My Revelation of Evolution

There has been a seemingly impenetrable wall erected between science and religion.  Religious affiliates feel threatened when science tries to explain an occurrence, while scientists feel frustrated that religion “gets in the way” of scientific progress.  As a Christian and a biology major, I’ve already felt the pressures associated with both sides of the debate and no doubt will continue to as I progress farther and farther into my field.  This unfortunate moral deliberation probably afflicts thousands whose passions for science and God intertwine.  What is the truth?  Don’t we all wish we had the answers?  Instead of this guess work associated with finding our way through life…

Last semester I took an inquiries course in animal behavior and ecological evolution.  It focused on how behaviors evolved and linked why animals (and even sometimes humans) do certain things, and evolution.  Why continue a behavior that is not evolutionarily advantageous?  And more importantly, the behaviors exhibited today must be around because they are evolutionarily advantageous.  Take humans and sweet foods for example.  Why do we like them so much?  There must be some kind of evolutionary reason for such a strong affinity to a certain taste of food.  The idea is that everything we do today should be able to be related to a behavior necessary for survival during the hunter-gatherer days.  So fruits are sweet, full of nutrients, and healthy.  Today we’ve kept the sweetness but taken out all the nutrients, kind of an evolutionary step backwards but that’s not the point.  This is not a perfect example, there are many, many factors that come into play, but the general idea is still there.  We behave in certain ways so that we survive, and according to Darwin’s “survival of the fittest,” the individuals that survive and reproduce are the driving forces of evolution that allows populations to adapt to changing environments.

This course challenged me to think in an entirely new fashion.  Everything relating to biology should be able to be explained in terms evolution, including the anatomy, physiology, psychology, and behavior of organisms.  Now this poses some problems if you believe in God.

For me, evolution and life in general is a testament to the awesome power and might of God.  It’s amazing that life can function at all!  When you get down to the nitty gritty details, when you study how each interaction between the tiniest molecules have such a large effect on an organism, it’s incredible that life has come to persist.  Life is so fragile, and so complex.  Which is where God comes in.  Take humans.  Sure you can say that each function in the body is a result of a simpler function that has evolved to fit where we are now.  You can reduce each process and feature it its bare minimum, and even then some to organic molecules, to argue that we have evolved to what we have become.  And maybe it’s true!  But can’t God be there still?  Can’t God still be guiding life, forming life, holding life, saving life, even as it evolves?  Why does there have to be an ultimatum choose one or the other? 

There doesn’t.  Science and religion can coincide.  Part of it is not being afraid to say, “I don’t know.”  Because, well, I don’t know.  And I have no way of finding all the answers.  I can’t tell you if humans evolved from monkeys or if God formed Adam from sand.  I wasn’t there.  But I can tell you that I believe in God, and I believe in evolution, and that’s ok.