In Depth:  Dr Alistair Donald

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.