Evolution is a Friend of Creation, says Evangelical Professor
“Denying science makes us look stupid…People should not feel they have to deny reality in order to experience their faith.”
Richard Colling, a biologist/evangelical, is swinging a new voice in the creation/evolution debate this winter: Darwin’s theory of evolution is compatible and complementary to the theory of intelligent design.
Colling, who received a Ph.D in microbiology and chairs the biology department at Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, recorded his new symbiotic theory in his book, “Random Designer: Created from Chaos to Connect with Creator.”
According to the Associated Press, Colling’s central claim is “that both the origin of life from a primordial goo of nonliving chemicals, and the evolution of species according to the processes of random mutation and natural selection are fully compatible with the available scientific evidence and also contemporary religious beliefs.''
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“Denying science makes us look stupid,” he was quoted as describing conservative Christians. ''People should not feel they have to deny reality in order to experience their faith.”
Colling’s book comes nearly 80 years after the evolution/creation debate took center stage. During the infamous Scopes Monkey trial, a self-proclaimed atheist and a zealous evangelical preacher and leader battled in a “contest between evolution and Christianity…a duel to the death.”
Although the verdict was made in favor of the Christian conservative, the media’s representation of evangelicals as dull “country bumpkins” generally turned public opinion against the validity of creationism.
In recent years Christian conservatives turned to the “intelligent design” theory as a counterpart to evolution. Intelligent design opposes declares the complexity of the world could not have come into being by random mistakes of nature.
Colling’s theory asserts both evolution and intelligent design are true and complementary.
'It pains me to suggest that my religious brothers are telling falsehoods'' when they say evolutionary theory is ''in crisis'' and claim that there is widespread skepticism about it among scientists. ''Such statements are blatantly untrue,'' he argues in his book. ''Evolution has stood the test of time and considerable scrutiny.''
Meanwhile, he says he “believes in the biblical account of creation” and opposes “a godless interpretation of the evolutionary hypothesis.”
These two theories are harmonized in a separate theory called “random designer.” In that theory Collings says evolution is a process used by the designer to accomplish his goals.
'What the designer designed is the random-design process,'' or Darwinian evolution, Colling said. ''God devised these natural laws, and uses evolution to accomplish his goals.''
Random Designer: Created from Chaos to Connect with Creator, published by Browning Press, can be purchased at your local bookstore.
