I Love Jesus & I Accept Evolution

Lamoureux

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781621891659
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

In this thought-provoking book, born-again Christian Denis O. Lamoureux argues that the God of the Bible created the universe and life through evolution--an ordained, sustained, and design-reflecting natural process. In other words, evolution is not the result of blind chance and our creation is not a mistake. Lamoureux challenges the popular assumption that God disclosed scientific facts in the opening chapters of Scripture thousands of years before their discovery by modern science. He contends that in the same way the Lord meets us wherever we happen to be in our lives, the Holy Spirit came down to the level of the inspired biblical writers and used their ancient understanding of origins in order to reveal inerrant, life-changing Messages of Faith. Lamoureux also shares his personal story and struggle in coming to terms with evolution and Christianity.

1

Terms and Definitions

I am often asked, “Are you an evolutionist or a creationist?” After a bit of a pause, I answer, “Well, I happen to be both.” A look of disbelief then quickly appears on the face of the person asking the question. Similarly, many have asked, “Do you believe in evolution or intelligent design?” Again, my response is puzzling to most individuals: “I accept evolution and I definitely see the beauty, complexity, and functionality in nature as indicative of the work of an Intelligent Designer.” Once more, people are troubled, and they swiftly respond, “But that doesn’t make sense.” Regrettably, on a few occasions some have even said that they doubt I’m a Christian. Why? Because many believe that Christians can’t be evolutionists.

No doubt about it, given the common definitions of the terms evolution, creation, and intelligent design, my views on origins are contradictory. But this is where I think a serious problem exists with the origins debate today. Most people come to this discussion with black-and-white terminology. The word “evolution” is chained to a godless worldview that rejects intelligent design in nature; the term “creation” is fused to origins in six literal days as found in the Bible. This blending or collapsing of terms into one idea is known as “conflation,” and it severely restricts the meaning of words. Consequently, many assume that there are only two possibilities with regard to origins—one is either an evolutionist or a creationist. This setting up of an issue into only two simple positions is called a “dichotomy.” It forces people to choose between one of two choices, and it blinds them from seeing the wide range of possibilities on how God could have created the world.

I certainly appreciate why most Christians and non-Christians state that my views make no sense. For dozens of years, I myself was trapped in the origins dichotomy. I came from a Christian home and entered college believing that God created the world in six 24-hour days. But once I saw the evidence for evolution in biology classes, the either/or approach to origins soon led me to reject my faith. Like everyone around me, I conflated evolution with atheism. Our black-and-white thinking about origins had us believe that it was impossible to accept both evolution and Christianity. As a result, most of us thought that science and religion were at war. And in my senior year of college, I became an atheist.

In coming back to Jesus and the church a few years after college, I was still entrenched in this wretched dichotomy. I experienced a powerful born-again conversion by reading the gospel of John. (Isn’t it amazing how often people come to Christ by reading this gospel?) Yet this time, my either/or understanding of origins led me to reject evolution. Like most in my church, I believed that evolution was Satan’s lie for leading men and women away from the Bible and the Lord. I continued to conflate the term creation with a strict literal reading of the first chapters of Scripture. And I still assumed that there was an endless conflict between science and religion. In fact, I left my career as a dentist and entered graduate school with the intention of declaring war on everyone who accepted evolution! Fig 1-1 presents the origins dichotomy.

Clearly, my story of flipping and flopping between evolution and creation reveals a serious problem with the popular understanding of terminology that controls the origins debate today. This chapter introduces terms and definitions that free readers from commonly conflated words, and it assists them in moving beyond the simplistic origins dichotomy. In this way, each of us is able to make informed decisions as we develop our view on the origin of the universe and life.

Evolution

Most people associate the term evolution with a biological theory of molecules-to-people that is driven only by blind chance. This word is conflated with an atheistic worldview—the belief that God does not exist and that our existence has no ultimate meaning or purpose. Understandably, this popular use of evolution produces strong negative reactions within the church. But for some Christians, evolution is simply the method through which the Lord created life, including humans who bear His Image. These believers argue that God employed a set of natural mechanisms for the creation of every living organism that has ever existed on earth in the same way that He uses physical processes to create each one of us in our mother’s womb.

Therefore, there are two radically different meanings of the word evolution, and in order to avoid confusion, qualification is necessary. On the one hand, “teleological evolution” is a planned and purposeful natural process that heads toward a final outcome—the intended creation of life. The Greek word telos means end, goal, or final destiny. On the other hand, “dysteleological evolution” is an unplanned and purposeless series of physical mechanisms driven by blind chance only. According to this approach, evolutionary processes unintentionally generated living organisms, including humans. In other words, we are just a fluke of nature. The term dysteleologie was first coined in German and refers to a worldview without any ultimate plan or purpose. This bleak belief asserts that existence is marked by nothing but pointless indifference with no ultimate right or wrong.

Teleological evolution is connected to the notion of intelligent design in nature. History reveals that the world’s beauty, complexity, and functionality have powerfully impacted men and women throughout time. For most of us, this experience has led to the conclusion that the universe and life reflect the work of a rational mind, thus arguing for the existence of a Creator. Teleological evolutionists contend that the natural processes of evolution also reveal intelligent design. In contrast, dysteleological evolutionists believe that design in nature is nothing but a delusion concocted by the human mind. Of course, these skeptics acknowledge that there is striking elegance, intricacy, and efficiency in the world, but they argue that this experience is only an “appearance” of design, which most people misunderstand and impose upon nature. Fig 1-2 presents these two definitions of the term evolution.

