Young Christians are leaving home for the first time. They’re going away to universities, to start their careers and begin lives as independent adults.
Emerging from a sheltered homelife and regular church attendance, they may be confronted by disturbing questions. Have humans always existed in their present form? Did God create the worlds (many of them) and then step away, leaving future events to chance and random effects? Is biological evolution a fact, or just a slippery, dubious and possibly dangerous theory?
Dr. John Lewis, professor of biology at the Church of Christ-related Lipscomb University in Nashville, questions why Christian faith and acceptance of scientific evidence should ever be in conflict.
“For me just using the “e” word makes me a little uncomfortable,” Lewis confessed in summing up his remarks at The Rotary Club of McMinnville at its weekly luncheon Thursday in the fellowship hall of First Presbyterian Church. The ‘e” word refers, of course, to evolution.
Evolution is a description of how life forms change over time, like thousands or tens of thousands of years, the Rotary speaker explained. “It is a description that doesn’t have to be scary,” he offered.
“I can still be a Christian and believe in scientific principles.” In fact, “We need more Christian scientists,” he argued.
Among prominent examples of Christian scientists, Lewis noted, is Francis Collins, who led the groundbreaking Human Genome Project and later advanced to become director of the National Science Foundation, a major US government funder of research across a wide spectrum of disciplines.
Even after many years of intense scientific investigation and debate with professional peers, “The number one thing in my Christian life is Jesus Christ,” the Rotary presenter emphasized.
Misguided attacks on the long-established edifice of evolution tend to confuse many young Christians and fuel their anxieties and inner conflict whenever faith makes contact with science, polling has revealed. Treating these subjects honestly and candidly can help students understand and resolve those issues and to go forward confidently and faithfully, said Lewis, who teaches a biology capstone course aimed at equipping Lipscomb graduates with those intellectual strengths.
“Ninety-eight percent of professional biologists affirm the evolution of all life on Earth,” the speaker observed, quoting a study from the respected Pew Center for Research.
Evolutionary theory, backed up by massive evidence from fossil and contemporary records, proposes to explain how change takes place in life forms. The question of why there is life, Lewis noted, leads us back to the Bible.
In discussing evolution or other scientific subjects that might seem to conflict with religious beliefs, Lewis urged, we should be respectful toward others and listen thoughtfully to opposing views. An open, pluralistic society, if it is to remain at peace within itself, must give scope to different opinions and positions on complex ideas.
While the Lipscomb student body is largely populated by young Christians, many of them from Church of Christ backgrounds, the institution welcomes all who qualify for admission and follow the rules, regardless of their theological persuasion. Muslim students, the Rotary speaker observed, are required to attend the regular chapel sessions and “put up with the 'Jesus stuff' because they know we can get them into med(ical) school because of our high-quality science instruction.”
“This is why we get a new flu vaccine every year.” The flu viruses are constantly mutating, as evolutionary theory predicts, and new defenses are required to combat them.
“This is why you need to take all your antibiotics” as the doctor prescribed. If we don’t kill off all the viral pathogens making us sick, the strongest and “fittest” will survive, poised to hit us with another round of suffering.
Lewis expands on his Rotary remarks when he appears this week on the weekly FOCUS interview from McMinnville Public Radio 91.2-WCPI. The half-hour conversation airs Tuesday at 5 pm and again Thursday at 1 pm.
