Guest Post by Andrew Rogers
There are two ways in which evolution has traditionally been thought to undermine Christianity.
The first is that it challenges the historical claims made in the Bible about the age of the earth and the order and nature of creation.
For example, if the Bible claims that all land animals and humans were made within the 6th 24-hour day of creation, then evolution would seem to falsify Christianity (if it is assumed that the Bible makes this historical claim and that Christianity is false if at least one of the historical claims of the Bible is false).
The second way in which evolution has been thought to threaten Christianity is that it nullifies the biological design argument for the existence of God. In the words of biologist Richard Dawkins:
“An atheist before Darwin could have said, following Hume: "I have no explanation for complex biological design. All I know is that God isn't a good explanation, so we must wait and hope that somebody comes up with a better one." I can't help feeling that such a position, though logically sound, would have left one feeling pretty unsatisfied, and that although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.” -The Blind Watchmaker (1986)
Dawkins expresses what I think is the mainstream view-- that evolution destroys the biological design argument because it gives an alternative explanation for the appearance of design in biology.
Some Christians respond to this by completely rejecting evolution (Young Earth Creationists such as Ken Ham). Some Christians respond by rejecting some part of evolution (Irreducible Complexity proponents such as Michael Behe). Some Christians respond by focusing on other arguments such as the fine-tuning argument, the moral argument, and the cosmological argument (Theistic Evolution proponents such as Francis Collins, Kenneth Miller, and Josh Willms).
In this series of articles, I will put aside the issues of whether evolutionary history contradicts the Bible and of whether there is good evidence for evolution. Instead I will focus on how exactly it is claimed that evolution explains away the appearance of design in biology.
I will not be concerned with the historical claims of evolutionary theory; instead I will presuppose the historical claims and analyze the claims evolutionary theory makes about forces, causes, laws, and mechanisms and how those claims relate to explaining away the appearance of design.
There are two ways in which evolution has traditionally been thought to undermine Christianity.
The first is that it challenges the historical claims made in the Bible about the age of the earth and the order and nature of creation.
For example, if the Bible claims that all land animals and humans were made within the 6th 24-hour day of creation, then evolution would seem to falsify Christianity (if it is assumed that the Bible makes this historical claim and that Christianity is false if at least one of the historical claims of the Bible is false).
The second way in which evolution has been thought to threaten Christianity is that it nullifies the biological design argument for the existence of God. In the words of biologist Richard Dawkins:
“An atheist before Darwin could have said, following Hume: "I have no explanation for complex biological design. All I know is that God isn't a good explanation, so we must wait and hope that somebody comes up with a better one." I can't help feeling that such a position, though logically sound, would have left one feeling pretty unsatisfied, and that although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.” -The Blind Watchmaker (1986)
Dawkins expresses what I think is the mainstream view-- that evolution destroys the biological design argument because it gives an alternative explanation for the appearance of design in biology.
Some Christians respond to this by completely rejecting evolution (Young Earth Creationists such as Ken Ham). Some Christians respond by rejecting some part of evolution (Irreducible Complexity proponents such as Michael Behe). Some Christians respond by focusing on other arguments such as the fine-tuning argument, the moral argument, and the cosmological argument (Theistic Evolution proponents such as Francis Collins, Kenneth Miller, and Josh Willms).
In this series of articles, I will put aside the issues of whether evolutionary history contradicts the Bible and of whether there is good evidence for evolution. Instead I will focus on how exactly it is claimed that evolution explains away the appearance of design in biology.
I will not be concerned with the historical claims of evolutionary theory; instead I will presuppose the historical claims and analyze the claims evolutionary theory makes about forces, causes, laws, and mechanisms and how those claims relate to explaining away the appearance of design.
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