@BradKramer
Brad, Thanks for your wonderful update on the growing influence of BioLogos among evangelicals. Your list of top five objections to evolutionary creation is both revealing and helpful. I really appreciate how you provided well thought out responses to persistent opposition! You must have been tired after the conference. (-:
@johnZ @Tony_and_Linda_Hinkl
After reading through the comments today, I see two repeated arguments that are frequently voiced to disregard evolutionary biology: (1) evidence for whale evolution (and all macroevolution by extension) “can’t be tested” and/or is based on too many assumptions, and (2) evolutionary theory is driven by an atheistic worldview or an “anti-creation evolutionary agenda.” As a conservative evangelical Christian with a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology, I can attest that both of these arguments have little merit. I urge fellow Christians to consider that the we must deal directly with what the natural world (God’s creation) reveals to us without characterizing the views of mainline scientists as blind or biased. I am deeply concerned about this, not because I idolize science, but for the health of the church and its witness for Jesus.
Here are some of the things we know about hoofed animal to whale evolution (stated with no underlying assumptions): (1) whales have small bones in their pelvic region that serve no apparent function but are located right where the pelvic girdle would be in a mammal with hind legs, (2) baleen whale embryos develop teeth (like all fossil whales) that are never used, but later get reabsorbed and replaced by baleen, (3) whale embryos start with nostrils at the front of the snout (like the oldest fossil whales and most mammals) but changes in the size and shapes of facial bones move the nostrils to the top of the skull where they serve as the “blowhole” in the adult whale, (4) there are whale-like fossils (based on anatomy of skull and skeleton - no weird assumptions here) with limbs that end in hooves, (5) there are whale-like fossils with a “double-pulley” astragalus bone in the ankle, a bone that was before these discoveries absolutely diagnostic for even-toed hoofed mammals and found in no other animal group, (6) genetic comparisons of many genes shared among living mammals show that whales are more similar to even-toed hoofed mammals than to any other mammals, and most often closest to the hippopotamus.
When Christians argue that evolution can’t be valid because of underlying assumptions, or because it’s just not believable that animals could change like this, or any other objection, they are diverting the discussion from these plainly stated observations about living and fossil mammals. Please note that there is nothing in this list that is debatable based on assumptions or atheism. I fully acknowledge that there are extreme atheistic sentiments among most biologists (a critical issue for Christians), but the natural observations need to be evaluated independent of this worldview that did not generate them. Instead, I believe followers of Jesus must face these observations head on.
From my years of experience in the church and among scientists, there are really only two options: (1) God created deceptive features in hoofed mammals and whales (the above features) that most assuredly would be interpreted by modern scientists as evidence for evolution, or (2) these natural observations in God’s creation reveal something real about the biological (evolutionary) connectedness of hoofed mammals and whales. Most Christians readily see the difficulties of claiming that the God of Truth has intentionally deceived us.
What I have outlined here for whales could be repeated over and over again across many macroevolution transitions (e.g., bipedal dinosaurs with feathers to birds, aquatic green algae to primitive plants).
The key point is that no matter what concerns Christians may bring to evolution (it doesn’t fit my theology, they can’t explain where the first cell came from, etc.), we must face the mountains of positive evidence that points to a very old earth with intricate (and marvelous) ancestral connections among living things. I wholeheartedly believe the church will eventually embrace evolutionary creation as a full witness to God’s creative majesty in the same way as it has incorporated our modern understanding of a sun-centered solar system. I’m thankful that BioLogos is so graciously communicating this message.