Introduction
For much of the church’s history, Christians were taught that God created everything from nothing. In Genesis 1.1, this assertion is emphasized by the verse that God created heaven and earth in the beginning. Other passages in the Bible, such as Psalms 33:6-9 and Hebrews 11:3, affirm that God created heaven and earth from nothing. Additionally, Christianity teaches its followers that God created everything that exists on earth, as illustrated in the biblical account of creation. However, developing critical thought and applying the scientific method to the origin of living things offered a scientific explanation that fundamentally disagreed with the notion that God created all living things from nothing.
Early Scientific Perspectives on Human Origins
Anaximander’s Claims About Humanity’s Aquatic Ancestry
The first pseudo-scientists believed that human beings originated from the sea. With the encouragement of philosophy in Ancient Greece, philosophers looked to explain the origin of human beings. One of these philosophers was Anaximander of Miletus, who lived in the 500s BCE (Allison, 2019). He opined that human beings are born helpless and, as such, they are descendants of creatures whose young ones could survive with no help. Consequently, he concluded that human beings must have originated from fish because newly hatched fish begin living without needing help from anyone. His conclusions would later be partially correct, but were not considered a theory since a theory is believed to hold under certain circumstances.
The Evolutionary Ideas of Erasmus and Charles Darwin
Erasmus Darwin and other eighteenth-century philosophers and scientists had different explanations for the origin of human beings, collectively referred to as the evolutionary theory. However, evolution did not achieve the status of a theory until Erasmus Darwin’s grandson, Charles Darwin, published The Origin of Species. In his book, Charles Darwin and his colleagues opined that natural selection led to evolution.
In the theory of natural selection, Darwin opined that more organisms are produced than can survive in the natural environment (Räwel, 2019). Consequently, only the strongest grow to maturity, and those that do not have this feature either fail to reach the reproductive age or bear fewer offspring. Thus, the theory of natural selection was summarized as the survival of the fittest, since only the strongest organisms can pass their genes to the next generation.
Christian Teachings on Creation
Biblical Foundations of the Creation Narrative
The Christian perspective on how human beings and other living and nonliving things came into existence fundamentally differs from the scientific perspective. Accordingly, Christians believe that God created all that exists today, both on earth and in heaven, from nothing. This notion is supported by verses in the Bible (Betti et al., 2020). Consequently, the church also believes that God created everything that exists, including creating human beings in his likeness. However, faced with many questions about creation, the church started to waver over the doctrine of creation in the nineteenth century.
Challenges Raised by Darwin’s Theory
The publication of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species led to questions that the church could not answer, leading to suspicions about the doctrine of creation. For Christians, the story of creation is one of the many that they learn at a very young age while attending church. Since children generally do not possess advanced critical thinking, they often believe the creation story they are taught in Sunday school. However, as they progress and join school, they learn concepts such as the theory of evolution and the theory of natural selection.
The two stories, one from the Bible and the scientific one, are fundamentally different and require one to believe in certain things that cannot be seen or explained (Brink, 2022). For example, the biblical account of creation requires one to believe in God’s existence. On the other hand, the scientific perspective on creation requires one to believe that humans evolved from some sea organisms to their current form. Therefore, the exclusive belief in the Christian account of creation ignores scientifically proven facts on evolution, while a belief in the scientific explanation leaves many unanswered questions.
Conflicts and Intersections Between Science and Religion
Contrasting Worldviews in Education and Belief
The theory of evolution and the principles of natural selection have significantly impacted the relationship betweenscience and religion. Historically, the church has held the traditional view on creation, believing that God made the living and non-living things on earth out of nothing. The Bible describes what would later be called Earth as hollow before God created it.
