The Bible says God designed life, so why do some Christians think life evolved?
We all praise God for designing and creating the amazing plants and animals we see around us. But Christians disagree on how God created. Did God create through a miracle 6,000 years ago or through the gradual processes of evolutionary biology? Even when God uses a slow process, we can praise God for it. Think of crops yielding a good harvest: we understand agriculture scientifically, and we praise God for the harvest.
Some people equate biological evolution with atheism, but we shouldn’t. God designed DNA, including all the ways it can duplicate and change. Evolutionary mechanisms let species adapt to new or changing environments. Most Christian geologists and biologists agree that the evidence (fossils, genetics, etc.) points to millions of years of evolution, and these mechanisms have increased the diversity of life. This doesn’t shake their belief in God’s design; instead, they praise God for making such an amazing system.
Does the randomness in evolution point away from God? No. Even if something is unpredictable from a human standpoint, it can still have purpose. A referee starts a football game with a coin toss because a random process is the fairest way to start the game. Video game designers add random elements because they want players to have variety. Christians can think of God designing an evolutionary process that includes randomness to create flowers with an abundant variety of colors, shapes, sizes, and scents.
Christians disagree about evolution and how to interpret Genesis 1. But we can all push back when someone assumes that biological evolution supports atheism. God created the world, and God gave us the gifts to study it scientifically. If we start with that assurance, we can study God’s creation with joy. What we learn will deepen our gratitude to God.
For six short videos from the Haarsmas on creation, evolution, and design, see origins.faithaliveresources.org.
For the Christian Reformed Church’s statement on evolution, see crcna.org/welcome/beliefs/position-statements/creation-and-science.
About the Author
Deborah and Loren Haarsma are scientists who together wrote the book Origins: Christian Perspectives on Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design (Faith Alive, 2011). Deborah is an astronomer and the former president of BioLogos (biologos.org). Loren is a professor of physics and astronomy at Calvin University and the author of When Did Sin Begin? Human Evolution and the Doctrine of Original Sin (Baker, 2021).
