Christian Leaders, why on earth would you believe evolution?

Today starts another short series of related entries explaining why evolutionary doctrine is not compatible with any part of Christian doctrine. I implore church leaders who believe in theistic evolution, the "gap theory," "progressive evolution," and other theories whereby God supposedly used evolution "to get us here" to please reconsider that position. Why? Evolution was never, ever conceived to be an explanation for life in the context of the Creator. It is only because our early religious leaders did not rely upon the authority of the Bible that evolution began to creep into Christian thought processes such that they allowed science to trump God.

Origin of Species was a pretty bold publication. He knew exactly what the implications of his theory was and even "planned" the best ways to ensure that his ideas were NOT dismissed. Although (as we learned with the last few blog entries) he was not on the forefront of the move to remove God from scientific endeavor that was already under way in the Victorian era, he was very aware that God was still at the center of the large majority of the population's belief system. As such, he was exquisitely aware that his "descent with modification" discussion led to ONLY ONE logical conclusion - there is no need for God. Therefore, he sought strategic alliances with scientists of his time in order to direct the propaganda machine that he needed to have in place to ensure acceptance of his theory.  If you are at all interested in this, while I think it could have been a little better written, it is meticulously researched and referenced,  The Dark Side of Darwin does a pretty nice job of dissecting and explaining the Darwin propaganda machine of the mid 1850's. But, it is very clear that Darwin knew full well that no matter how worded Origins, people would figure out that God was for the first time in large scale being removed from the discussion of "how we got here." And, if He is removed from "how we got here," you really don't need Him at all!

So, if you profess to be a Christian and believe that somehow God used evolution to get us where we are, you are choosing to believe man over God, choosing to believe a scientific concept that was never, ever meant to explain the origin of life or its diversity with God in the picture. By the time Charles Darwin wrote Origin, he was at least agnostic, if not an atheist. But, if you are an agnostic, what is the difference - to you - of a term - either way, God does not exist. Although this is a Christian reference, it does a great job of summarizing Charles Darwin's fall from faith and is very objective. You can also go to Darwin's Wikipedia entry and find a discussion of his religious beliefs there.

It makes no kind of sense for a Christian to believe in something that specifically attempts to explain the origin of life based upon a "theory" that was formulated to explain same in the absence of God.

Next we will discuss evolution in the context of Biblical authority.