This came to my attention via the Facebook page Science Meets Faith, and I thought it worth sharing here.

“I am a Christian and recognize that the evidence for evolution is overwhelming. It is a discovery, much like Copernicus’ theory of heliocentricity, Newton’s theory of gravity and Einstein’s theories of relativity, and definitely not a wild, unsubstantiated guess, desperately propped up by scientists trying to find some godless answer to the questions they have.

Those aforementioned theories accurately describe the laws of nature under their purview, have stood the test of time, and have also, at various times, been decried by the Church as counter to the teaching of the Bible, yet now, it rightly recognizes them as being true, and the passages of the Bible which refer to things like a solid sky, a geocentric universe, and infinite water outside it, are either figurative, allegorical, or merely reflecting the pre-scientific view of the authors of the passages in question.

If you were not already a believer, and someone today told you that, in order to accept Christ, you had to reject the notion of a heliocentric system or a sky which is but a thin shell of air surrounding our world, you would think that there was no good reason to take them seriously.

This is precisely what Christians who claim that evolution is incompatible with belief in Christ are doing today. By claiming that faith and falsehood are inextricably linked, we do nothing but harm to the Church, and will face the judgment of those who “cause one of these little ones to stumble.”

If you believe, counter to virtually all life scientists, that the evidence does not support evolution by common descent, that is your prerogative, but please, for the sake of the name of Christ, do not tie that belief to faith in Him.

If you’d genuinely like to know why I accept evolutionary theory as the best explanation for the available evidence as well as why I believe that not only is it fully compatible with belief in Jesus Christ, but that the young earth/anti-evolution stance is not a very good interpretation of scripture, I’d be more than glad to engage you in private discussion.”

Lars Cade, CRM Administrator at Corporate Chaplains of America