The battle between Christianity and evolution is a culture war, according to David Lahti, professor of biology at the City University of New York Graduate Center.
Lahti delivered two lectures on evolution as part of the John H. and Elsa Roscoe Lecture Series in the Natural Sciences on Oct. 27. The first discussed how human beings affect evolution in animals, and the second examined how evolution relates to Christianity.
Lahti argued in the second talk that there are two extreme positions on the earth’s origin — creationism and scientific atheism. He said both positions hold that faith and evolution cannot coexist.
“It’s the idea, not just that science and faith don’t mix, but that one must be primary in a radical way,” Lahti said. “To be true to that position, your position on the other is a foregone conclusion.”
Lahti described his own journey toward reconciling Christianity and evolution before explaining how others might do the same. He said it started with realizing that the disagreement is not over science.
“For most people, I don’t think it’s really about science,” Lahti said. “This culture war is not really about science either.”
He said the culture war is rather about forcing those who would reconcile faith and evolution to pick a side, often for ideological reasons.
Blake McAllister, associate professor of philosophy, said Lahti’s point was interesting.
“Both agree that God and our best science don’t mix,” McAllister said. “The tragic result is that many would-be Christians are pushed towards atheism when there’s another option: that evolution is a mechanism by which God creates.”
Lahti agreed there is a way to preserve faith while believing in evolution.
“One of the crucial reasons that both sides think evolution threatens the Judeo-Christian worldview is because of a lack of understanding of levels of explanation,” Lahti said.
He said that since evolution cannot explain ultimate purpose, creationists do not think it can explain nature either. Scientific atheists use similar logic, according to Lahti.
“Here, the common mistake of creationists and scientific atheists is pitting different levels of explanation against each other as if they were alternatives to each other,” Lahti said.
He reconciled this problem by creating a third position, which lets Christianity and evolution handle their own respective areas of explanation.
“I don’t view this intersection here as a middle way,” Lahti said. “How can it be a compromise when both sides are against you? It is a positive position of its own right that repudiates both the war cries of the main opponents here.”
Lahti said the reconciliation of faith and evolution, when used rightly, is a tool for Christians.
“Understanding that God creates through evolution can enrich our faith experience,” Lahti said. “When the undecided out there see that it can do that in you, whether they be agnostic pro-evolution folks or evolution-wary Christians, this enriched perspective can only help the faith in terms of evangelism and in terms of apologetics.”
Freshman Isaac Estabrook said Lahti’s lecture addressed questions he has considered himself.
“Dr. Lahti’s talk was an intriguing attempt to reconcile two positions that I’ve struggled with myself,” Estabrook said. “On the one hand, I know God exists, but, on the other, the evidence for evolution seems overwhelming. The idea that accepting evolution could actually glorify God was a completely novel argument.
