Evolution and Christianity

 A couple of weeks ago I used Facebook to ask, “Is some type of Macro Evolution compatible with orthodox Christianity?” The results were . . . interesting. Nine people said yes, ten people said no, and three people gave other answers. One person said “Only within the theory of multiverse. A universe for each side” so I think it’s safe put that vote under no. Two people said “The wording is too general to give an answer that is not misleading.” (I find this distressing as I deliberately tried to make the wording specific and avoid that problem). As we live a democracy, I think we can now say the issue has been decided by a majority vote. Evolution is not compatible with Christianity due to the truth of democratic principles.

Well actually that doesn’t settle it. Despite what the Ds, Rs, and Foxnews say, a majority opinion does not create reality and is not in and of itself an indicator of truth. So the issue remains. I am unsure which way to go here as I see good reasons for accepting and rejecting both positions.

It is quite clear that Christianity is not compatible with Naturalistic Darwinian Evolution as the later assumes the non-existence of God (or any god that could in anyway matter). People who assert that these two can go together do not understand what they are talking about. However with Macro Evolution (the idea that Micro Evolution leads species to change into other species over a great period of time and that this process is responsible for the existence of all species) the issue is different. As Macro Evolution is a question of process (how questions) it does not seem to directly conflict with Christianity (which seems more concerned with why questions). If such a conflict exists, it is not as obvious and apparent as with Naturalistic Evolution. The question is, could God have used Evolution to produce all the life on Earth and if so, did he?

Option 1, they can/do go together:

Pros Arguments:

1. Variants of Evolution are the primary accepted theory in most of culture and accepting it allows Christians to be viewed with more intellectual respect (but this is also a con).

2. While Naturalistic Evolution is an incoherent belief (due to the is/ought problem, the great statistically improbability of much of it, etc) Theistic Evolution (the belief that God in some way used Marco Evolution) is not, in and of itself. All of the logical and coherence problems of Evolution are solved if you presuppose that God directed Evolution for his purposes.

3. There is a great deal of very good evidence that suggests the world and the Universe are quite old. If the world and the Universe are quite old, this is good grounds for accepting part of the Evolution narrative.

4. If you suppose that God directs it, the lack of good biological evidence for Evolution is a no longer a problem. God can direct Evolution as he wants to get around the statistical problems and he could accelerate it temporarily (which would account for the extreme lack of transitional fossils).

5. On a micro level, Evolution is an observable and testable phenomena that only a fool could deny.

6. Lots of intelligent Christians hold to Theistic Evolution with integrity (Francis Collins, Hugh Ross, C.S. Lewis, NT Wright, and Pope John Paul II). While this can be an appeal to authority, many of these people are good authorities on this subject (Francis Collins is a geneticist, Hugh Ross is an astrophysicist, N.T. Wright is a biblical scholar, etc).

Con Arguments:

1. Variants of Evolution are the primary accepted theory in most of culture and accepting it allows Christians to be viewed with more intellectual respect. As I established above, a majority opinion does not establish truth (although if everyone says you are wrong you’d be a fool not to consider it) so if the primary reason for accepting evolutionary theory is that most people say it’s right, that’s stupid. Additionally Christians should expect to have at least some beliefs that bother/offend the rest of the world; Christ said as much (John 15:18).

2. You must modify or in some other way explain the Creation story in Genesis as non-literal or allegorical. This is at best very difficult to do. There are some important sub points here.

     a. Everywhere in scripture where allegory/metaphor is used there are indicators that it is being used. No such indicators exist in the first few chapters of Genesis.

     b. It is at best very difficult to explain why the word day would mean something different in Genesis 1 than elsewhere in the book. Some noble theories have been purposed for this, but they all require some real fancy dancing that leads to inconsistencies (they require you to apply different rules of interpretation to Genesis 1 than the rest of Genesis).

     c. Some fundamental Christian theology (the nature and value of man, relationship of the sexes, the fall, etc) depend on the Creation and Fall story. If this story is discarded/marginalized it is difficult to legitimize these doctrines. i.e. It is really hard to explain how man is made in God’s image if he evolved from lesser creatures and shares ancestry with apes and monkeys.

