God Can Co-exist with Evolution, Can You?

"An expanding universe does not preclude a creator, but it does place limits on when he [sic] might have carried out the job!" Stephen Hawking, pg 9, A Brief History of Time.

Four thousand years ago, people knew certain things about their world, based on the evidence at hand. They did not yet have the tools to allow them to discern whether the Earth moved around the Sun or vice versa. To all appearances the Sun was in motion and the Earth was still. They didn't have telescopes, and they were often too busy with survival to observe the slight nuances that indicate that the Earth itself is in motion, though as far back as ancient Greece, some astronomers had figured this out. They certainly couldn't detect the red shift that shows that the entire universe is expanding.

As humans developed keener instruments to study our world, and the universe, more knowledge has been gathered. We learned more as we had the time to study imperially and use the scientific method to test theories. Basically the method works like this; (1) Careful observations are made. (2) Deductions are made based on the observations. (3) A hypothesis is formed about the issue being studied. (4) Experiments are conducted test of the validity of the hypothesis.

For generation upon generation, humans existed and kept no written record. To them it seemed as if the world has always been the way it was in their time. It's no surprise that based on this limited knowledge that people believed humans had always existed, or had existed as long as the world had. Now based on archeological observations we can see that creatures existed before humans. We know that humans have existed in their current biological state for over ten thousand years.

It once seemed that the Sun revolved around a flat Earth. We now realize that the Earth is round. We can see that the Earth revolves around the Sun along with other planets, satellites, comets, and meteors. We also know that the Solar system is revolving around the center of the galaxy, and that the galaxy itself and other galaxies as well are all in motion.

We can observe from the motion of galaxies that the entire universe is expanding. Which leads us to question why it is doing so, and if it has always been expanding, it's reasonable to assume that at some point everything in the universe was once much closer together. At some point the whole matter of the universe was likely to have been in one spot. The question is then, why did it start to expand and what caused the initial thrust? The big bang theory is the one that explains all of the observations we are able to make at the moment.

I knew about the big bang when I was growing up, as well as the theory of evolution. Admittedly my family was rather secular, but there was no doubt that when we went to church we went to Christian Church. As a child I believed in the Christian God and Jesus. Though I didn't read the Bible, I knew the basic stories as many children growing up Christian do. The story of Adam and Eve and the story of Jesus were as known to me as the theories of Evolution and the Big Bang, and I took all of them to be true.

It never occurred to me that either of these theories some how discredited the existence of God. In fact it was said that many scientists that made the discoveries that led to these theories, were very devoted religious people. The fact that such complex processes existed in the universe often confirmed to the scientist that a God must exist, and being that they were often Christian, that was the God they believed caused the Big Bang and Evolution to happen.

Thus it also seemed to me when I was young that certainly there was room for God to exist along side any scientific theory. I thought it obvious that these are the sorts of processes a God would use to create the universe, the Earth, and its inhabitants. God isn't a person after all, but an omnipotent being.

It turned out that there are a lot of people who think that God is simply just a very powerful person rather than an all powerful being. They think for the spiritual truths stated in the Bible to have validity that everything presented therein must be an absolute fact. This was a shock to me. The Bible is told in parables isn't it, thought my younger self. A parable is a story that teaches people how to act, a morality play. The facts of such stories are not important, but rather the lesson learned.

Still, I admit, I spent some time as a child contemplating the relation of the Adam & Eve story to Evolutionary theory. Though pretty quickly, I found it easy to jibe them. Simply note that in the Bible Cain and Abel find women to marry who are not their sisters. The story never mentions Adam and Eve having more than the two children, both male. However, it mentions Cain and Abel marrying, and I think there's even mention of a city or town. Plus it's easy to see that not all of humanity is horribly inbred.

While I no longer believe in the notion of the God purported by the Judeo-Christian-Islamic traditions (a realization that came to me at a Christian church, I have to say), I do find relevance in the stories of the Bible and the message of Jesus. I do not feel that his message for humanity to love one another is in anyway diminished by the scientific discoveries that led to the theories of evolution and the big bang.

Neither of these theories can confirm or deny the existence of a God or Gods, be they absolute or limited. They also don't really refute any Bible stories either. What they are is the best theories that we have at this time to explain how the world came to be in the state we find it now. The evidence supporting both these theories is overwhelming, though continued study goes on, and as Einstein said it will only take one ill fitting piece of evidence to disprove them. Nothing can ever prove a theory to be correct, any more than anything can prove the existence of God.

I do not see what all the fuss is about. Why so many religious people want to fight against the observable facts. I don't comprehend why they see science as an enemy. Science is not a religion. Also, Religion is not science either. The fight to get religion taught in science class is a subject for another article, but religious texts do not convey viable scientific theories.

The Bible and other such books serve a different purpose. They tell stories that taught the laws and customs of their people to those living at the time they were written. Today they teach us much about history and provide those that follow religion the basis for their beliefs. Trying to convey biblical stories in science classes serves them no justice.

There is no way that science can devalue the tenants of any religion. It's technically impossible for science to disprove the existence of God. In fact, the idea of faith is that you don't need proof to believe. Often one conversely has faith despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

People of faith, religious zealots, I implore you; do not be threatened by the theory of evolution or the big bang. They are not your enemies. Fear and hate are your enemies. Jesus commanded humanity to love each other. What could be the harm of following that example rather than attacking those that do not agree with you? Is that what Jesus would do?