Debating Darwin: Two Debates Is Darwinism True, and Does It Matter? [Paperback]

 

 

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I have read plenty of books and articles on evolution, creation and intelligent design, but strangely not a book that presents an argument for theistic evolution. As a Christian I could not understand how it could be possible to be a Christian and believe in Darwinian evolution. It was therefore with some interest that I bought this book written by four authors, all Christian but two who believe in evolution and two who do not believe in evolution.

My main problem as a Christian was to understand how one could surmount the theological difficulties in trying to reconcile Darwinism and Biblical doctrine. While there are sections of the book where I struggled with the scientific details of micro biology, I have read enough to understand the gist of the arguments. The arguments presented by Graeme Finlay and Stephen Pattemore were the arguments for evolution that I have encountered previously, but I felt that there was very little emphasis on the role of God. Indeed my impression was that in their thinking there was little or no role for God in nature. There seemed to be little to distinguish them from any other believer in evolution. In addition the Bible was reduced to a confused mixture of myth and legend with a few historical facts here and there. While in one sense I found this very unsatisfactory, in another sense it confirmed what I personally believe that you either accept the Bible as the Word of God presenting truth which while needing some understanding of the culture and customs of the times, nevertheless embodies basic truths relevant to all of human history, or alternatively you water it down to a level where it loses overall coherence and any sense of being authoritative. So paradoxically the unsatisfactory attempts at reconciliation at least gave me the satisfaction of confirming what I believe.

The main problem with theistic evolution is that you must accept that death and suffering were present before the fall of Adam. This is in clear contradiction to Romans chapter 5 as well as other passages. The implication is that God is the author of death and suffering. The Bible clearly teaches that death is an enemy and indeed is the last enemy which will be destroyed. Furthermore there are numerous other theological problems which for the sake of space I will not list here. Suffice it to say that to my mind one needs to perform considerable mental and theological gymnastics with the clear text of scripture. While I am aware that the Bible contains history, prophecy, doctrine, poetry, pastoral and personal letters and that it uses similis, metaphors, parables and allegories and particularly in Revelation imagery, nevertheless there is a clear, coherent and cohesive message that has been understood through the centuries.

Like David Swift I certainly believe in micro evolution and the considerable variation and adaption that clearly occurs in nature. I also believe that homology gives far more evidence of common design than of common descent. Likewise with much that is common in the DNA of humans and animals. Ultimately the attempts to reconcile theology and (macro) evolution fail because I really think it is an either or situation.

Nevertheless this is a book worth reading. From what I have heard I think a better book might be "Should Christians embrace evolution?" I am in the process of getting this book and will review it in due course.

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