God and Nature Winter 2019
Speaking to the Heart and Mind of Students about Evolution and Creation
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By Hal C. Reed
“But Dr. Reed, what do you believe?” I inwardly grin with satisfaction that my presentation to my students on “how to think about evolution” evoked such a response.
My goal in addressing the various Christian viewpoints on the creation-evolution “debate” is to be objective, not persuasive. I do not give them my position, but I am sure that my views tend to “leak out.” I often jokingly respond: “My thoughts on evolution are evolving!” and I challenge them to join me on the journey of seeking answers. However, inside I am also a bit disappointed that they seem to be missing an important point about the natural world that attracted me to study and devote my life to appreciating this magnificent creation. So I often begin my lecture by sharing my personal and professional journey, along with the following experience:
“But Dr. Reed, what do you believe?” I inwardly grin with satisfaction that my presentation to my students on “how to think about evolution” evoked such a response.
My goal in addressing the various Christian viewpoints on the creation-evolution “debate” is to be objective, not persuasive. I do not give them my position, but I am sure that my views tend to “leak out.” I often jokingly respond: “My thoughts on evolution are evolving!” and I challenge them to join me on the journey of seeking answers. However, inside I am also a bit disappointed that they seem to be missing an important point about the natural world that attracted me to study and devote my life to appreciating this magnificent creation. So I often begin my lecture by sharing my personal and professional journey, along with the following experience:
"I challenge the students to think of all the processes of the universe, from gravity to microbial recycling of nutrients, that God has created to maintain the world and universe." |
One night my students and I were walking on a boardwalk through a mangrove swamp, swatting mosquitoes, and trying to watch our steps in the dim starlight and avoid overhanging branches of the red mangrove trees that thrive in this concentrated salt water. In a few moments we emerged onto a lagoon that reflected the stars. Our guide handed us a long pole with the commanding words “stir the water.” We did so, and the water instantly glowed with an eerie blue light that formed light trails like many dying little comets. These plumes of light appeared immediately upon our disturbance and followed our pole’s energetic movements. It was as if we were artists trying to create a modernistic, ephemeral picture of these beautiful yet brief displays. Such was our experience that night on Laguna Grande, one of the bioluminescent bays along the northeast coast of Puerto Rico. Of course, my spirit rejoiced at such raw and rare beauty in the night, recalling the Psalmist’s praise (19:1-4):
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In this case, the lagoon was proclaiming His glory and marvelous works. No words were spoken but the meaning was clear: God is the Creator and Sustainer of this world, and all of it declares His majesty, glory, presence, and power!
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In this case, the lagoon was proclaiming His glory and marvelous works. No words were spoken but the meaning was clear: God is the Creator and Sustainer of this world, and all of it declares His majesty, glory, presence, and power!
The students and I initially responded to this magnificent phenomenon with awe and wonder. This response then can lead us to acknowledge God’s handiwork in the Creation and join the Old Testament prophets, psalmists, the Apostle Paul, and many Church fathers in praising and glorifying God as Creator and Sustainer of all life. I challenge students to see this viewpoint as the primary one overriding other questions about how this world and its creatures, including humans, came into existence. I do not want the evolution issue to impede their appreciation and study of God’s biological creation.
While the Laguna Grande experience speaks to the heart of the students, their minds must also be addressed. I challenge them to think of our God as not only creator of living organisms and other things but also creator of natural processes, as described in Psalm 104: “the waters stood above the mountains. But at your rebuke the waters fled, at the sound of your thunder they took flight; they flowed over the mountains, they went down the valleys, to the place you assigned for them...” (v. 6-13). The Psalmist eloquently describes God sustaining the water cycle. He indeed “holds the world in His hands,” and as stated in Colossians 1:16-17, “all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” So I challenge the students to think of all the processes of the universe, from gravity to microbial recycling of nutrients, that God has created to maintain the world and universe. I pose the question: “Could it be that God used evolutionary mechanisms in creating and sustaining the diversity of life?”
After this prologue, I launch into discussing “thinking tools” to enable students to apply them to the scientific evidence and Scripture. Defining terms, especially evolution and creation, is critical to having a productive discussion and avoiding labelling and name-calling. I dissect the broader evolutionary model into microevolution, speciation, macroevolution, and origin of life, and show the different types of evidence (direct, indirect, and historical) for these levels of the evolutionary model. Since I am usually speaking to a biology class, I do not detail the basic concepts of biological evolution, as we have gone over these during previous classes. I do make a special effort to present speciation as a balance between maintaining the fidelity of a species via reproductive isolating mechanisms, often emphasized by creationists, and the adaptability of a species to changing environmental pressures, often emphasized by evolutionists. This range of genetic and phenotypic flexibility enables the species to persist through time.
