Debate over Evolution

Assuming civilization and scientific knowledge continue advancing, religious debate over evolution will eventually end. Then people will look back at religious attacks on evolution in the same way we view what the Roman Catholic Church did to stop Galileo and others from teaching that the earth revolves around the sun.

There is always a danger that religious zeal will overwhelm the educational system, even in the United States. The immediate outcome would be that funding from all sources for certain kinds of scientific research would dry up, open scientific debate would be stifled, and educational materials would be meticulously censored and tightly controlled.

To see where this road takes us, all we have to do is look at what society is like in countries where religious leaders rule the people or sway governments. Religion becomes so oppressive that scientists, who fundamentalists portray as ungodly, are considered lawbreakers subject to imprisonment, or even public execution. Religious leaders in such societies become nothing more than state-supported murderers who, as the Pharisees did, believe that they are doing the will of God.

Christian fundamentalists oppose science mainly because they believe that if the Bible can be challenged on any point then it is not the Word of God. The church's purpose, however, is simply to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in word and deed. Christ taught that God will not judge us if we do not judge one another. If we love and forgive instead of judge and condemn as many religious leaders do, then we can rest in God's mercy.

Moses and the prophets, like many in whom the Spirit of God works today, were perfect in humility. They were not perfect architects, engineers, craftsmen, or scientists - nor are any of us. The words they spoke and deeds they accomplished by the Spirit of God revealed the perfect will of God, which is that we love one another as God has loved us. Christ taught his disciples that he will judge the world one day based on our love for God as demonstrated by our compassion toward strangers, not on our position in religious debates about science.

By teaching evolution, scientists do not undermine the gospel of Christ, or even the Law of Moses. All that is taught in the Bible is fulfilled by loving your neighbor as yourself. Rather, it is religious leaders who judge others and divide the church over matters of science that undermine the Lord's work and turn people away from the Word of God.