Origin of Species

"Nothing at first can appear more difficult
to believe than that the more complex organs
and instincts have been perfected, not by means
superior to, though analogous with, human
reason, but by the accumulation of innumerable
slight variations, each good for the individual
possessor." - Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species

Want to start a fight amongst a group of theologians and philosophers?  Start talking about evolution.

At one end of the scale you'll meet Creationists who believe that Genesis 1 is a literal description of how God created the earth.  At the other you'll find the likes of Richard Dawkins who's self-worth is so tied to evolution that he finds it mortally offensive to even have a discussion on its merits.

What is a person to think?

The Two-Minute Oversimplified Guide to Evolution

1. Long ago in a (not very) far off place, the perfect combination of chemical soup, temperature and pressure spontaneously formed primitive life.  External factors, such as lightning strikes might have been involved.
2. Primitive life reproduced and mutated in random ways.  The trigger for mutation might have been solar radiation, or possibly something else.
3. Some mutations were more viable than others and the more viable tended to survive and reproduce while the less viable died off.
4. Repeat "2" and "3" a few billion times until the primitive life evolves into cherry tomatoes, blue whales and John Lennon.

Now despite my flippancy, the above is approximately what most modern scientists believe happened.  There are a few disagreements (OK, lots of disagreements) on the fine details, but you're not really supposed to talk about that.

The Extra-Literal Creationist Guide to Evolution

1. God made the universe in six, 24-hour days.
2. On the fifth day, God made all the sea creatures and birds.
3. On the sixth day God made the rest of the beasts, then He made man (singular).
4. God took a rib from man and used it to make woman (singular).
5. The man and woman went forth and multiplied and John Lennon was one of the results.
6. A heretic named "Darwin" (also a result of the multiplying) made up some garbage about evolution.

A Proven Fact

If you start discussing evolution you might be hear the phrase "evolution is a proven fact".  This is, of course, complete garbage.

How does one prove a scientific fact?  There are two main methods: you demonstrate with mathematics that it must be true, or you reproduce it in a lab.  We haven't got close to doing either of those yet.

So is it all wrong?  Well, no.  That's not what I said.  It is a theory.  We've gathered a lot of data, such as fossil records, and evolution seems more or less consistent with the data.  There are certainly problems, but that is to be expected.  We may eventually come up with a theory that better explains the data we have, but nobody has done that yet.

Why is it Important?

To many Christians, the reliability of the bible is of vital importance.  If we cannot trust the bible on creation, how can we trust it on salvation?  To some atheists, it becomes equally important.  If you reject God, you want to be sure that you are right about His non-existence.  A theory that contradicts Christian teaching is solid gold.

Creation Science

Some Christians, certain of the bible's accuracy, simply reject modern science's interpretations.  Science has often been wrong before, it is not infeasible that it should be wrong again.  This is not an unreasonable view.

Others, though, take that further.  They embrace science and attempt to demonstrate, scientifically, that evolution is not plausible.  Unfortunately, much of this is based on poor understandings of science and maths and it is generally viewed poorly by the scientific community.

Intelligent Design

"Intelligent Design" is a controversial term.  Some people simply use it as a new badge for "Creation Science" which, unsurprisingly, generates a lot of scepticism from mainstream science.  Others use the term in a much different way.

It is possible to read the early parts of Genesis as a parable, rather than a historical account.  In the New Testament, Jesus regularly speaks in parables (e.g. The Parable of the Sower).  It is not unreasonable that God might use similar techniques in the Old Testament.  Reading Genesis this way, we take the message of the Creation Story as "God made the Earth" rather than an exact description of how He did it.

Some Christians, thus, are comfortable with the idea that man may have evolved, but insist that it happened according to God's plan and under His direction.  Where a "pure" view of evolution insists that every mutation is completely random, an Intelligent Design proponent would see God's hand guiding evolution to its present state.

This, of course, quite unsatisfying to the atheist who sees evolution as a justification of their position.

So What is True?

You'll have to decide that for yourself.  If you want to say that God could not have created the world in six days, could not have left it as we find it now, then you do not know the all-powerful God with whom I am acquainted.  For myself, I lean toward an Intelligent Design understanding, but I acknowledge my ignorance on the topic and will not be astonished if I am one day proven wrong.  I am certain that God is sovereign and that He made the world.  "How he did it" is a great topic for discussion, but isn't important to my faith.