Macroevolution is a special challenge, as this degree of change over immense periods of time is often difficult for students to grasp. I primarily review the various disciplines such as fossils, biogeography, developmental biology, molecular biology, etc. that provide evidence used to support macroevolution. I emphasize that direct testable evidence is not possible with these historical data, unlike with data derived from population-level studies. However, I do remind them that these disciplines can and do “test predictions of what future discoveries of data will show us about past events” (Diamond, 1997).
Of course, the major issue to many students is the origin of humans. Most of my students come to the university believing the first humans were directly created by God with no involvement of evolutionary processes. I present different Christian perspectives on the origin of humans and emphasize that each view asserts that humans are created in the image of God. At this time, or a bit earlier in my presentation, I review some basic principles of Scriptural interpretation, such as understanding the literary genre of each book within the Bible (one reads Psalms differently than Revelation) and examining the original intent and theme of the passage. I use a poignant quote by English clergyman Matthew Henry: “The Scriptures were written, not to make us astronomers, but to make us saints.” I then challenge the students to elucidate God’s main messages in the Genesis account of creation.
We all seek certainty in our beliefs, and yet our Christian faith contains much mystery and unknowns. Some evangelicals have difficulty with this concept, and yet we “only see through a glass darkly.” This requires faith in our Lord and His workings in our individual lives and in this world, even in the face of uncertainty, confusion, pain, sorrow, and outright evil. As I near my concluding remarks, I pose the question “How do we know that God created the world and all its inhabitants?” I allow the students to respond, and some perceive my intention: by faith (Hebrews 11:3), and not by the weight of scientific evidence.
My final point builds upon my introductory story about our response of awe and wonder to creation. I pose the question asked by Professor Calvin DeWitt to an esteemed group of evangelical theologians gathered to address origin issues (DeWitt 1996): "If God in the final judgment would ask you a question about the Creation, what might that question be?" It was quite significant that their answer was not “How did God make the world?” even though that was the issue that had brought them together. These scholars nearly uniformly responded that God would ask us “What did you do with my creation?” or “What do you think of my creation?” I tend to agree with Professor DeWitt and these scholars that the greater issue is that we should have an awesome wonder of God’s creation, leading to a caring stewardship attitude for His world. The origins question is important, but in my opinion it is secondary to the command “to work and to take care of” (Genesis 2:15) God’s garden. I sometimes joke that I should make a bumper sticker for my car: “If God created the world, then let us treat it as His Creation!”
Am I successful in helping students to think critically about creation-evolution issues? I suppose most who teach wonder if they are having any impact. I certainly do not want students to dogmatically adhere to any particular position, but rather to engage in thoughtful prayer and an open-minded journey to a peaceful resolution. Have I been “successful”? Based on their required creation-evolution essays, I believe I have stimulated them to use the “thinking tools,” but I will let the Lord determine “success.”
References Cited
Diamond, J.A. 1997. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. W. W. Norton &
Company. p.480.
DeWitt, C. 1996. Creation and the Final Judgment. Perspectives of Science and Christian
Faith. 48 (September): 182-183.
Hal Reed is a Professor of Biology at Oral Roberts University. He has taught a wide variety of biology and environmental courses during his 36-year tenure at ORU including Conservation Biology at the Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies. Hal served as the department chair from 1996-2012, and is currently the pre-medical advisor. His research focuses on insect behavior, primarily among social wasps, and he has 49 peer-reviewed publications, including a book chapter on Ants, Bees and Wasps in the recent 3rd edition of a Medical and Veterinary Entomology textbook. He uses his book manuscript “How to Think about Evolution and Scripture” in his courses. Hal is blessed with a wonderful wife and four adult children, and he is quite proud of each of them.
While the Laguna Grande experience speaks to the heart of the students, their minds must also be addressed. I challenge them to think of our God as not only creator of living organisms and other things but also creator of natural processes, as described in Psalm 104: “the waters stood above the mountains. But at your rebuke the waters fled, at the sound of your thunder they took flight; they flowed over the mountains, they went down the valleys, to the place you assigned for them...” (v. 6-13). The Psalmist eloquently describes God sustaining the water cycle. He indeed “holds the world in His hands,” and as stated in Colossians 1:16-17, “all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” So I challenge the students to think of all the processes of the universe, from gravity to microbial recycling of nutrients, that God has created to maintain the world and universe. I pose the question: “Could it be that God used evolutionary mechanisms in creating and sustaining the diversity of life?”
