I have sympathy for this position. I have held it within the past 10 years. And while I no longer hold this position and in fact, I would use words like "false teaching" to describe it. I want to affirm that these are people with good intentions passionate about their faith and scripture.
Another group can be loosely described as the "It doesn't matter" group... This I think is approximately where my parents stand and where I was prior to my couple of years of fundamentalism. This group generally argues that creation "perspectives" are a non "salvation" issue and therefore not worthy of argument or broken relationship. The focus on "salvation" issues highlights our "salvation" priority that I pointed out and questioned in What is the Gospel? last week.
The third position I present is Evolutionary Creationists. This is the position of Dr. Paul Teel. This would be how I categorize myself. This is is the position that recently got a Regent professor uninvited from preaching at the church he pastored for 10 years...! This position takes science, the Bible and theology very seriously. It affirms variation in breeding, leading to advantageous mutations which are paid off in increased reproduction (natural selection), and that this process is continuous and ongoing... This position affirms the authority of the Bible and argues that Gen. 1-11 are not concrete history (a position already held by Augustine) but mythic theological presentation and reflection. Thus this position considers creation to by a dynamic community of beings upheld through space and time by the Triune God. Evolution does not interpret itself and does not require one to be an atheist.
Ok so these are three positions. There are a few more, which are nuances of these, but I am not going to address them.
I want to affirm that all truth is God's truth. I want to affirm science and scientist's pursuit of the truth and embrace with them their discoveries of the good creation God has created. I want to be aware of both the limits of science to speak to metaphysics and that the foundations of science rest on Christian theology. I want to be able to talk about faith and science without fear...
I have some friends who no longer identify as Christians. These same people are passionate seekers of truth and believe that evolutionary theory is true. While, like with everything, beliefs and conversions, either to or away from faith are complex, I wonder to myself would it have been as easy to walk away from a church deeply engaged with positive dialogue with science? Does the common Bible vs. Science binary, create a very strong sense that if one accepts science, one must reject faith? I think this perception is very common and unfortunately is unwittingly perpetuated by those who say, "it doesn't matter..." This group is very difficult to determine the size of because of their effective silence within the conversation. Usually this means that the YEC position gets the megaphone and the floor... From my perspective this is a problem on a number of levels. 1) it perpetuates poor literalististic/"first glance" Biblical hermeneutics and exegesis 2) Christian youth are either prepared by the church to be dogmatic fundamentalists or not prepared at all, and therefore liable to reject the church when they discover the church has largely rejected/not engaged "reality"... 3) Those outside the church most engaged in truth seeking are, not inaccurately, likely to be dismissive of a community that out of ignorance and misguided loyalty has rejected observed reality 4) Scientists inside the church are largely ostracised...
Therefore, the way we handle this issue in a very real way has consequences both in keeping and gaining community members... Of course taking a positive position towards evolution is liable to get you declared a heretic by someone, people might leave your church, if you are a pastor you might get fired, or you may be "uninvited" to speak at a church you previously pastored... I expect that someone will declare this post "heretical"... Given that Darwin was a Christian, and many early evangelicals such as Benjamin Warfield and Augustus Hopkins Strong were strong supporters of evolutionary theory... I think it is sad that we have subsequently allowed this issue to be divided and polarized in such an unfortunate way. So speak up next time it comes up and say, "I believe in evolution and I believe in God and I believe in the authority of the Bible."
If you are interested in further exploring the Evolutionary Creation position (for you doubters, yes this is actual science, I promise) check out:
BioLogos - founded by Dr. Francis Collins (head of the Human Genome Project)
The best would be if churches started having legitimate scientific symposiums with these guys...
Ok. My final comment is my dream of both Biologos and AnswersinGenesis being at Missionsfest Vancouver next year and engaging in a dance battle right in the middle of all the booths to some old school Hokus Pick or maybe DC Talk...
