What do those who believe we can combine the Bible and Darwinism believe?
That "the Bible and Darwinism are consistent" is easy to say. But what happens when you try to work that idea out systematically, and answer the difficult questions? When you have to make hard choices over apparently conflicting ideas, what will give?
I took a look at that issue in the case of UK-based Denis Alexander and his recent writings.
Now Creation Ministries International have done the same with US-based "BioLogos", whom Alexander also works with.
What do they believe? In short, that when it comes to the interpretation of the Scriptures, Jesus and his apostles could have done with BioLogos being around to help them...
I have read every publicly available article and book that can find on the subject of theistic evolution / evolutionary creationism, including those by Denis Alexander and Francis Collins, and the latest effort by William Dembski, The End of Christianity. None have yet managed a coherent story, needing to grossly re-interpret Scripture to get their story to work. Demski has Adam and Eve living in the Garden of Eden while the rest of humanity and the animal kingdom already living on a degraded Earth, and says that the effects of Adam's sin were retroactive just as Jesus' salvation is retroactive. Good try but no cigar. The manipulations and inventions that he needs to make his story work show far more evidence as a work of fiction than anyone could level at the Bible. As one from an analytical background, coming late in life to the Bible, I still find that a straight reading of the Bible narrative to be the most coherent and plausible yet offered, provided one doesn't accept scientific "opinions" trumping God's Word. Through intensive and critical study, I find the science to be less convincing than scientists would have us believe, and far from proven as they claim. I would rather be seen as a naive fool by the world, than an unfaithful and disbelieving servant by our Creator.
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