Christians and Creationism

The revived debate been the anti-evolutionists (old earth and young earth creationists as well as the Intelligent Design folks) and science has given a lot of people the impression that it is a case of science against Christianity. But, of course, there is no monolithic Christianity where all Christians believe the same things. There are many Christianities and Christians tend to believe a lot of different things. This is certainly the case when it comes to evolution. A recent story by Brad A. Greenberg highlights this: No single origin fits all in flock.

According to the story:

About 37 percent of white Protestants and 61 percent of white Catholics believe humans have evolved over time, according to a poll conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

That's good to hear. The Catholic Church officially accepted the Theory of Evolution some time ago so that's not surprising. But what about the key component of the Intelligent Design movement?

About 15 percent of committed evangelical Christians accept evolution, the poll found.

So what gives? It seems education is the key.

...even among evangelicals, those who have obtained a college degree are more likely to believe in both God and Darwin's theory than those who have not, scholars say.Of course the various anti-evolution factions will argue that it is not education but indoctrination that leads these poor Christian souls into
believing that nutty theory of evolution.

Surprisingly, a recent poll found that 64 percent of Americans--red state, blue state, religious or not--support teaching the Bible's creation story alongside Darwinian evolution. This is attributed to the fact that Americans tend to like to hear both sides of a story. We like to be fair.

I'd say it's because we have been duped into believing a controversey actually exists. Let's save the creation myths for a class on mythology rather than placing them in our science classes.

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