Evolution happens. Over 150 years of investigation say so; it makes sense and is the basis of biological understanding. But believers in a recently-created Earth populated according to the biblical story still find scientific explanation challenging.

Fundamentalists acknowledge a divine creation but arrogantly decide which parts of nature are acceptable (medical science, chemistry, Newton, Einstein and weird sub-atomic physics), and which parts, - though revealed by the same methodology - are not (evolution and geology).

God would probably be more tolerant of this than atheist biologists like Richard Dawkins, who seems to fear the irrationality he sees in religious views. The God Delusionhas provoked a storm of disapproval and left evolutionary biology looking like a skinhead in a tea shop.

Unbelief is still the majority view among scientists, not least biologists. Love for the biosphere and wonder at its complexity, brilliance and diversity is usual, while belief in God is not.

Yet some combine religious views with expert scientific knowledge: Alister McGrath and John Polkinghorne are both Christian theologians and scientists; Simon Conway Morris is an eminent evolutionary biologist who regards evolutionary theory as integral to his religious belief. The American preacher Michael Dowd in Thank God for Evolution celebrates progress from life’s beginnings to mankind as the revealed history of God’s interaction with our world.

Two questions to consider in the forum this month:

• Could these scientists, and the many other religious scientists, just be deluded?
• When science reveals life elsewhere in the Universe (methane on Mars?), how will Earth-focused religion founded in human history react: Will it falter, or rejoice at a new and mature view of evolution on Earth?

Content last updated: 27/01/2009

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