The point is not that science is bad or wrong. On the contrary, science has accomplished some amazing things. We can cure diseases, travel into space, and send pictures through thin air. But science is not inerrant. History abounds with examples of scientific ideas that later generations laughed at. From phlogiston to phrenology, science has often drifted off-course in its quest to explain the world we inhabit. Many of us remember the picture of the atom that looked like a little solar system, with a nucleus in the middle and electrons whirling around it. This, we were told, was the ultimate nature of matter. Well, it turns out that we were taught a falsehood. The model was useful to explain certain behaviors of matter -- but it was fundamentally flawed.
Evolutionary theory is quite similar. It's a model that can be used to describe a set of observations. That doesn't make it true.
Even something as simple as light still eludes our understanding in many ways. Yes, we have gained the ability to do all kinds of neat stuff with lasers and fiber optics. But we are still learning about light's strange combination of particle-like and wave-like properties. And there are so many things that science still can't explain. How is it that you can sense when someone is staring at you? Why do we smile? And just how exactly does a bumblebee manage to support its weight in the air with those tiny, tiny wings?
That's why believers don't have to be troubled by the disparity between the account of creation in Genesis and current scientific teaching on evolution. Accepting the truth of the first chapter of the Bible does indeed require faith. But so, apparently, does belief in evolution. And those who reject evolution aren't necessarily as ignorant about science as its proponents often assume. In fact, rejection of evolution can actually be based on strong scientific knowledge.
The question ultimately isn't whether the Bible can stand up to the scrutiny of the modern world. It can. The real question is whether or not the modern world can stand up to the scrutiny of the Bible. But that's a subject for another time!
Thanks for taking the time to read all this stuff. May God greatly bless you as you seek Him and His will for your life!
