Is Evolution At Odds with God?

Theodosius Dobzhansky, a leading biologist once said, "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution."

And Arthur Peacocke, the distinguished British molecular biologist wrote a book titled, "Evolution: The Disguised Friend of Faith?"

Francis Collins, in his book, "The Language of God", where he laid out a convincing case - from a scientist's perspective - that evolution does not disprove the idea that God worked out His creative plan by means of evolution, and compelling evidence in genomic research (and he spoke with authority here as former director of the Human Genome Project) would relieve God of the responsibility for multiple acts of specific creation for each species on the planet. He also argued whilst evolution may account for biological complexities (through Darwin's theory of natural selection) and the origin of humankind, DNA sequence alone, will never explain certain special human attributes, such as the knowledge of the Moral Law and the universal desire in search of a creator. He wrote, "Freeing God from the burden of special acts of creation does not remove Him as the source of the things that make humanity special, and of the universe itself. It merely shows us something of how He operates."

Writing in Scientific American, Stephen Jay Gould, an eminent biologist and scientist outlined his position:

"To say it for all my colleagues and for the umpteenth million time: Science simply cannot by its legitimate methods adjudicate the issue of God's possible superintendence of nature. We neither affirm nor deny it; we simply can't comment on it as scientists. If some of our crowd have made untoward statements claiming that Darwinism disproves God, then I will find Mrs. McInerney [Gould's third grade teacher] and have their knuckles rapped for it... Science can work only with naturalistic explanations; it can neither affirm nor deny other types of actors (like God) in other spheres (the moral realm, for example).

Forget philosophy for a moment; the simple empirics of the past hundred years should suffice. Darwin himself was agnostic (having lost his religious beliefs upon the tragic death of his favorite daughter), but the great American botanist Asa Gray, who favored natural selection and wrote a book entitled Darwiniana, was a devout Christian. Move forward 50 years: Charles D. Walcott, discoverer of the Burgess Shale fossils, was a convinced Darwinian and an equally firm Christian, who believed that God had ordained natural selection to construct a history of life according to His plans and purposes. Move on another 50 years to the two greatest evolutionists of our generation: G. G. Simpson was a humanist agnostic. Theodosius Dobzhansky a believing Russian Orthodox. Either half my colleagues are enormously stupid, or else the science of Darwinism is fully compatible with conventional religious beliefs—and equally compatible with atheism."

Is evolution at odds with God?