Couldn’t God have used evolution to do his creating? That question almost invariably arises in discussions on the relation of Christian faith to science.
But a prior and far more interesting question is this: does the process of random mutation and natural selection really have the fabulous creative power usually attributed to it? If not, then the first question loses much of its force. And given that the creative power of natural selection really is being questioned by some perfectly reputable scientists1, this is certainly not the time for Christians to feel compelled to accept Darwinism as some kind of a ‘given’ that must inevitably control their interpretation of Scripture. We must surely look at the question of the compatibility of Darwinism with Scripture in a much more open manner.
Approaching the issue
On the one hand, we will wish to pay heed to Augustine’s warning that ‘it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics’. On the other hand, we will not wish to accord absolute privilege to a scientific theory, especially one whose empirical findings are so heavily underlain by a materialist metaphysics and worldview.
