Many clergy members agree evolution, faith can co-exist

In the first Republican Presidential debate, the candidates were asked, "Is there anyone on the stage who does not believe in evolution?" Of the ten candidates who were running at the time, three raised their hands: Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, Colorado Representative Tom Tancredo, and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. The fact that this question was posed to politicians running for our nation’s highest office and that one of the candidates who denied evolution has won in eight states, tells us something about the role science and religion plays in our country.

Of course, Mike Huckabee is also an ordained Southern Baptist minister. When pressed if he believed that God created the Heavens and the Earth in six twenty-four hour days six thousand years ago, he simply stated that he did not know exactly when or how life began because he was not there. For Huckabee, either God created life or it happened by accident. The following statement was met with applause, "If anyone wants to believe they are descended from a primate, they are welcome to it."

On January 26, Ken Miller, Biology Professor at Brown University gave a lecture on "God, Darwin, and Design" at the Newport Art Museum. Professor Miller told the packed audience, that if any of us bumps into Mike Huckabee we should let him know that not only are we descended from a primate, we are primates. Humans were classified as primates well before Darwin’s theory of evolution emerged.

Despite the way Darwin is portrayed by some as a godless man, the truth is not that simple. Darwin entered Christ’s College at Cambridge intent on becoming a clergyman. The professors who most influenced him were both ordained ministers and scientific scholars. More than the study of scripture, botany and geology were the subjects that captured Darwin’s attention.

At the age of 22, Charles Darwin joined the voyage of the HMS Beagle. The mission was to chart the southern coast of South America. During the five-year expedition, he kept detailed journals and methodically collected samples of fossils and living organisms; sending many specimens and letters about his findings back to England.

The commonly held view at the time of the expedition was that each species was created by God to be perfectly suited to the conditions of a particular place. Yet, on the Galapagos, the species differed from island to island. Since the islands had similar conditions, why did such variety exist? For example, there was an incredible variety of finches and tortoises with different shells. By observing the distribution of Galapagos organisms, Darwin became increasingly convinced that species are not immutable. Animals and plants from the mainland evolved into unique types over time.

Charles Darwin was not the first evolutionary thinker but he was the first to articulate the mechanism behind it. Quite simply plants and animals have more offspring than are needed to replace the parents. The offspring of a set of parents are not all alike. The offspring with variations most suited to the environment will survive leading to natural selection and evolution of species over time.

In the words of Charles Darwin, "Life on earth has been generated over billions of years in a single branching tree-the Tree of Life". Why do some people still view evolution as a dangerous idea one hundred and fifty years after Darwin published his theory? Evolution calls into question the authority of the Bible as a literal document. Evolution challenges the worldview that human beings have a unique relationship with God, superior to other living beings like plants and animals. Evolution also challenges the idea of a detailed Divine plan.

I am happy to report that an increasing number of clergy find no contradiction between evolution and our faith. Since the Fall of 2004, Michael Zimmerman, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Butler University has launched the Clergy Letter Project encouraging clergy of many denominations to publicly express their "respect for evolutionary theory as a core component of human knowledge, fully harmonious with religious faith." 11,183 signatures have been collected including my own. There is also an increasing dialogue between scientists and clergy seeking to heal the rift between science and religion.

When I think of all the growth and change that led to us being here in this moment, the sacredness of life is magnified. My view of God is not called into question because plants, animals and humans were not created perfectly at the beginning of time. On the contrary, the structures and dynamic relatedness of life is inspiring. Our challenge as a species is to more fully realize our relatedness in the way we live our lives—to do so calls on the best in both science and religion.