Every so often, people ask Chris, “As a geologist and a Christian, how do you reconcile your faith and science?” Or, even more worryingly, they assume he believes the earth is only 6,000 years old, or that all rocks were laid down by Noah’s Flood. This can lead into the sort of debate he prefers to avoid, simply because some people see it as an opportunity to be offensively theologically superior to others.
However in 2022 he was asked to comment on a lecture to French Christians by a Monsieur Vernaz. He took the opportunity to broaden out his critical response on the whole Young Earth Creationism (YEC) movement in an article, which he has now expanded. The English text can be found by clicking on the button below.
If you want the brief version, Chris would summarise his beliefs as follows:
- I believe that God created the universe.
- I believe the evidence that the earth and the cosmos are of a vast age is indisputable.
- I am not convinced that the language of the first chapters of Genesis rules out the possibility that the earth is very old. There are many ways of reconciling those passages and an old earth.
- In a quarter of a century of geology, I have never found the slightest evidence to suggest that the traditional scientific view of an ancient earth is false.
- As to whether I believe in evolution, the answer is quite simply that you would need to define what you mean by ‘evolution’. If you mean that natural selection, chance and time are an adequate means to create all living things, then, no, I don’t believe it. If you mean by evolution that organisms change over time, then, yes, I do.
There is obviously a vast amount that could be said here, and you will find more in the recent article. But I am particularly uninterested in debating the matter with people whose minds are already made up on the subject. Life is too short and I have better things to do. I am, however, prepared to answer genuine questions from genuine enquirers.
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