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Can science and God co-exist?

Evolution and 'Intelligent design' back in the spotlight

By Cindy Sutter, Camera Staff Writer
September 10, 2005

God created the Earth in six days. God created humans in his image. Humans and all other life evolved from single celled organisms, which themselves evolved from cellular building blocks that came into being when the universe was formed and thereafter. Is religious belief and the theory of evolution compatible?

When Charles Darwin published "The Origin of Species" in 1859, theologians labeled him the most dangerous man in England. While his book revolutionized science and the way many people look at the world, the theory of evolution is in some ways as controversial today as the day it was published nearly 150 years ago. In a June Harris poll of 1,000 adults, only 22 percent said they believed human beings evolved from an earlier species, while 64 percent believed humans were created directly by God. Ten percent said human beings are so complex that they required a powerful force or intelligent being to help create them. As school boards in various parts of the country debate how to structure science curriculum, and President Bush says he favors the teaching of both evolution and intelligent design, we asked several local faith leaders how — or if — they reconcile faith in God and belief in evolutionary theory.

Father Bill Breslin, pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Boulder:

"I think the Catholic stance is that we believe that God is behind whatever means God used to create everything. The only difference we would have about evolution is that (the development of life) not a mindless, purposeless happenstance. It was God's way."

Breslin offers a paraphrase of a quote from Albert Einstein in which the physicist said that the more he got to know science, the more he got to know the mind of God.

Breslin says he objects to the way evolution is taught. "It makes it sound as if God is not a part of it. We have a problem with that part of it."

However, he is not comfortable with the term intelligent design.

"That's not our terminology," he says. "I think that's an agenda-packed terminology. ... We don't want to be at war with science."

Bob Baker, senior associate pastor of VineLife Community Church in Gunbarrel:

"We don't make (evolution) a lightning rod issue in our statement of faith. We leave that for people to independently pursue," he says.

He says there are obvious instances of biological evolution, but he also believes in the literal truth of the Bible.

"Our time is not God's time. A thousand days for us might be one day for him. (The Bible) doesn't present itself as a chronological history," he says. "It's a partial recording of many, many events. It doesn't purport to be what happened from day one."

However, he says, he does believe the Biblical account of creation.

"We believe that a divine being, God the Father, can speak creative miracles into existence, one of which, and the most prominent of which was 'let there be light, let there be water, let there be air.' The whole book of Genesis was a spoken decision by God."

While he eschews labels, Baker says his beliefs most close track the theory of intelligent design — that evolution occurs on a micro-level, within species, but that there's no proof for one species arising from another.

"I don't think for a minute this creation evolved from a little piece of mass," he says. "I believe when God said, 'Adam, I breathe you into existence.' Adam was a man as we know man. And I think he created Eve the same way. Adam was created from scratch."

Baker says believing in creation requires faith.

"It requires believing in some things that are not fully explainable to the human intellect. He only lets us in on part of the picture."

Pastor Linda Daniels-Block, Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Gunbarrel:

"Truth exists in paradox, so that you can posit on the one hand evolution and an evolutionary form of development of life ... and at the same time you can affirm that somehow God is the creative force, the creator of life."

"The Bible is given to us as a revelation," she says. "Most holy books are given as story. Story is meant to convey truth through a particular way, to teach us how to live, how to be in relationship with God, in relationship with the Earth and with one another. The purpose of most story is not to step into a systematized way of thinking, like a scientific method of thought. In our way of thinking, that doesn't make either one false.

"These stories point us to the truth, but they're not a Mapquest. They don't tell you to turn on the first street. ... They're not meant to tell us every single detail."

As an example she points to Holy Communion.

"We feel Christ is present when we commune with the bread and the wine. We don't need to raise a scientific question about whether Christ's presence is bodily or virtual."

She says human curiosity, including scientific inquiry, is a gift from God and that believing in both evolution and the Biblical creation story is a way to acknowledge humility and to accept that human understanding is limited.