3. You can disregard the Genesis story as false, but this also causes problems.

     a. If one part of scripture is demonstrably false why believe in any of it and as such why bother being a Christian? Once some of it is truly undermined, all of it must be called into question.

     b. If God offers a portion of scripture that is untrue, this means he is/has deceived us. Yet this is radically opposed to the nature of God that scripture presents. Pagan gods deceive and scheme, but God says that he cannot lie.

     c. Again fundamental Christian theology is no longer valid or very difficult to justify. If the Genesis story is completely false, how can Christians assert that people are made in the image of God or that everyone is sinful and in need of Christ to save them?

4. At least some elements of the evolutionary process do not seem to be in keeping with God’s character. It appears to be a cruel and unforgiving process that punishes the weak and needy. Compare this to Christ’s words at the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and you will see the apparent discrepancy. How could the same God who doesn’t forget one sparrow (Luke 12:6) use a process that would have left 99% of the species that ever existed extinct?

Option 2, They do not/cannot go together.

Pro Arguments:

1. It takes scripture and Genesis literally, so there is no need for odd or unusual jumps in interpretation and understanding.

     a. It maintains a strong view of scripture.

     b. It doesn’t have to deal with the doctrinal/theological problems of the other view.

2. We have very good reasons to trust the accuracy of other parts of scripture (read The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? by FF Bruce) so it is reasonable to trust scripture in regards to Genesis. I.e. Where we can verify scripture and see if it conforms to reality it does, so it’s reasonable to trust it where we cannot check it.

3. While there have been divergent views on Creation through history, a literal view of Genesis does seem to be the most commonly held view of Christians throughout Church history (but as above, this doesn’t establish that it is correct, only that a lot of people came to this conclusion).

4. While Evolution is an observable and testable phenomenon on a micro level, this does not in and of itself establish that it happens on a macro level. Asserting so is the fallacy of affirming the consequent. I.e. If Macro Evolution is true, we would be able to observe Micro Evolution. We can observe Micro Evolution so Macro Evolution is true. The trouble with this argument is that Micro Evolution can exist independent of Macro Evolution so the existence of it does not guarantee the other. There are a large number of other reasons why Micro Evolution might exist.

5. If scripture said it, scripture is trustworthy, and God’s word is revealed in scripture, God said it, so it must be true.

6. Basing beliefs entirely on “scientific evidence” and “well accepted facts” can be foolish as such evidence has been demonstrated false before. Consider any of the missing link fossils which have all been demonstrated to be hoaxes or mistakes. This doesn’t establish that there is no missing link, it establishes that some of the “evidence” scientists cited was false.

Con Arguments:

1. You must explain why the world and Universe appear very old when they are not.

     a. You can say God created the Universe with the appearance of age, but this falls into the problem of God being deceptive.

     b. You can say that geologists are mistaken, but this is a pretty difficult thing to maintain in the face of plate tectonics and light from stars billions of years away reaching Earth.

2. You have to tell the majority of culture and the scientific community that they are wrong and refusing to see reality.

     a. While this is a coherent theory/explanation, it is unpleasant and will lead to alienation.

3. A lot of Creationist cite bad evidence and disregard the rules of logic (i.e. don’t submit to reality) when making their case.

     a. This doesn’t make Creationism false, but it does put you in the same camp as anti-intellectual fools.

So if you are a theistic evolutionist I think you must explain why the first few chapters of Genesis conflict with your belief. If you decided the Creation story is wrong, you must explain why Christianity has any validity as its primary source is now suspect.

Conversely if you believe Evolution and Christianity are incompatible, you must explain why the Earth and Universe appear so old, and you must explain why so many educated people say you are wrong.

Why doesn't the government work? Because it's not in it's nature to work.

