The assumption is widespread that one cannot be a Christian and accept the findings of science on the subject of organic evolution. This assumption is especially prevalent when the Christian in question belongs to the subgroup known as 'conservative Christians' or
evangelicals.
People in this group who do become convinced that the scientific data support an old earth and organic evolution often find the experience disorienting. They believe they are alone.
Not so. A growing number of evangelical scientists are speaking out. They show it is entirely possible to be an evangelical Christian and accept the clear findings of science.
It would serve us well to have a thread where examples of such 'evogelicals', or 'continuous creationists', can be put forward. As you encounter such individuals please mention them here. Provide links, wherever possible, to their statements and testimonies.
This thread is intended to serve as a resource, not an arena for debate. No links to atheists here, please. None to YECs. This thread exists to call attention to individuals--especially professional scientists--who acknowledge themselves as
evangelicals who accept evolution.
To begin, here are three noteworthy examples from news reports in the past year.
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Mary Higby Schweitzer(discoverer of
T.rex soft tissue fossils)
Discover Magazine: 'Schweitzer's Dangerous Discovery'
http://discovermagazine.com/2006/apr/dinosaur-dna
quote:
...Schweitzer [stands] at the center of a raging cultural controversy, because she is not just a pioneering paleontologist but also an evangelical Christian. [...] But in her religious life, Schweitzer is no more of an ideologue than she is in her scientific career. In both realms, she operates with a simple but powerful consistency: The best way to understand the glory of the world is to open your eyes and take an honest look at what is out there.
Reticent by nature, Schweitzer rarely grants interviews and shies away from making grand pronouncements about her scientific research or her religious faith. Instead of news stories about her stunning findings, she has adorned her office wall with a verse from the book of Jeremiah: "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
[ . . . . ]
To Schweitzer, trying to prove your religious beliefs through empirical evidence is absurd, if not sacrilegious. "If God is who He says He is, He doesn't need us to twist and contort scientific data," she says. "The thing that's most important to God is our faith. Therefore, He's not going to allow Himself to be proven by scientific methodologies."
Some creationists, noting Schweitzer's evangelical faith, have tried to pressure her into siding with them. "It is high time that the 'Scientific' community comes clean: meaning that the public is going to hold them ACCOUNTABLE when they find out that they have been misled," reads a recent e-mail message Schweitzer received. She has received dozens of similar notes, a few of them outright menacing.
These religious attacks wound her far more than the scientific ones. "It rips my guts out," she says. "These people are claiming to represent the Christ that I love. They're not doing a very good job. It's no wonder that a lot of my colleagues are atheists." She told one zealot, "You know, if the only picture of Christ I had was your attitude towards me, I'd run."
Ironically, the insides of Cretaceous-era dinosaur bones have only deepened Schweitzer's faith. "My God has gotten so much bigger since I've been a scientist," she says. "He doesn't stay in my boxes.'
Keith Miller
ASA: 'Theological Implications of an Evolving Creation'
http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1993/PSCF9-93Miller.html
quote:
The creation-evolution debate has sapped vital energy from the Christian community. Instead of building the kingdom of God, it has, I believe, been both destructive to the unity of the body of Christ and a distraction from its God-given mission. That mission is to live as God's image bearers, exercising stewardship over His creation, and proclaiming His message of reconciliation to the world.
In the debate over the proper understanding of the Genesis account, most attention has seemed to focus on the scientific merits of various creation scenarios. What has largely been lacking in these debates is a consideration of the theological implications of these various interpretations for our understanding of the character of God, the relationship of God to His creation, and the relationship of us to the rest of creation. After all, it is to these basic issues that the Genesis account is primarily, if not exclusively, addressed. [1] In addition, much of the resistance to evolutionary cosmologies among evangelical Christians is a perceived conflict with the fundamental doctrines of the faith. For these reasons, I will deal directly with the theological implications of what I prefer to call the continuous creation view. The term "continuous creationist" has been used by both Wilcox and Moltmann as a useful label for a fully theistic view of creation involving a long uninterrupted creative history. [2] According to this view God is continuously active in His creation through the processes that we investigate with our sciences.
Jonathan Dudley
Yale Daily News Column: 'Evangelical Christian believes in evolution'
Page not found - Yale Daily News
quote:
What truths does science reveal about human origins? The evidence for macroevolution is quite strong. From amoebas to humans, proteins just a mutation’s-length away carry out similar molecular processes; structures that function in lower organisms, such as the appendix, have lost their function in higher ones; and speciation is observed when organisms are kept from interbreeding.
How can the scientific truth of macroevolution be reconciled with the biblical story of creation? I think science requires Christians to interpret the creation story differently. Yes, God still created the universe, including all biological life. But God created biological life via the process of evolution.
Faith and Belief, please.
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Archer
All species are transitional.
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