After this prologue, I launch into discussing “thinking tools” to enable students to apply them to the scientific evidence and Scripture. Defining terms, especially evolution and creation, is critical to having a productive discussion and avoiding labelling and name-calling. I dissect the broader evolutionary model into microevolution, speciation, macroevolution, and origin of life, and show the different types of evidence (direct, indirect, and historical) for these levels of the evolutionary model. Since I am usually speaking to a biology class, I do not detail the basic concepts of biological evolution, as we have gone over these during previous classes. I do make a special effort to present speciation as a balance between maintaining the fidelity of a species via reproductive isolating mechanisms, often emphasized by creationists, and the adaptability of a species to changing environmental pressures, often emphasized by evolutionists. This range of genetic and phenotypic flexibility enables the species to persist through time.
Macroevolution is a special challenge, as this degree of change over immense periods of time is often difficult for students to grasp. I primarily review the various disciplines such as fossils, biogeography, developmental biology, molecular biology, etc. that provide evidence used to support macroevolution. I emphasize that direct testable evidence is not possible with these historical data, unlike with data derived from population-level studies. However, I do remind them that these disciplines can and do “test predictions of what future discoveries of data will show us about past events” (Diamond, 1997).
Of course, the major issue to many students is the origin of humans. Most of my students come to the university believing the first humans were directly created by God with no involvement of evolutionary processes. I present different Christian perspectives on the origin of humans and emphasize that each view asserts that humans are created in the image of God. At this time, or a bit earlier in my presentation, I review some basic principles of Scriptural interpretation, such as understanding the literary genre of each book within the Bible (one reads Psalms differently than Revelation) and examining the original intent and theme of the passage. I use a poignant quote by English clergyman Matthew Henry: “The Scriptures were written, not to make us astronomers, but to make us saints.” I then challenge the students to elucidate God’s main messages in the Genesis account of creation.
We all seek certainty in our beliefs, and yet our Christian faith contains much mystery and unknowns. Some evangelicals have difficulty with this concept, and yet we “only see through a glass darkly.” This requires faith in our Lord and His workings in our individual lives and in this world, even in the face of uncertainty, confusion, pain, sorrow, and outright evil. As I near my concluding remarks, I pose the question “How do we know that God created the world and all its inhabitants?” I allow the students to respond, and some perceive my intention: by faith (Hebrews 11:3), and not by the weight of scientific evidence.
My final point builds upon my introductory story about our response of awe and wonder to creation. I pose the question asked by Professor Calvin DeWitt to an esteemed group of evangelical theologians gathered to address origin issues (DeWitt 1996): "If God in the final judgment would ask you a question about the Creation, what might that question be?" It was quite significant that their answer was not “How did God make the world?” even though that was the issue that had brought them together. These scholars nearly uniformly responded that God would ask us “What did you do with my creation?” or “What do you think of my creation?” I tend to agree with Professor DeWitt and these scholars that the greater issue is that we should have an awesome wonder of God’s creation, leading to a caring stewardship attitude for His world. The origins question is important, but in my opinion it is secondary to the command “to work and to take care of” (Genesis 2:15) God’s garden. I sometimes joke that I should make a bumper sticker for my car: “If God created the world, then let us treat it as His Creation!”
Am I successful in helping students to think critically about creation-evolution issues? I suppose most who teach wonder if they are having any impact. I certainly do not want students to dogmatically adhere to any particular position, but rather to engage in thoughtful prayer and an open-minded journey to a peaceful resolution. Have I been “successful”? Based on their required creation-evolution essays, I believe I have stimulated them to use the “thinking tools,” but I will let the Lord determine “success.”
References Cited
Diamond, J.A. 1997. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. W. W. Norton &
Company. p.480.
DeWitt, C. 1996. Creation and the Final Judgment. Perspectives of Science and Christian
Faith. 48 (September): 182-183.
Hal Reed is a Professor of Biology at Oral Roberts University. He has taught a wide variety of biology and environmental courses during his 36-year tenure at ORU including Conservation Biology at the Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies. Hal served as the department chair from 1996-2012, and is currently the pre-medical advisor. His research focuses on insect behavior, primarily among social wasps, and he has 49 peer-reviewed publications, including a book chapter on Ants, Bees and Wasps in the recent 3rd edition of a Medical and Veterinary Entomology textbook. He uses his book manuscript “How to Think about Evolution and Scripture” in his courses. Hal is blessed with a wonderful wife and four adult children, and he is quite proud of each of them.