"If we try to remember that ... how we came to be isn't an arguing point, so much as that we came to be, that is what the story teaches us. It is God's overflowing, the force of love from which we came to be. It's not this is how you get there."

Jimmy Ratzlaff, children's pastor, City on the Hill Church, Boulder:

"I believe in creation, that God created everything."

Ratzlaff says evolution has not been proven, that he doesn't buy what some people call the "from the goo by way of the zoo to you" theory. Although he believes natural selection takes place in that species die out, he does not believe that one species can evolve from another. He believes the Earth is about 6,000 years old, and has read books and articles saying that dating techniques such as carbon dating are flawed.

"I believe (evolution) is not based on real science. Scientific method is repeatable, observed. (They) can't duplicate evolution."

"God made us smart from the beginning. We've always been people. We've never been monkeys. That's what I believe."

Rabbi Jamie Korngold, executive director of Adventure Rabbi Synagogue without Walls and part-time rabbi at Congregation Har HaShem:

"To me (evolution and belief in God) do not need to be reconciled. The Jewish Bible, the tanach, was written by people with their best effort to understand the world around them. I don't believe it's the word of God. It may be people's experience with God."

She says Judaism doesn't have one concept of God ... Faith is one aspect of our religion, but it is not the driving force behind it," she says, pointing out that the Jewish tradition and text provide a strong sense of ethics and many ways to lead meaningful lives.

Korngold describes discussing the creation story with a friend who's a physicist. "The big bang starts with a photon. In the photon there is no time or space. For whatever reason, that exploded. God could have been the photon. When the photon explodes, time and space and matter are created. We all ultimately come from one photon. In Judaism, we have all these prayers that talk about oneness. Recently I've been thinking about this oneness, this longing we have to connect, this innate awareness that we're all part of this one photon. I'm part of that tree that I'm looking at from my window. I am part of that robin eating a worm. ... It's easy to wonder if (feeling connected) is part of our hard wiring. We know that we're all connected, because we are."

Cathy Russell, who attends Community UCC Church, has started a Web site, www.godevolves.com to share her view of the relationship between evolution and God. As a master's student, she studied the evolution of bacteria.

"I satisfied myself in so many ways that (evolution) does happen. I was isolating DNA, seeing genes changing over time. I saw bacteria becoming spontaneously antibiotic resistant. It was no longer pie in the sky. It was absolutely real."

At the same time, she felt that there was a God and that there was power in prayer.

She began to see God as encompassing everything, "everything we can know and everything we can't" as the ultimate reality. She came to believe that since that reality was changing, so was God.

"I see this pattern that at one point there was only energy in the universe, energy became matter, matter became life." As life evolved from single cell to multicellular to a diversity of species including humans, self-awareness emerged and the evolution of spirit or soul, she says, along with many concepts elucidated in the Bible such as the idea that God is love.

That became part of her belief that the universe was evolving toward compassion.

"Love is an emergent property that wasn't necessarily at the beginning," she says. "Love implies relationships. Without two beings to make a choice, there can't be a loving relationship."

She says cooperation began at the cellular level, as more complex forms of life evolved by cells joining together. Insect colonies were a form of compassionate involvement or cooperation, since the colony members depended upon one another for survival. The rise of mammals who had to care for their young was another step.

"Humans are the most compassionate species on Earth," she says. "Just a very few people have the capacity to do a lot of harm."

Russell is currently working on a second Web site, www.epicofevolution.com, which she hopes to have up and running in a couple of months.

"I'd like it to be a clearinghouse," she says. "Evolution is great news. I think it can reconcile all the religions of the world. Just as it has given rise to a diversity of life, it has given rise to a diversity of religions. It's a way to understand the universe in order to survive."

Contact Camera Staff Writer Cindy Sutter at (303) 473-1335 or sutterc@dailycamera.com.

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