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You entered college as a devout Christian and fierce creationist.   When and why did your faith in creation science begin to wane?

My staunch creationist position began to wilt during my sophomore year of college.  As I studied science and mathematics, I began to doubt that science could have gotten everything thoroughly wrong as the creationists suggested.  Each new question I wrestled with made things more complicated.  If I were to accept the ancient age of the earth, as the simple physics of radioactivity demanded, then I also had to address theological challenges such as original sin and the historicity of Genesis.

How did you personally make peace with evolution and continue in your Christian faith?

Christianity, as its name suggests, is primarily about Christ.  To be sure, different ideas about Christ exist across the spectrum of Christian belief.  But these beliefs, rather than creationist assertions, are the heart and soul of Christianity.  And these beliefs are not threatened by Darwin’s dangerous idea.

What fallacies about Charles Darwin do you encounter in Christian circles?

The most interesting “versions” of Charles Darwin are unfortunately the least accurate.  He is often painted as an enthusiastic and committed unbeliever who combed the globe gathering evidence to rationalize his disbelief.  Another version of Darwin claims he repudiated his theory of evolution on his deathbed, and this story has circulated among American evangelicals for the better part of a century.  In truth, Darwin was a sincere religious believer who began his career with a strong faith in the Bible and plans to become an Anglican clergyman.  He did eventually lose his childhood faith, but it was reluctantly and not until middle age, long after his famous voyage on the Beagle.

What other scientific theories are receiving scorn from Christians?

There is only one theory in all of science that generates constant controversy, although skirmishes often erupt in response to ideas like the Big Bang, Stem Cells, Global Warming, and the nature of homosexuality.  But evolution is, hands down, the most culturally complex and controversial idea in all of science.  Nothing else comes close.  More than a century after Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, the theory arouses hostile reactions in everyone from clueless high-school students to TV preachers to well-educated senior fellows at the Discovery Institute.  And less than half the country agrees with the scientific community that evolution is the best explanation for origins.

Has Intelligent Design tempted you back to the creationist fold?

I have many solid reasons to embrace ID and have been at times, in the words of that ancient hymn, “almost persuaded.”  So, when I say that I reject ID, I say it with pangs of regret.  I truly wish it were true.  Yet, from my perspective, ID must be rejected on both scientific and theological grounds.

Why is the controversy between evolution and creation so bitter?

The answer is, quite simply, that evolution has becomes the focal point of a culture war, which means that the goal of protagonists is to win, not to discover the truth.  So each side labors mightily to exaggerate what they see as the problems with their opposition.  Conceding minor points to your opponents, using inoffensive language, working out compromises, and finding middle ground are simply not allowed.  The controversy is about the larger questions of who decides what the nature of ultimate reality is – what will be the place for God in our understanding of the world?

Don’t most scientists believe that science and religion are incompatible?

Virtually all the leading spokespersons for science – the ones on bookstands and public television – are strongly antireligious.  Even though religious belief is common in the scientific community, it is almost nonexistent among scientists who have become public figures.  The idea that science should be a religion on its own runs like a subterranean reservoir through the writings of these spokespersons.  For better or worse, mainly worse, the content and significance of evolutionary theory is communicated to broad audiences by people like Richard Dawkins, Steven Weinberg, E.O. Wilson, Stephen Jay Gould, Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking.  These thinkers are communicators per excellence, and the idea that science should be a religion on its own runs through the writing of these popularizers.

You teach in a Christian college.  How do you teach about evolution in the classroom?

When I teach Darwin, I avoid taking a position, partly so students can fell free to reject evolution if that is their choice.  Most important though, I want the students to wrestle, as Darwin did, and I did when I was their age, with the implications of cruelty, waste and widespread bad design in nature.  Many college students fear that evolution may have the power to dissolve their beliefs.  Their fear is understandable since almost very leading speaker on the topic, whatever their position, forces a choice between evolution (science) and creations (God).  But these are not the only two options.  They are not even the most reasonable.

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Quotable:

Dr. Francis Collins, in his foreword to Saving Darwin, writes:

“Many working scientists, including Giberson and myself, find no conflict in both embracing the conclusion that evolution is true and seeing this as the means by which God implemented his majestic creation.

In that synthesis of the natural and spiritual perspectives we have found much joy and peace, where our increasingly detailed understanding of the molecules of life only adds to our awe of the Creator.  Put in that framework, DNA is essentially the language God used to speak us and all other living things into being.”

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Dr. Karl Giberson is the author of

Saving Darwin: How to be a Christian and Believe in Evolution

Available June 2008 from HaperOne

For permission to reprint this interview, please contact Emily Grandstaff:

Emily.grandstaff@harpercollins.com, 415-477-4409