The publication of The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin in 1859 was not the beginning of the debate over creationism versus evolution but it was the kerosene on the spark. Since then our scientific knowledge of evolution has come a long way. We know that while related we did not actually evolve from apes but rather from a primitive ape-like ancestor. But then again the debate was never really about monkeys was it? It was about contradicting the gospel.

What is man? The carefully crafted creation of a divine power or a product of environmental circumstance and time?

It doesn’t matter how literally you follow the good book; to deny the process of evolution is to live in the light of pure ignorance. If you’re working that analogy over in your head thinking ignorance is the opposite of light, that’s my point. Simply given what you can observe in nature with your own eyes should be enough proof that the process of evolution is a fact. Then the question becomes if plants and animals evolve and they were crafted by the same all powerful hand as man then it would not bare that man would be subject by the same process?

Now hold on before your believe system crumbles around you and you label me a blasphemer consider for a moment that to accept evolution as a natural fact does not immediately discount the hand of God in the making of all things. Who is to say God did not create evolution? The bible says “Adam and Eve” and Science says “the gradual biological change in response to environmental stimulus relating to an organisms innate desire for survival”.

Why could this amazing ability to change and survive not be the work of the Creator? “The Lord works in mysterious ways!” What is more mysterious than the forces of nature that drive the processes of evolution and natural selection? We like to think that we know everything when we really know nothing. But we can learn! That’s why we hunger for knowledge, be it scientific or spiritual the question is same. Why are we are here?

If the same God designed evolution and gave us our desire for knowledge is it not conceivable that the intention was for our faith to evolve as well? Perhaps science and religion are not mutually exclusive? After all you cannot hope to understand the artist unless you study his work. So it would make sense that to understand science, biology, evolution, and genetics; essentially the understanding of ourselves, is to more closely understand God.