Dr. Albert Mohler has written an article in response to Jerry Coyne’s piece in the USA Today entitled “Science and Religion Aren’t Friends.” Mohler agrees with Coyne in regard to the “middle option” of reconciliation between evolution and creationism as described in the Bible; there really is no middle option. Mohler provides a very brief but helpful description of the three positions Christians take on the issue of evolution. I have copied those below. You can read his entire article here.
“Over the last fifteen decades or so, three major positions have
emerged in terms of the relationship between evolutionary science and
the Christian faith. The first position is an open embrace of
evolutionary theory. This is the path chosen by theological liberals,
who abdicate the biblical doctrine of creation and simply begin with the
affirmation of evolution as a brute fact. In some cases, this is done
with a full and honest acknowledgment of the theological and doctrinal
modifications that are then made necessary. In other cases, there is no
honest acknowledgment.
The position at the other end of the spectrum is the outright denial
of evolutionary theory. This is the path chosen by conservative
evangelicals, who acknowledge the Bible as the infallible and inerrant
Word of God and then recognize the incompatibility of the biblical
revelation and the doctrine of evolution. As Jerry Coyne remarks in his
book, Why Evolution is True, “While many religious people have
found a way to accommodate evolution with their spiritual beliefs, no
such reconciliation is possible if one adheres to the literal truth of a
special creation.” Believers committed to a biblical worldview and the
trustworthiness of the Bible figured this out long ago.
Is there a middle position? Many clearly hope so, and some Christians
have attempted some accommodation between evolution and the Christian
faith. Theistic evolution is the classic example of such a mediating
position. This position accepts the central arguments of evolution and
modifies the Christian faith so that it is not in conflict with those
central arguments.
In my view, any Christian form of theistic evolution is a
contradiction in terms. At the end of the day, the theological
modifications required by the acceptance of evolution are vast and
utterly disastrous for biblical Christianity. The theistic evolutionists
think otherwise, of course, and that is one of the great debates of our
day.”
