes me sad to think some parents are
teaching children that science is an affront to their religion. I have never
understood how explaining our natural universe through observation could be is seen
as an attack on religious beliefs. The main sticking
points are evolution and the age of the Earth.
I was recently explaining to another adult why two similar creatures would behave differently on separate continents and her response was, “I don’t
believe in evolution.” This is perplexing to me, because evolution is not an
idea that one can choose to believe or not. It is just a natural process that
you either understand or you don’t. You may not understand the physiology
behind cells converting glucose into useable energy that keeps your brain
alive, but it has nothing to do with faith. After studying physiology, ecology, geology, and related topics in depth, I understand why people like the notion of intelligent design. It is spectacular that life exists at all, let alone with
such beautiful complexity. Believing
that a divine being guided the development of life on Earth is perfectly rational.
The wonderful thing about science is that
it is malleable. It is never absolute and subject to refinement based on
progressive experimentation, which leads to the poorly understood scientific
definition of “theory,” .e.g. evolutionary theory, atomic theory, theory of
relativity, etc.
A scientific theory is a
well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world, based on
knowledge that has been repeatedly confirmed through observation and experimentation.
Evolution can be witnessed on a short time
scale, but dramatic changes take a long period of time. This brings us to the
age of the Earth. In the 17th century, Archbishop Ussher made
various assumptions and came to the conclusion that the Earth was created 4000
years before the birth of Christ. This is one fallible human that has
unnecessarily created a rift between people lasting nearly 400 years.
The rock we stand on was formed 4.6 billion
years ago. Radioactive decay is measurable and precise and that is how we know how
old the oldest rocks are. From the very tangible fossil record, we know that
organisms began to thrive in the oceans about 540 million years ago. This
is not a matter of belief, it is visible and measureable. We know that the Earth
is not perpetually uniform, but dynamic. Ocean floors can be pushed miles up
into the sky, then eroded flat again. This cannot happen in mere centuries, or
even millennia-it takes millions of
years. Lifeforms that live on this Earth must also be dynamic to survive. Some
species go extinct, but those that adapt to compensate for the changes of the
Earth spread out and fill endless niches.
A literal interpretation of the Bible leads to the idea that death did not exist on Earth before the fall of Adam. Whether or not you believe humans were created divinely, we have millions of years of record of creatures that lived and died before humans. I would argue that the focus of Bible study should be the teachings that encourage us to treat each other selflessly and not the parts that may or may not be metaphorical.
