Why do some Christians care so much about talking about evolution?  Is it compatible with biblical Christianity?Audio

TranscriptWhy do some Christians care so much about talking about evolution?

Recently I made a statement that it's no surprise that a rejection of a Biblical sexual ethic and concept of gender identity only comes after the mass acceptance of evolutionary theory. By evolutionary theory, I mean macro evolution — the Neo-Darwinian synthesis. Now, there are Christians who affirm evolutionary theory. One, in the conversation I was having, said the following, "The danger comes in asserting that evolution is inherently opposed to religious claims. This hurts both faith and science. Faith look unattractive to those who embrace evolution, and science looks unattractive to those who reject evolution. When both sides embrace evolution, the conversation becomes deeper and more beneficial to both sides."

Now, there are many things that we could talk about here, but I have a handful that I'd like to discuss right now.

The philosophical/definitional issue with God using evolution

The first is that there is a large philosophical and definitional issue if you're a Christian and want to affirm that God created and yet he used evolution. The issue here is that science is going to tell that evolution is a natural unguided process. It is not guided. There is no purpose to it, it's random in that way. What does it mean to say that someone used an unguided process? How could you take credit for creating by chance? “Creation by chance” is a contradiction in terms. To create something is to take definite action towards an end. To not do that is to let some unguided process take place (Or not to have done anything at all).

It doesn’t make sense to say that God created by chance, and yet this is the position that Christians, who want to adopt an evolutionary-creation model or a theistic-evolution model, find themselves in.

Now, often in conversations you might hear that evolution isn't opposed to Christianity because Christians believe in evolution. But, that doesn't mean that Christianity isn't opposed to evolution. That means some people haven't realized there's an incompatibility, or they're willing to accept that incompatibility for other reasons that are more important to them. We can't just appeal to consensus to say, "See, it's okay to be a Christian and believe in evolution, because other Christians do it." We don't appeal to popularity when we try to determine truthfulness of objective truth claims.

That's the first issue. We have a definitional issue. It doesn't even make sense. Either God create it or he didn't. If evolution is true, there's no room for God in that naturalistic, unguided process. There's a foundational incompatibility between the two of them. They cannot be married. Because if evolution is true, God did no work, but God claims to do work. This leads us to our second issue. The first one is a definitional or philosophical issue. The second one is a Biblical issue.

The biblical issues

God says that in the beginning, he created the heavens and the earth. That would refer to the universe. This doesn't necessarily refer to life, but he does go on in Genesis 1 and 2, through a variety of literary means, to make it very clear that he claims responsibility for life and for man, and for making man in his own image. You can't make something in your own image by random chance. That doesn't work. That doesn't even make sense. This is what the Christian is left with when they want to affirm that evolution is true. Right off the bat, in the first chapter of the Bible, we have a Biblical issue. Jesus even says in Matthew 19 that God made us male and female - made us. You don't make things by chance.

There are litany of ot…