Can we accept Jesus and Darwin?

[jonperry]

Evolutionary Creationism is the view that evolution is a tool used by God in his ongoing creation process.

Biologos is an evangelical organization which explores the idea that Evolutionary Creationism can be compatible with a strict Biblical faith.

Check out their website: http://biologos.org/.

On the site you'll find videos and articles produced by evangelicals from a wide variety of evangelical denominations who have, in one way or another, accepted evolution as a scientifically valid and important theory - a theory which many say even augments their faith and relationship with God.

My question to you:
Could you accept evolution as a valid scientific theory and still maintain your Bible based faith in God?

I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on this question. Please check out their home page at least before responding.

[steve]

I could. However, I would have to see better evidence that evolution between species actually happened before I could believe that this was the method God used.

By the way, you look a lot like your brother!

[jonperry]

Yes I do, we're twins.

[jonperry]

I could. However, I would have to see better evidence that evolution between species actually happened before I could believe that this was the method God used.

When you say evolution between species are you talking of "species" as commonly defined in biology (A group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring in the wild) or are you speaking of more distant groups?

If you are referring to the definition above there are several observed examples presented here http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-speciation.html

If you are more interested in large scale evolution you'll need to pick a plant or animal group which has had extensive study done on it and dig into the research.

I suggest looking at marine mammals. They're a very interesting group and a lot can be learned from simple comparative anatomy. In your podcast you attacked the idea of whales evolving from land animals but I suggest revisiting the research which has been done on them.

[jonperry]

I'd like to point out that accepting evolution as a valid scientific theory does not necessarily mean accepting it as historical fact. One young earth creationist told me he believes God did it in 6 days but hid the mark of his "chisel" sort of like Michelangelo often did when sculpting.

From this view, evolution and millions of years never actually took place but God wanted it to look like it did. This idea was interesting to me but not satisfying.

When I was still in my Mormon faith I accepted both creation and evolution and just kept them apart in my head. I figured I'd get it figured out after I died but at the time I found both paradigms useful in different situations and so I refused to give up one for the other.

I left the LDS Church 4 years ago for reasons unrelated to science.

[SteveF]

When I was still in my Mormon faith I accepted both creation and evolution and just kept them apart in my head. I figured I'd get it figured out after I died but at the time I found both paradigms useful in different situations and so I refused to give up one for the other.

Perhaps you would like the term Prof. Denis Lamoureux prefers to use instead of Theistic Evolution, "Evolutionary Creation".