Christians, evolution & society

And there was evening and there was morning, the first…sixth day. – Gen 1

For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. – Ex 20:11

The other night I was playing a board game with some friends, this game required you to take your animal group (very broad: insects, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, etc) and move them about to climates you were adapted to, learn new adaptations, reproduce and so on. That night I recall having a dream about super-heroes, I don’t remember much but it was something like a couple of them talking about a third who had changed radically in form and such. Somehow the explanation was: this super-hero could de-materialize and re-materialize like on the other side of a door or something. While he was doing this, some villain who moved with amazing super-speed had swapped his molecules out for others to form this new monster.

This dream started me thinking: generally speaking, I enjoy sci-fi movies and TV, I’ve enjoyed many of the recent comic book movies & I’ve recently enjoyed playing StarCraft. But, with few exceptions, these things are entirely built around the assumption of evolution. They feature more or less prominently and we accept that it’s ludicrous to think that suddenly there are X-men who can manipulate metal with their mind, turn themselves into metal or walk through walls. However, there are other mutations that we might not dismiss quite as immediately, like the ability to heal amazingly.

Herein, perhaps, lies the danger. Stories are powerful tools for shaping our thinking and our imagination. Just ask the author of His Dark Materials series, who writes children’s books to undermine Christianity and counter books like the Chronicles of Narnia or read Russell Moore’s thoughts on the shaping of the moral imagination. It is my concern that our society, by creating compelling stories that presuppose evolution is building block upon block of doubt, questions, and false assumptions that make it increasingly hard for Christians to compellingly tell the truth about the world we live in. If our imagination, our fantasy, our dreams & games (how many kids are super-heroes for Halloween?) are shaped around this worldview – it won’t take long for us to start believing “facts” flowing from that same presupposition.

Already, many pastors whom I respect have compromised on the basic biblical position stated in the verses above. But why? Because perhaps some nuance of the Hebrew will allow it? Because scientific fact wasn’t the point of Genesis? Hardly. As a friend astutely pointed out, “If God had wanted to make it clearer that he created the world in 6 24 hour days, how would he have phrased it?” Rather, it’s because the world derides and mocks this belief – and perhaps because our imagination is held captive by the fantastic that assumes evolution. How many of us grew up greatly enjoying Star Wars? The terrible spiritual lie of the force aside, this prepares a generation to imbibe evolution.

But why does this matter at all? Can’t Christians stop hating science and accept the proven fact of evolution? If you’re really interested in the science answer, visit here & here, then click around at their other resources. But from a biblical perspective there’s at least a few critical things at stake:

  • Does God lie? Ok, so maybe God didn’t want to tell the ancient Hebrews how the world came about, they wouldn’t understanding you see, being so primitive. So he told them a good story. Not only is that terribly insulting, but it implies that God lied when his spirit inspired Moses to write Genesis. Is this our God? “By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar.” (Rom 3:4)
  • Was death before sin? Gen 2:15-17, Rom 5:12
  • The foundation of marriage. Gen 2:18-25, Matt 19:4-6
  • If is this how God made the natural world or just the way it came about, how is it being subjected to futility? What bondage to corruption is it waiting to be freed from? Rom 8:18-30
  • Perhaps most significantly, was there really an Adam who represented all of us? Now as his natural seed do we all inherit death? And then can Jesus really substitute for us and in his obedience bring us life? Rom 5:12-21

I don’t hate imagination or a good story. To the contrary, I really appreciate a great story that tells the truth and believe we should fill our imagination and our children’s imagination with these types of stories. Authors like Tolkien, who says some profound things about our conflict with “the Enemy.” Or like ND Wilson who writes some great Christian fiction and has astute thoughts on why it’s important. Nor am I suggesting we boycott these films or games. But I would suggest that we think more critically about what we enjoy in them, and why. And maybe we should make sure we feed our kids a diet of good stories that will point their moral compasses to true north: God’s truth and morals revealed in the bible.

So, why do we enjoy these things that presuppose evolution, what makes them a good story? Is it some desire for the strange, new, out there? Just our flesh subduing the truth in unrighteousness? Or our desire to be more powerful – more like God? That was Satan’s first trick…

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