Evolution can be Religion's Friend

June 2010

Science and religion can be, for people of faith, mutually motivating and inspiring. Science may inspire religious beliefs and religious behaviour, as we respond with awe to the immensity of the universe, the wondrous diversity of organisms, and the marvels of the human brain and the human mind.

Religion promotes reverence for the creation, for humankind as well as the environment. Religion may be a motivating force and source of inspiration for scientific research and may move scientists to investigate the marvellous world of the creation and to solve the puzzles with which it confronts us.

The natural world abounds in catastrophic disasters, imperfections, dysfunctions, suffering and cruelty: tsunamis bring destruction and death; volcanic eruptions erased Pompeii and Herculaneum, killing all their citizens; and floods and droughts bring ruin to farmers.

The human jaw is poorly designed, so that the wisdom teeth need to be extracted and the other teeth benefit from being straightened; lions devour their prey; malaria parasites kill millions of humans every year and make 500 million sick.

The scientific revolution, ushered in by Copernicus, Galileo and Newton, provided a natural explanation of the calamities of the physical world: tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur as a result of natural processes. They need not be attributed to specific actions of the Creator directed to punish some humans and reward others.

Similarly, the theory of evolution, ushered in by Darwin's revolution, accounts for the imperfections, dysfunctions and cruelties of the living world. They are a consequence of the clumsy ways of the evolutionary process.

Evolution is not the enemy of religion but, rather, it can be its friend, because it accounts for disease, death, and the dysfunctions and cruelties of living organisms as the result of natural processes, not as the specific design of God. The God of revelation and of faith is a God of love and mercy, and of wisdom.

Darwin's theory of evolution is a gift to science — and to religion as well.

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UDGITH

November 17th, 2010
2:11 PM

@SHOAIB: If we think quran or any other religious scriptures as practiced are flawless then I would urge you to read "Satyarth Prakash" written by Swami Dayanand (in hindi)in late 18th century or read its english translation "The Light of Truth". After reading it I am assured no one who practices religion based on myths and beliefs not without logical inspection and introspection could say what he is practicing is absolutely flawless. This are not my words but many scholars of different religions of that era said about the critical study of different religions made by Swami Dayanand.

Anonymous

November 1st, 2010
7:11 AM

hehehe

Piyush Chandan

October 29th, 2010
8:10 AM

The author had related the three most debatable words: evolution, science and religion. Since time immemorial, generations are trying to quest the relation between religion,evolution and science and nobody can even surmise that how long the quest would undergo.

Conquistador

October 22nd, 2010
5:10 AM

Author dint wanted to get into a trouble... played a safe strategy....

Shoaib Khan

October 21st, 2010
5:10 PM

i dont know why people are so eager to call themselves monkeys or for that matter any other creature. If according to this passage Bible has many factual errors, or contradictory statements, then why don't the writer takes references from Qur'an, which is flawless, and nobody till date has been able to find out a single error in it. And above all it is completely compatible with the present scientific discoveries. And as far as evolution is concerned, i'm afraid it is just a theory not a confirmed law, and can never be...because its the biggest lie (as per Soren Luvtrup) mankind/science has ever believed in. Btw, for interested people, plz refer the book 'Atlas of Creation (by Harun Yahya)' to shatter the myth of evolution.

anonymous

October 6th, 2010
6:10 PM

i am convinced wid d thought of d writer.evolution is indeed a gift 2 religion as well as science. science and religion works in close proximity .they are not mutually exclusive but mutually inclusive.science discovers d marvels of d world and give theory for its existence while religion gives us vision to revere those marvels as gifts of god.evolution as a theory is indeed acceptable but who started this process of evolution can be duly answered by the religion.

Raj

June 22nd, 2010
8:06 PM

should have taken it well, to think of more.. its just does not raise a level of argument..

David M

June 15th, 2010
2:06 PM

As Anon said, this does not even rise to the level of argument. It is self-evident that evolution and *God* can co-exist. After all, the existence of God does not imply the truth of any arbitrarily chosen creation myth. But if your belief in God necessarily leads to the belief that his presence must be literally (not just metaphorically) felt everywhere, then you are led to making stupid points like "many theologians see evolution as the process by which God creates the wonderful diversity of plants, animals and other living beings." No, no, no. The very *point* of evolution is that it does not require any sort of divine intervention whatsoever! You can believe that God set off the Big Bang, or created the circumstances in which it would occur, but you simply cannot believe that God has any role in evolution if your understanding of natural selection is genuine. God works as a metaphor, as a symbol of the mystery and elegance of the universe, and this is the sense in which Einstein spoke of God. But there is no valuable sense in which God actually operates alongside science. If he created the universe, that's all he did.

John Dickinson

June 11th, 2010
4:06 PM

Fundamentalist Christians have a huge emotional investment in going to Heaven and living forever. “Eternal life in Jesus Christ.” But this is dependent upon the existence of the soul. And if we have evolved, when did this soul begin? If I meet my ancestors in Heaven, will they be knuckle-walking? This, I believe, is the mental block which makes belief in evolution impossible for such doctrinaire Christians.

Anonymous

June 2nd, 2010
9:06 PM

This is a very poor argument. In fact, it does not even rise to the level of an argument. Mr. Ayala you have wasted my time.

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