Are Christianity and Darwinism Really Diametrically Opposed?

In 2007, pollsters at Gallup found that "more Americans accept the theory of creationism than evolution." That finding suggested the influence of several factors, the agency explained, including how closely beliefs about evolution correlate with religious behavior. Gallup also established that "the majority of Republicans doubt the theory of evolution," a troubling finding to those who believe science should be independent of religious belief and political philosophy.

When Gallup revisited this issue last December, slightly fewer Americans (four in ten) believed in strict Creationism—the premise that the planet is less than 10,000 years old and that Homo sapiens derives from a single human pair. The number of Americans who think humans have developed over millions of years, without God's involvement, correspondingly had risen to 16 percent (from a low of 9 percent in 2000). For many Americans, however, the assumption persists that Darwinism and Christianity are diametrically opposed and that creationism is the only option for the devout. To them, it may come as a big surprise that Christians have embraced evolution for almost as long as the concept has been known and defined.

To find out why and how, click on over to my short piece on Christian Darwinism here.

christopherlane.org Follow me on Twitter: @christophlane