Regrettably, the origins dichotomy has forced many Christians to cast suspicion on science and the scientific community, because to them the word evolution is essentially atheistic or dysteleological. But this is a popular myth that needs to be debunked. A 1997 study of American scientists reveals that 40% believe in life after death and a God who answers prayer in a way that is “more than the subjective, psychological effect of prayer.”1 In other words, a significant number of scientists believe in a personal God that intervenes in their life in a miraculous way. Thus, at least 4 out of 10 scientists have a teleological worldview. In addition, 15% of those surveyed did not have an opinion regarding personal divine action. Therefore, 55% of US scientists are definitely not atheistic or dysteleological.

It is important to underline that when scientists use the term evolution in their day-to-day research, they rarely mention whether they believe this natural process is planned and designed by a Creator, or purposeless and driven only by blind chance. Science deals only with the laws and processes of the physical world. Scientific methods and instruments cannot detect teleology or dysteleology. Consequently, science is dead silent on the ultimate religious and philosophical character of evolution. Of course, like everyone else, scientists ponder the meaning of life and reflect upon nature in their quest to understand existence. But such spiritual and intellectual contemplation extends beyond science and into the realms of religion and philosophy. We will examine this issue in more detail later in the intelligent design section of this chapter.

In light of the previous points, the definition of the term evolution used in science today is as follows: evolution is a scientific theory that asserts that the universe and life, including humans, arose through natural processes. There are three basic evolutionary sciences. “Cosmological evolution” examines the development of the inanimate world with its galaxies, stars, and planets. Physicists state that an explosive event 10–15 billion years ago, termed the “Big Bang,” led to the origin of space, time, and matter. “Geological evolution” investigates the formation of the earth. Geologists reconstruct the 4.5 billion-year history of our planet in light of the physical processes that are ongoing today, such as erosion, volcanic activity, continental drift, etc. “Biological evolution” describes and explains the origin of life as seen in the fossil record, beginning about 4 billion years ago. Biologists explore the natural mechanisms that organized inanimate molecules into the first living forms and that later led to the evolution of all plants and animals, including human beings.

A comment is needed regarding the term “Darwinism.” For most individuals, it refers to dysteleological evolution. This popular definition conflates Charles Darwin’s understanding of evolution with an atheistic worldview. But this is another popular myth that needs to be burst. In his famed On the Origin of Species (1859), Darwin presents a teleological interpretation of evolution and makes seven affirmative references to the Creator. For example, he argues:

Authors of the highest eminence [i.e., leading scientists in Darwin’s day] seem to be fully satisfied that each species has been independently created. To my mind it accords better with what we know of the laws impressed on matter by the Creator, that the production and extinction of the past and present inhabitants of the world should have been due to secondary causes like those determining the birth and death of the individual.2

Notably, Darwin saw a parallel between God’s creative activity in embryology and evolution. He contended that the Creator had made laws of nature that led to both the creation of an individual in the womb and the origin of all species on earth. Darwin’s position in 1859 is proof that the origins dichotomy is a false dichotomy. He believed in both God and evolution. In fact, only a few years before his death in 1882, he openly admitted, “I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of God.”3 Therefore, in order to limit confusion and misunderstanding, I suggest that the term Darwinism not be used in the origins debate.

To summarize, caution is necessary when using or reading the word evolution because it carries a number of meanings. The popular use of this term is conflated with an atheistic and dysteleological worldview. However, the professional definition of evolution employed by scientists refers only to the scientific theory that describes and explains the origin of the world through natural mechanisms, with no mention of the religious or philosophical character of these physical processes. In the origins debate, the word evolution often needs to be qualified with the adjectives teleological or dysteleological.

Creation

The popular understanding of the term creation also contributes to the entrenchment of the origins dichotomy. Most people consider a creationist to be an individual who believes that God created the universe and life in six 24-hour days as described by a strict literal reading of Gen 1. In other words, the concept of creation is conflated with one interpretation of this biblical chapter. Regrettably, this leads to the common perception both inside and outside the church that six-day creation is the “official” Christian view of origins. However, in recent years there has been a quiet shift in the thinking of a number of believers. Many today accept cosmological and geological evolution, which date the universe to be billions of years old. As a result, the terms “young earth creation” and “old earth creation” now appear in our churches.

God’s creative method is not a central topic among theologians, even though many Christians believe that it is fundamental to the faith. Of course, these scholars are interested in how the world originated, but they know that science is not their expertise. According to theologians, the term creation refers only to that which God has made. Similarly, a creationist is simply someone who believes in a Creator.

Today, Christian theologians uphold the theological doctrine of creation and assert that it is a religious belief and not a scientific theory. This doctrine is based on Scripture and features seven basic principles:

• The creation is radically distinct and different from the Creator (Gen 1:1; John 1:1–3; Heb 1:10–12; Rev 1:8). The entire universe is not God; nor is any part of the world divine. The Creator transcends the creation. Yet He is also imminent to His works (omnipresent) and knows their every detail (omniscient). And God enters into the world to interact with His creatures at any time and in any way He so chooses (omnipotent).
• The creation is utterly dependent on the Creator (Job 34:14–15; Pss 65:9–13, 104:1–35; Acts 17:24–28; Col 1:16–17; Heb 1:2–3; Rev 4:11). God ordained the universe and life into being, and He continues to sustain their existence during every single instant. The ultimate meaning o...

Table of contents

• I Love Jesus & I Accept Evolution
• Figures
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Terms and Definitions
• Chapter 2: The Spectrum of Origins Positions
• Chapter 3: Ancient Science in the Bible
• Chapter 4: The Biblical Accounts of Origins
• Chapter 5: Evidence for an Old Earth and Evolution
• Chapter 6: Human Evolution
• Chapter 7: Putting Origins in Perspective
• Credits
• Notes
• Glossary