My Response to the Creation / Evolution Debate

I believe in Creation.  (gasp!)  I also didn’t watch the Nye / Ham debate.  But I’ve seen a lot of stuff floating around Facebook and Twitter and I have a few things to say.

Number one: I’m deeply saddened by the way both Creationists and Evolutionists have been treating each other.  The disparaging comments flying back and forth are an embarrassment and a reproach on both sides.  Shame on everyone who’s making fun of or insulting someone who doesn’t believe the same as you.  I have lots of friends who believe in Evolution and we can get along perfectly well even though we have a difference in opinion.  

Besides, just because someone believes in Creation doesn’t mean they don’t agree with the majority of scientific fact.  (Jesus on a dinosaur, really?  You really think Creationists believe in that?)  And just because someone thinks Evolution is true doesn’t mean they are any less spiritual.  The Scientist views the world through a framework of preconceived ideas, just like a religion.  There is a whole lot of fact in belief, and a whole lot of faith in science.

Let’s face it, this isn’t really a debate about Creation or Evolution.  It’s a debate about the existence of God.  And that’s not a debate that can be won.  The scientific method is never going to explain to a Christian that there is no God.  And no believer is going to prove the existence of God to a die-hard atheist.  

All I know is I believe because I’ve experienced God in a tangible, irrefutable way.  But I can’t measure him.  I can’t put him in a graph.  So unless he reveals himself that way to others, and they’re listening, there is no empirical way to prove him.  

Here is the best way I can show you my point of view.  Not to convince you.  Not to belittle you.  Just to inform.  It doesn’t come from a theological treatise or a scientific journal, but the immortal words of Puddleglum the Marshwiggle, from C. S. Lewis’ The Silver Chair.

Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things—trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself.  Suppose we have.  Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones.  Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world.  Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one.  And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it.  We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right.  But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow.  That’s why I’m going to stand by the play-world.  I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it.  I’m going to live like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia.”

Creation or Evolution, Science or Faith, God or No God: I’m going to live like there is one.  Because loving God and loving your neighbour strikes me as better than the strong survive.  And I’d much rather believe there is a Kingdom coming where evil and sadness will be gone than to think that this is all there is.

And that’s all I have to say about that.