Creation or Evolution: Do We Have To Choose?'
Book review
by Andrew Halestrap
Posted: Wednesday, August 13, 2008, 14:08 (BST)
Many scientists, championed by the likes of Richard Dawkins, argue with an almost evangelical zeal that science has all but disproved God. As these views begin to take root in society it is vital that Christians are able to expose the flaws and inconsistencies in the underlying arguments.
Yet this task is made harder by some Christians whose desire to uphold the authority of Scripture has led them to dismiss current scientific understanding of the Universe and especially the theory of Evolution.
For many scientists such views are likely to reinforce their dismissal of the Christian faith as merely an outdated superstition. Unfortunately, many books that address this issue appear to generate more heat than light as they seek to justify their own polarised position and rubbish the opposition.
Denis Alexander's "Creation or Evolution - Do We Have to Choose?" is a most welcome exception and deserves to be widely read. Denis is the Chairman of the Molecular Immunology Programme at The Babraham Institute in Cambridge and an internationally respected scientist. As a Christian he believes passionately that the Bible is God's authoritative word for man, yet his scientific studies provide him with overwhelming evidence for the Theory of Evolution.
In this, his most recent book, Denis takes us on a masterful and enlightening journey through both the relevant biblical text and the science underlying evolution, oscillating deliberately between the two as explains with clarity and conviction how the book of God's Works and the book of God's Words can be held in harmony. With Augustine, who famously said that 'Nature is what God does', he concludes that the answer to the question posed in the title is that it is Creation AND Evolution.
The target audience for his book is the (non-specialist) conservative Christian community in the UK, USA and elsewhere. It is written as a discussion and a dialogue and addresses such topics as: "What do we understand by the terms creation and evolution?"; "Are there valid scientific objections to evolution?"; "Does the theory of evolution demand atheism?"; "Who were Adam and Eve?"; "How do we understand by the Fall in the light of evolutionary theory?"; "What about intelligent design?".
In his writing, Denis shows great respect for those who would disagree with him, and asks for the same in return, eager that disagreements in this area should not hinder the saving work of the Gospel. This book fills a much needed gap and will go to the top of my recommended reading list for those wanting an informed and balanced approach to this topic.
Andrew Halestrap is a Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Bristol, a member of Christ Church Clifton and on the Editorial Board of Science and Christian Belief. This review was originally written for The Jubilee Centre www.jubilee-centre.org. This article is printed in Christian Today with permission from The Jubilee Centre
Interested in buying this book? Click HERE
Have your say on this article
The comments below are readers' personal opinions and are in no way intended to reflect the editorial opinion of Christian Today.
Added: Friday, August 15, 2008, 23:21 (BST)
Jack Mcintyre
Dawkins explained in his book "The Blind Watchmaker," what most scientist already know about evolution: it is ruthlessly cruel process and utterly without foresight. It is where the fit are selected and the rest left to die. Evolution not cares not about pain and suffering, only replication. The wild animals of the Earth devour or be devoured, and many are lavishly armed with biological tools of torment. Genetic mutations are mathematically random; though evolution is "guided" by non-random natural selection, not an "intelligence" or divine hand.
If an intelligent being did guide the evolution and all it's cruelties, the implications are rather unsettling.
Sasha, California
Added: Thursday, August 14, 2008, 9:19 (BST)
Bobxxxx how can you say that God does not guide evolution?? That's like saying God put you on this earth and then didn't guide your life. How would you have grown past being a baby if God didn't guide your physical growth? He led you through all the stages of development in your life so far, you 'evolved' mentally physically spiritually every day because of God. He guides everything. Evolution has everything to do with God. He started it and keeps it going as and how he chooses. Just like He has done with your life. John 15 He's the gardener. But even if we cant all agree on that, lets all still celebrate together God's AMAZING creation. Hallelujah!
Jack McIntyre, Dundee
Added: Thursday, August 14, 2008, 3:55 (BST)
Why do we give in to Evolutionist, we do not need to find a balance, what he is doing is compromising, there is no proof of evolution at all, none. Go ahead and dumb down God and what he says with what a few ungodly guys think and boom you got a book called Creation or evolution. Wow you figured out how to please everyone you should be ashamed.
He is just wrong, Ventura Ca
Added: Thursday, August 14, 2008, 3:07 (BST)
While anyone may choose to believe or not to believe in creation or evolution, anyone who understands science understands that one accepts the facts as they are hypothesized and peer-reviewed and agreed upon by observation and experiment by numerous subject-matter experts. It is indeed possible to believe in creation at the same time one accepts the fact of evolution and the self-correcting magesterium of science that has been refining the theory of how evolution works for the last century and a half.
It's a pity that the narrow-minded fundamentalists who have concocted the heresy of intelligent design creationism (by taking the Creator God of Genesis out of the creation story) do not understand science or how science works. The founder of intelligent design creationism, Philip Johnson (a lawyer, not a scientist) who has said "Our strategy has been to change the subject a bit, so that we can get the issue of intelligent design, which really means the reality of God, before the academic world and into the schools." One of the Dishonesty Institute's newer Senior Fellows, Michael Medved (who also believes in Bigfoot), recently said "The important thing about Intelligent Design is that it is not a theory - which is something I think they need to make more clear. Nor is Intelligent Design an explanation. Intelligent Design is a challenge. It’s a challenge to evolution. It does not replace evolution with something else."
Creationism is not science. It is based on faith and belief, and exists in a different part of the human brain than the part of the brain that accepts the facts of evolution and biology and astronomy and geology and all the other sciences. Most scientists can and do get along quite well with this.
Paul Burnett, Alameda, CA, USA
Added: Thursday, August 14, 2008, 1:21 (BST)
It all sounds very nice, but it's strange that this mugwump position comes up now, only AFTER arguments against evolution have spread so much that even evolutionists are beginning to look for something more than the standard theory. It's almost as if liberal Christians are afraid that evolutionism will be undermined and people will be drawn back to the traditional of (dare we say it) Fundamentalist position. For all the talk about trying to save Christianity from the creationists, the fact that they'd rather come down on the side of atheists like Dawkins on evolutionism shows that they're still more concerned with the things of man (scientism, rationalism) than the things of God, just like the Deists and philosophes who started the whole mess in the 1600s-1700s. Don't think so? Show me a church that has promoted evolutionism for three generations and let's see where they stand on other doctrines.
David Bump, Flushing, USA
Added: Wednesday, August 13, 2008, 21:29 (BST)
Evolution does not disprove God. However, every competent biologist in the world, including all competent religious biologists, do not invoke God to explain evolution. God does not guide evolution, and He did not invent evolution. Evolution is a natural process. God had nothing to do with it.
bobxxxx, Margate, Florida, USA
Added: Wednesday, August 13, 2008, 20:34 (BST)
Do we have to choose? Certainly, we do have to choose. The choice here is consistency. Do we believe that fallen man with his fallen mind producing fallen ideas that diverge from God's inerrant Word or do we trust God Himself who has given us a historical record (that's right, Genesis is historical narrative) of what He has accomplished. The issue here is, which came first? Man, or death? Did man cause death to come into the world or did death bring man into the world? Creation isn't a side issue, it is a foundational issue. Like Paul in Acts 17, we have to preach the gospel to this "Greek" culture who does not understand the foundation, the book of Genesis. We preach creation and we build upon it. Without Genesis's historicity the foundation of the gospel is destroyed. As the psalmist says, "if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?"
John Coolidge, Hastings, USA
