Science and Creation

Can the creation accounts in Genesis be harmonised with a scientific account of origins?

This is a contentious area for Christians. Before getting started, it’s important that we note the following:

Firstly, as Denis Alexander points out, “All Christians are, by definition, creationists” (Creation or Evolution: Do We Have to Choose? 15). This means that, in the church, any debate between Christians is not over whether God is or isn’t the creator; the debate is over the particular mechanism that he uses to create.

Secondly, in Grace Church we’re convinced that there is room for a range of opinion on this topic. We believe that this is a secondary, not a primary, issue. We do not have a “party line” that we insist members agree on. The elders would never dream of using the pulpit to say, ” This is what you should believe on this issue.”

Nevertheless, there are principles that we would wish to commend to anyone wanting to think through this topic. Key among them is the issue of humility. See, for example, how Tim Keller concludes his excellent article on biologos (included below):

“Christians who are seeking to correlate Scripture and science must be a “bigger tent” than either the anti-scientific religionists or the anti-religious scientists. Even though in this paper I argue for the importance of belief in a literal Adam and Eve, I have shown here that there are several ways to hold that and still believe in God using [evolutionary biological processes].

“When Derek Kidner concluded his account of human origins, he said that his view was an ‘exploratory suggestion…only tentative, and it is a personal view. It invites correction and a better synthesis.’ That is the right attitude for all of us working in this area.”