Campus CrossWalk Magazine: 2005 Summer Issue -- Faith and Science: Questions and Answers

Have you ever been asked a question about apparent contradictions between science and the Bible and didn’t know how to answer? Have you ever had a science teacher say something that you didn’t agree with but you didn’t know how to answer him or her?

In the last ten years there has been an explosion of written and web-based resources on issues related to science and the Bible. In fact, science is becoming our strongest apologetics tool.

When I visit and speak at campus ministries I get many questions on these topics. That gave me the idea to start a regular feature for the purpose of answering your questions. Send me your questions by email () and I will post your questions and my answers in the next edition of the Campus Crosswalk. I will send you answers by email as well.

Have you ever been asked the question, “Do you believe in evolution?” This is a question often asked on our college campuses. A quick Google of the question revealed dozens of sites devoted to this question.

I would suspect most Christians would answer, “No! Absolutely not!” But I think there needs to be a little more thought put into our answer if we are to be effective communicators of God’s word on our campuses.

Some say the problem is in the question. To some, this seems like the old “Have you stopped beating your wife today?” question. Either way, your answer may give the wrong impression. Well, I believe the problem is not necessarily the question but the definition of evolution.

In their article, “The Meanings of Evolution", Stephen C. Meyer and Michael Newton Keas suggest there are six principle meanings of the term evolution.

Some definitions seem fairly innocuous: A star evolves, the Earth’s surface has evolved, an island has evolved, bacteria evolve to gain antibiotic resistance, humans have evolved to be taller. However, other definitions seem to be an assault on our faith: All organisms have evolved by chance naturalist mechanisms; humans evolved from a single celled organism. In addition, if you do much reading in this area you will see other terms for evolution:

: Microevolution is the change in allele frequencies in a population. Microevolutionary changes are well documented and can happen slowly (the change in the height of humans over the last 1000 years) or quickly (the emergence of an antibiotic resistant strain of bacteria).; Macroevolution is major structural transitions and include the development of wings, the transition from water dwellers to land dwellers, and the emergence of multicellular organisms. Macroevolutionary changes are not well documented by the fossil record. Evolutionists infer macroevolutionary changes from microevolution.; Biological evolution is the emergence of the first cells from the random association of biomolecules. In fact, this is not evolution at all since evolution involves biological variation acted on by natural selection. You must have living organisms to have variation and natural selection. There is a crisis in the scientific theories of how the first biomolecules formed and then came together to form the first cells. Scientists are nowhere close to explaining how this could have come to happen on the early earth.

So, we are back to our question, “Do you believe in evolution?” Well, at the risk of sounding like a smart alec, I would suggest responding with another question, “What do you mean by ‘evolution’?” If they say ‘evolution’ is biological change over time you can agree that there is plenty of evidence of microevolutionary changes in nature. If they say ‘evolution’ is the idea that all life descended from a common ancestor by random, purposeless processes, you can respond that neither the Bible nor scientific evidence supports that theory of evolution. This response will likely generate further discussion and study of the Bible and nature. The “No! Absolutely not!” response will likely generate an argument or end further discussion.

Dr. Tom Mundie has a Ph.D. in pathophysiology and is a Professor of Life Science at the United States Military Academy at West Point. In addition, he has been leading the campus ministry at West Point for 12 years.