When I was at school, I was taught various Creation accounts from a number of major religions. In science class however, I was taught only the Big Bang and evolution. As far as I can recall, science lessons made no mention of Creation as a possibility even.

Later in life when I became a Christian, I did not pay too much mind to the Creation vs. Science debate. I understood that what God wanted us to know about Creation was given us in Genesis 1 (and other places). In my mind, I did not address the broad incompatibility between the Bible’s account of Creation and what was commonly accepted science. I do now.

I can accept that perhaps God did instigate the Big Bang, if you subscribe to that theory. When it comes to evolution however, something I never questioned in school, I now have serious reservations.

I have two main objections, one scientific and the other theological.

Firstly, the scientific problem with evolution (for me at least, and those who know more may be able to fully explain it) is the age-old question of how it all began? If you can accept the process of slow change over a long time, then that’s one thing, but what was the initial starting point. Scientists have surmised a number of things but I do not think they have fully answered this question.

The problem is information. It takes a huge amount of information to build and maintain even the smallest or most basic of creatures. Where did that information come from? How did that information increase over time? Many say that mutation leads to new information being brought into the system, but I am (personally) not aware of any favourable mutations adding in useful information. Perhaps I am simply ignorant of the facts?

Adaptation is quite different. Take a bunch of long-haired dogs and short haired dogs and place them in the Artic. After a while, the long-haired dogs will thrive and the short haired dogs will die off. This is “survival of the fittest” in action, as the long-haired dogs are more suited to the colder conditions. That is all fine and quite sensible, but it is quite a stretch to suggest that, even given enough time, the long-haired dogs will grow wings or change their basic nature completely.

My second objection to evolution is theological in nature. For evolution to work, you need time – and lots of it. Evolution is a slow process, if true at all, and says that basic creatures become more complicated over time. Humanity is at the end of a very long line of ancestors who slowly changed into the species we know today.

Why is that an issue theologically? Because it means that we had to have death before we had sin. For evolution to work, ancestors need to die off, and so there is death in the world before humanity even existed. That means that death was not as a result of sin, and that is not what the Bible says.

12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—

Romans 5:12 (NIV)

There is, of course, much debate about all of these matters. There are Christians who believe in evolution, and there are those who do not. There are those who find their Christianity compatible with the secular scientific view, and those who do not. Creation is a fairly fundamental issue to be honest though, so I do think it is important to get it straight in your own mind.

If we disagree, let us do so amicably and as family should.

What is the bottom line though? I think it is summed up in Genesis 1 and the first words of the Bible.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1 (WEB)

We may disagree exactly how this was done, but we must not dispute that it was done. God created everything, seen and unseen. He made us, and He made the universe we live in. He built the physical, and He constructed the spiritual. We can debate the method, but not the substance.

If we cannot accept this truth, then we cannot accept any truth the Bible offers.

If God created all things, and He did, then what does that mean for you today? Knowing that God made you and the world around you, how should you conduct your life differently?

Rejoice in the fact that you were no accident, but carefully crafted by the hands of God. That should make you feel pretty special, and you are!