Conclusion: Evolution Is Consistent With Christian Theology

…In summary, a distinction between science and philosophy must be made, and the full implications of God creating and acting within a physical world need to be better understood. I think it’s unfortunate that so many fail to see this and instead fall for the idea that evolution can make the philosophical claim of disproving God. Because of this, Christians can be misunderstood as objecting to science or more easily deceived into mistrusting science. Consequently, Christianity can be thought unscientific and irrational, when in reality Christianity provides strong grounds for the assumptions of science¹ and is a thoroughly reasonable worldview.

While our bodies may be strikingly similar to those of apes, we are, as spiritual beings, so much more than physical bodies!² And while the idea that we came from monkeys may be unappealing, we are no less in God’s image because we came from monkeys than the butterfly is ugly because it came from an ugly caterpillar. Evolution (as I understand it) is really quite an elegant process – something one would expect of the same God who causes tiny seeds to grow into majestic and beautifully intricate trees (and what a marvel it is that the tree is, in a sense, within the seed!).

In conclusion, viewing evolution as the beautiful and orderly design of God, a means for the fine-tuned perfection of the physical creature he desires to make in his image, is much more fitting than viewing evolution as part of a larger naturalistic framework in which the existence of an evolving universe is simply taken for granted.

Therefore, there is (in my opinion) no reason to freak out about evolution. It is not only a strong scientific theory worthy of our consideration and understanding, but a partial explanation for human existence that fits well within the framework of Christian theology. Indeed, many committed Christian theologians and scientists have embraced evolution; the reader is referred in particular to the works of Alister McGrath and Francis Collins.

¹Namely, the assumptions that the physical world is orderly and that we can understand it (this is true because God is an orderly Creator and wants his creatures to understand their Creator).
²One might say we are both “a little higher than the animals” (in a purely physical sense) and “a little lower than the angels” in the much more important spiritual sense.