The Rise of Theistic Evolution as a Bridge
However, some elements of the church later adopted a belief described as theistic evolution. While acknowledging that God created matter, believers in theistic evolution fall short of confirming that He created the things people can see and those they cannot. Thus, according to them, God did not create generic materials but created specific kinds of creatures (Brink, 2022). Despite its recognition of God’s role in creation, theistic evolution conflicts with the biblical account of creation. The emergence of this theorem illustrates a dialogue between science and religion. Essentially, it is an attempt to reconcile the story of creation with natural selection and evolution theories.
Evolving Conversations on Creation
This shift in thinking about the story of creation in science and religion will likely lead to a convergence of how the story of creation is told. While most Christians believe in the original creation story, the emerging minority might influence the majority to apply rational and critical thought to the story. In addition, scientists may also be persuaded to believe in the existence of an all-powerful God, the original creator of all living and non-living things. A concurrence might emerge where scientists believe in the divine origin of life on Earth while staunch Christians embrace theistic evolution.
Personal Reflections on Creation and Evolution
Strengths and Gaps in Scientific and Biblical Accounts
I agree and disagree with the story of creation and the scientific account of it. In my opinion, the truth about creation lies between the biblical and the scientific explanations of the events. In essence, the scientific and the biblical perspectives have strengths and weaknesses.
Some of the strengths of the scientific explanation of creation are that it is supported by scientific evidence collected over a long period. In addition, the theory of natural selection conforms to other theories of evolution, such as the theory of plate tectonics (Räwel, 2019). The theory accurately predicts the characteristics of organisms.
However, despite the massive evidence supporting the theory of evolution, there are enough gaps to raise doubts about its credibility. Specifically, the theory operates on the assumption that natural selection extends existing genes and cannot lead to the creation of new ones. Perhaps the most significant gap in the theory of evolution is that it does not explain the origin of life itself. Thus, while the theory of evolution offers a plausible explanation of creation, it does not explain the origin of life and fails to account for some gaps.
A Balanced Perspective on the Origin of Life
According to the Bible, the story of creation presents a credible narrative of how the things that exist on Earth came into being. According to the Bible, an all-powerful being (God) created heaven and earth and everything in them, including, but not limited to, human beings. Like the theory of evolution, the creation story has both weaknesses and strengths. One of the strengths is that the story of creation teaches about the importance of living in perfect harmony with everything surrounding human beings. In addition, it gives meaning and purpose to life by explaining why humans exist and the dynamics of their relationship with God (Betti et al., 2020).
The story also comforts most since it gives them hope of living in the afterlife. However, according to the Bible, the story of creation is not supported by verifiable scientific evidence. In addition, the story is open to interpretation, allowing for multiple interpretations of the origin of creation. Finally, the story is only plausible to Christians and not the several billion other people who subscribe to other religions. Therefore, while the Bible’s creation story explains the origin of life itself, it is devoid of any scientific proof.
Conclusion
In conclusion, religion offered the first and most widely understood explanation of the origin of life on Earth. However, the development of critical thought and advancements in scientific methodology led to the proliferation of evolution theories, such as the theory of natural selection. These theories challenged the notion that God created everything from nothing in heaven and on earth. In addition, by evaluating scientific evidence, scientists have traced the origin of some species down to their first known type. However, science has been unable to explain the origin of life itself, while the Bible and other Abrahamic religions explain that God created everything.
One could then argue that the origin of living and non-living things on Earth was a long evolutionary process. God intervened several times during this process to ensure his intent was fulfilled. This account of evolution integrates scientific and religious explanations of the creation story, which aligns with my view that evolution was a gradual and ongoing process, with God intervening at various stages.
References
Allison, G. (2019). Can Christians believe in evolution? Desiring God. Web.
Betti, L., Shaw, P., & Behrends, V. (2020). Acceptance of biological evolution by first-Year Life Sciences University students. Science & Education, 29(2), 395–409. Web.
Brink, G. van Den. (2020). Evolutionary theory and the interpretation of scripture. In Reformed theology and evolutionary theory (pp. 81–176). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Räwel, J. (2019). The origin of species through system differentiation. Kybernetes, 49(10), 2365–2383. Web.