Creation versus Evolution….

It has to be the biggest topic in the science-religion debate.

And it’s easy to see why.

The scientific idea about how we got here sounds nothing like the account in the Bible.

So what does the theory of evolution say about how we got here?

Evolution – in a nutshell

In summary, the idea is that life began as single celled creatures, billions of years ago. And then (say the scientists) in gradual and continuous steps, life “evolved”.

Did life begin as single celled creatures – are these your ancestors??

Each time a life-form replicated itself, little random changes were introduced. If the changes didn’t work out, the life-form died. But if the changes were ones that helped the life-form survive, the “improved” life-form survived and passed those changes to its offspring. And now here we are. Humans and other animals are here today because we are the “winners” of this process.

And the Bible?

Meanwhile according to some interpretations, the Judaeo-Islamic-Christian story of Creation tells us that humans and other animals were hand-crafted by God. And the first humans were made as you see us now in the form of Adam and Eve. Single-celled creatures don’t even get a mention. What are we meant to think now?

Standard approaches

There are four standard approaches to solving this dilemma –

Watch the video clip for definitions of these four views by biologist and Christian, Dr Denis Alexander.