As science has increasingly moved away from a theistic foundation for the Universe, Christians have had to make decisions about how they reconcile their faith with scientific discoveries that apparently contradict a Christian worldview. Perhaps the two most common decisions are either a withdrawal from any engagement with modern science (and a labelling of science as “godless”) or a belief that religion and science are guides to unconnected spheres, and that each deal solely with truths that do not encroach on one another. I have always been a lover of science, and I believe that this has enhanced my faith rather than diminished it. So, for me, both approaches are mistakes, but in this post I want to deal with one of the issues that is often brought to the forefront when we do seek to engage with current scientific theory.

We are in the middle of a battle of ideas over the origins of life, where on one side we have the idea that God specifically created life and that this creation culminated in the creature we know as Man. This viewpoint is shared by those who believe in a literal interpretation of Genesis and proponents of what is commonly known as Intelligent Design, or ID, which attempts to mesh scientific theory with Scriptural truth. While these camps have their conflicts, they share the common belief in a Creator who has specificcally created us in His image.

On the other side we have those who believe in the scientific Theory of Evolution which holds that (and this is a very simplistic definition) what we see in nature is the result of random mutations in life forms, where mutations that benefited the life form and allowed it to pass on its genes to offspring reoccurred. For example, a mutation that produced longer legs and allowed an animal to outrun its predators means that it would have more chance of reproducing and passing on that mutation, eventually influencing the development of that species. On the other hand, a mutation that produced an orange colour in a snow dwelling rabbit would probably mean that it would get eaten quite quickly and not pass on that mutation (I welcome any corrections to this summation).

Generally, Western civilisation has begun to wholeheartedly embrace the second position, meaning that many Christians have come to an uneasy accommodation with the Theory of Evolution. I have spoken to many Christians who have felt that either they can reconcile this with their faith, perhaps by believing that God started the process, or that the debate is unimportant, and that, in this area at least, science and faith can be kept separate. However, as I have learnt more about evolutionary theory, I have come to the conclusion that many of the assertions of this theory, when followed to their logical conclusion are in fact antithetical to Christian belief. There are two in particular that, without having to go any further, illustrate the, to me at least, unbridgeable gap between a Christian belief and the Theory of Evolution as currently held by the scientific establishment.

Conclusion 1. The human race is essentially an accident.

If we accept the theory that evolution is the result of a chain of random mutations, we have to realise that the fact of our existence is not an inevitable result of that process. While there are non-random factors involved, for example the viability of each mutation is predicated by the environment it finds itself in so its survival is not random as such but a result of certain criteria, the occurrence of each mutation is completely random. The end product that we call man (which as I will point out, is not really an end product at all) only came about because the right combination of mutations occurred. If we were to somehow have the power to replicate the evolutionary journey, with all the same environmental factors, it would not follow the same course nor would it end in us. If evolutionary theory is true, we are just an accident, the result of an unconnected chain of events. We could have just of easily ended up with the dominant species on Earth being giant octopi or pink pachyderms.

There are some people who seem happy to accept the accidental nature of our existence, though I doubt that all of them have thought through the full ramifications. At this point, those who refuse to believe that we are simply an accident would say that God guided the evolutionary process or that the mutations were not random but specified. However, the moment we do that we are no longer true to scientific theories as they are taught daily in our schools, but moving towards a type of intelligent design

But, whatever way we rationalise it, I don’t see how Christians can believe the evolutionary teaching on the randomness of our existence, and remain true to Christian belief (now, don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that they are not Christians or going to Hell). No matter how you choose to read Genesis, and in fact the whole Bible, it seems clear to me that it tells us that we are a specific creation of God, that He deliberately created us as we are, and in fact had a plan reaching back before Creation that involved our existence. In this case evolutionary theory is not compatible with a Christian worldview.

Conclusion 2. In the end life has no purpose.

Unless you assume a God, the question of life’s purpose is meaningless
- Bertrand Russell

If we choose to accept what science is trying to tell us about the origins of life, we are faced with a very unpalatable fact. There is no purpose for life. There is no reason for us being here. And, any attempt that we make to impose a purpose on our existence is futile.

It is fashionable with those who deny the existence of a God to ascribe similar qualities to nature itself, to see a purpose in its workings. But, evolutionary theory does not bear this out. Nature is not working towards some end, or seeking to create the best chances for survival of life. Life’s occurrence is merely a result of chance, and its survival is the same, the result of random mutations that happen to suit the environment of their time. It is not even about the survival of the fittest, it is closer to the survival of the luckiest.

If this is the case, nothing we do serves any ultimate purpose. We can, I guess, take the continuation of the species as our ultimate purpose (though ascribing purpose to the randomness of evolution is merely a projection of our need to see meaning), but there is no real reason to see this as desirable if we look at the evolutionary process. If we learn one thing from this model it is that species come and go, and that their existence makes absolutely no difference in the scheme of things. There was life long before the first ape dropped out the trees and picked up a stick to bash another ape with, and there will be life long after the trace of humanity is scoured from the surface of the Earth. If this is the case, then all our striving and effort is no more than a futile shout in the emptiness that will not even leave an echo to mark our passing.

But, the worst thing about deciding to seize on the continuation of the species as our purpose is that it means that all things must be measured in how well they serve this end. Art, religion, medicine and even science, must be judged by how well they aid the preservation of our existence, they have no worth in themselves. And, worst of all, each human life must be judged by the same standard, by how they affect the continuation of the species. Our desire to care for the weak and the deformed is worse than a mere waste of effort, it is in fact a betrayal of the species because it preserves traits which would be otherwise bred out.

The reader may feel that I am unfair on evolutionary theory, but I really cannot see any other logical conclusion. If we truly embrace its tenets then I can’t see how we can claim that anything serves any higher purpose, whether that is God or humanity or justice, because these things are merely abstracts we have created and have no objective worth.

And, it is this logical extension of an acceptance of the Theory of Evolution that flies in the face of Christianity and in my opinion precludes the two from coexisting. Christianity preaches that there is, in fact, a purpose to life and that purpose springs from God. We are also told that how we live our life does make a difference, an eternal one, not a fleeting one that will not survive our physical death. We are also told that a person’s worth is not measured by how well they advance some purpose, but that it is found in the fact of their existence as a deliberately created being. In evolution each person is a mean to an end, in Christianity they are the end itself.

We cannot simply ignore the questions about the purose and source of our existence, or leave it to others to worry about. The choice we make about what to believe is fundamental to our approach to life. If we choose to believe that Christianity is true we cannot also believe that life is the result of a random process or that life has no purpose. That is why we cannot allow the Theory of Evolution as currently proposed to become the accepted explanation for how life came about.