The US government is inefficient because it is it’s nature to be inapt.  All democracies are inherently inapt and inefficient because it is one of their primary traits.

The US constitution (The government’s Bible) is essentially a list of things that government can and cannot do.  Rather than laying down general guiding principles like a religious text, it specifically denies and gives the government certain rights over its citizens.  The constitution sets up the government this way because the primary idea behind a democratic government is that government is inherently oppressive and evil (but often a necessary evil).  Given the choice between oppressing and controlling its citizens and letting them act freely a government will nearly always oppress them.  Consider that the government’s reaction to nearly every problem is to create additional methods of control.  For terrorism, they created the Department of Homeland Security.  For medical issues, they created the Affordable Health Care Act.  Regardless of intentions, the default response of every government to every problem is to acquire and institutionalize more control. 
A democracy or republic seeks to solve this problem by weakening the government by making it directly (or indirectly in the case of a republic) subject to its citizens.  The trade off is that this will make the democratic government inefficient and slow as it is subject to wills and ideas of a lot of different people who will have conflicting ideas and opinions about what it should do.  A republic tries to counter this inefficiency be adding a medium (the elected officials) between the voters and the actions of the government; however a review of republican governments (not the party) around the world quickly establishes that this is only marginally successful.

The point is that all democratic and republican governments will always be inefficient and inept.  It is built into the definition of what they are.  A ball will always be a round and spherically shaped object.  It’s the definition and nature of a ball to be round.  Likewise a democratic government will always be inefficient and inept by its nature and definition.

The few areas of the US Government that display a high level of competence and efficiency are organized and run in ways that are extremely undemocratic.  The US military is highly efficient and competent, but it is organized like an Empire or a totalitarian state.  Soldiers do not vote on what they want to do, who their commander is, or who they get to attack.  The soldiers have almost no say over these things.  This is a very undemocratic way of running a military that exists to serve a democracy, but thank God it is organized that way.  If the US military were run more like Congress or the Department of Education, the US would cease to exist.

No politician seems to understand this foundational aspect about our type of government.  Both of the major parties actively seek to expand the scope of government and increase the control it has over aspects of our lives (What the parties want to expand does very greatly).  This is a foolish and illogical agenda that conflicts with nature and definition of what the U.S. government is.  It’s akin to trying to use a sports car to haul firewood.  Even if everything the parties are trying to do is good and will help people (and that’s very unlikely), it still is an extremely foolish and inefficient way to address these problems and issues.  A pickup truck works far better for hauling wood.  Likewise there are other institutions and social constructs that can far better address social and economic issues.
By the nature of what it is, a democratic government should only involve itself as a measure of last resort.  It should actively try to do as little as possible because it is highly unlikely it will be able to do much of anything well.

The argument is;
1.  Democracy is defined as a government that shares power among a majority of its citizens by voting.
2.  Sharing power in this fashion causes the government to be ineffective and inept as three people take longer to make a decision than one and those three people will never completely agree (and over 130 million people voted in the 2008 election).
3.  As a democracy is inherently ineffective and inept, attempting to actively use it to solve problems is foolish and runs contrary to its nature.

A democratic government’s primary bonus is lessening the chance of tyrants and despots gaining power by spreading out that power.  However this severally lessens the government’s ability to handle and address problems.  If we want to live in a democracy or a republic and get things done, we cannot depend on the government.  The number one mistake U.S. politicians make is trying to use the government in a way that is contrary to its nature.  We need to stop demanding that they haul firewood in their sports cars for us and use our own pickup trucks instead.

What does all this have to do with awesome Calvin and Hobbes strip I opened with?  Well Calvin is thinking about writing the same way politicians are thinking about the government.  Clearly the point of good writing is to communicate effectively and clearly.  When writing is used for purposes other than clear communication, you get disastrous and foolish results (like academia).  I can appreciate that it is a little more difficult to see the inept nature of democracy, but when we attempt to use a democratic government in a way that assumes it will be competent we are behaving as foolishly as Calvin.