Thoughts on Evolution

So I have been thinking about evolution a lot lately. I am of the postmodern mindset and a lot of times I find myself questioning my faith in God because of the rationality of it. For the last week I have been struggling with my faith again and keep having to remind myself that the Christian faith fits what I see going on in the world. Here is what I mean.

First of all, I struggle with the miracles of Christ, and even the miracle of creation itself breaking all of the laws of physics. In response, the only "credible" alternate explanation to creation is the theory of evolution which also breaks all of the basic laws of physics. For instance, things like energy cannot be created or destroyed and objects at rest stay at rest. Yet from nothing, a big burst of everything happened. without any cause the universe was set into motion. Also, when I look at nature I see that without intelligent intervention, order never comes from chaos. Yet evolution teaches that from an explosion in the nothingness we now have an ordered universe so intricately made that it can sustain life, and also that life forms themselves continue to get better and better until you no longer have the law of the jungle, but we have modern civilization. Let me just say, God makes more sense in this area.

Yet my struggle is also with the idea of sin. When I have all of these desires fighting within me that the Christian faith calls sin, it would be infinitely easier to assume that it is just my nature and that there is nothing inherently wrong with it. Evolution give me the way out to act on my "natural" desires.

However, when you follow this thought process out, by the process of evolution, in which only the strong survive, we must determine that for the continued existence of the human race (and the subsequent life-forms which will come from it), then the moral law which has been set up to govern our lives must be viewed as 'evil' because it will lead to our downfall.

Evolution must leave us in a utilitarian world in which I only have rights because I am stronger than you. Racism, then, and even slavery is not only justifiable action, but it is a necessity for my evolutionary success. Civilization, somewhere along the line, has become a danger to the evolutionary process because it holds us back from what may come. In fact, even modern intelligence which support evolution have at times used that futile intellect against what should have happened. For instance, if evolution is true, then Hitler should not have been stopped. Orphanages and hospitals should have never been built. Government is dangerous to the continuance of life. And the list could go on and on.

So, because there is something within us that says that there does exist some form of right and wrong, and evolution cannot explain why, then God makes more sense to me. To live by the law of evolution, then rape, murder, violence, and abuse are all in line with the universe's plan and should be continued. But, if there is a God, and this God has given gifts to human kind, among which are faith, hope, and love, then to follow the law of love is the "right" way to live, and these other things become "sin".

(Say what you want about the history of our country, but the founders who wrote our nation into existence understood this law of love to be the guiding fact in the universe penned in the words "All men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.")

In light of all of this, I cannot look at the world through the eyes of evolution. Instead, what I see is a perfectly in balance creation which was purposely designed to propagate life. And I see human beings who are so complex, but have some spark of divine in them that they must be created in the image of God. Yet, in their complexity something apparently went wrong and this thing called sin entered the world. What I see in the world is a people running from their God. But I also believe that God is on a mission to reconcile these people to Himself. I long for that day to come. In all of the mess of the world, God and His story are the only things that make sense of it all.

"Go and Make Disciples"

If you have been a Christian long I am sure you are familiar with the passage found in Mark 16 (or at least Matthew 20) where Jesus tells the disciples to go into all the world preaching and making disciples. It is at the end of His earthly ministry and even after the resurrection has taken place. It seems as if He is telling them, I am leaving, but you are ready to do what I have been doing.

This week I have been faced with a few Christians who have all said things to the effect of, "I am just not prepared for outreach" or "I am still working on myself." This sounds spiritual and we could probably say that there needs to be some time 'settling in' this Christian life before we go out and try and make converts.

We could even look at where the disciples find themselves standing three years into it getting a commission from the Lord and say, well, He had trained them until they were prepared so we should be trained and ready before we try our hand at evangelism. The problem I find with this interpretation of what is going on is that it is a lie from the Devil. What I find in scripture is that not only is the last call to the disciples, "go and make disciples," but it is the first as well.

In Mark chapter 1 we find Jesus walking along the shores of the Sea of Galilee. When He comes across the brothers, Simon and Andrew fishing He calls out to them, "Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers for people." He is essentially saying, "Come be my disciples so that you can make disciples."

As we follow the story line along it doesn't take long for Jesus to be followed by huge crowds in which he heals the sick, casts out demons, and preaches salvation from the Lord. But He never says to the disciples, "sit close and take notes because you will take over when I am gone." One day, in fact, He just tells them to go out in pairs and heal the sick, cast out demons, and preach salvation. Essentially, "Go and make disciples." (You can read about this in Luke 9.)

When they return to Him, sure, I am sure they had problems, but Jesus then returns to a time of instruction before sending them out again, and this time a larger number of them. (You can read this in Luke 10).

When we look at the disciples we can plainly say that they weren't ready. I mean Peter is soon to deny Jesus three times, so we can't say His faith was solid yet. And even Judas Iscariot was one of the ones sent out. But Jesus never said that they need to work on themselves before going out. What He taught them was that the Kingdom of God is too big to be contained and must be taken into the world.

This week, my challenge to you is to get over yourself and preach the Good News wherever you are. I will also be posting some stuff on evangelism through the week so check back.