Did God create the world? And if so, how did He do it? What evidence does nature provide? Where did human beings come from? What does the Bible teach about creation? Without doubt such questions generate the most heat in discussions about science and faith.
There are many reasons why these issues are so contentious — they impinge on hermeneutics (how we interpret the Bible), epistemology (how we come by “knowledge”), the history and philosophy of science, as well as aspects of archaeology, palaeontology, biology, astronomy, geology, chemistry, physics, and even mathematics.
But perhaps the main source of controversy and confusion stems from the instinctive sense that where we come from determines who we are and how we should then live. And this underlying feeling, right or wrong, often makes it hard for participants in the debate to remain even handed and objective. We hope you find this collection of resources helpful.
- We have compiled a list of Bible passages related to the creation.
Articles
- “Thinking About…Evolution” by Denis Alexander
- “Thinking About…How we interpret Genesis” by Ernest Lucas
- How are Christianity and Evolution compatible? Denis Alexander, posted on the Big Questions Online blog.
- A Response to Should Christians Embrace Evolution ‘Denis Alexander, author of Creation or Evolution – Do We Have to Choose? [Oxford: Monarch 2008] writes a response to the authors of Should Creations Embrace Evolution? [Leicester: IVP, 2009] which was written as a critique of Creation or Evolution – Do We Have to Choose?. ‘
- A Critique of Intelligent Design by Denis Alexander. Posted by permission of the publishers. This is Chapter 8 from ‘Darwinism and Natural Theology: Evolving Perspectives’. Edited by Andrew Robinson. Cambridge Scholars Press, 2012.
- Making your mind up about the HOW of creation by Ruth Bancewicz. Text only version here
- Is Evolution Atheistic? by Dr Denis Alexander.
- Intelligent Design Theory. New hypothesis or old idea in a new guise? (pdf) by Prof. John Bryant, published in the Biochemist magazine.
- Does Evolution Have any Religious Significance? (pdf) by Dr Denis Alexander.
- Genesis and Creation (pdf) by Prof Robert S White.
- Cosmic Purpose and the Contingency of Human Evolution (pdf) by Prof Ernan McMullin.
- Can a Christian believe in evolution? by Dr Denis Alexander.
- Creation and Intelligent Design: A New Testament Perspective by Dr Hugh Reynolds
- Is Intelligent Design Biblical? (pdf) by Dr Denis Alexander. A shorter version (html) was published in Evangelicals Now.
- Sermon on Genesis 1 (pdf) by Prof Robert S White.
- Why Are Christians Passionate Darwinians? (pdf) by Dr Denis-Alexander.
CiS – Faraday Lectures
- Has Science eliminated God? Richard Dawkins and the Meaning of Life
Prof Alister McGrath - Science and the Bible: Are they incompatible? The creation story as a test case
Rev Dr Ernest Lucas - Darwinism & Religion: A Revisionist View of the Wilberforce-Huxley Debate
Prof John Hedley Brooke
Multimedia
- Does evolution contradict Genesis?
A talk by Rev Dr Ernest Lucas at the CiS Birmingham and West Midlands local group in February 2013.
Click here for the Audio - How should we read Genesis? Is Genesis meant to be a literal account of creation? Great video from Biologos featuring Alister McGrath, John Polkinghorne and N.T. Wright
- Can we believe Genesis today?
A talk by Rev Dr Ernest Lucas, recorded during the CiS student conference, 2012
Audio (mp3 42.2 MB). - The reception of Darwinism in the nineteenth century Britain and US
A lecture given by Professor Ed Larson at the 2012 CiS Residential Conference
Audio (mp3 6.2MB) - A few evolutionary myths …
A lecture given by Professor Simon Conway Morris at the 2012 CiS Residential Conference
Audio (mp3 7.8MB) - Discussion on Intelligent Design: held on 13th July 2006 at the CiS Central South local group. Two Christians taking opposite views debated and answered questions from the floor, in an atmosphere of honest enquiry. Please listen to the introduction first: it illustrates the way the event was run so that Christians could disagree but remain friends in Christ.
Dr. Peter May – Introduction (MP3, 2.5Mb), Peter Williams – ID (MP3, 6.2Mb), Prof. Keith Fox – Theistic Evolution (MP3, 7.3Mb) - God and Origins: Interpreting the early chapters of Genesis
A lecture given by Professor Rick Hess at the 2008 CiS London Conference
Audio (mp3, 29.6 MB) - The Christian Doctrine of Creation
A lecture given by Professor David Wilkinson at the 2008 CiS London Conference
Audio (mp3, 26.6 MB) - Evolution: Biological facts and Theological Challenges
A lecture given by Professor Darrell Falk at the 2008 CiS London Conference
Audio (mp3, 27.4MB) - Theology of the Fall and Origins of Evil
A lecture given by Professor Henri Blocher at the 2008 CiS London Conference
Audio (mp3, 29.3 MB) - There are some excellent multimedia resources also available through the Faraday Institute’s pages and on the Test of Faith website.
Links
- 10 Things You Need to Know About the Creation – Evolution Debate, and What You Need To Know About The Evolution Debate. Articles by Tony Watkins in for Christianity Magazine. The Bible’s teaching on creation is rich and many-faceted but the question of “By what mechanism did God create the world?” is not a major theme. Nevertheless, the answer to this question is heavily disputed amongst the Christian public. These are really useful articles summarising a number of different positions.
- Other articles by Tony Watkins
The authors of the articles and books recommended above all espouse a robust orthodox Christianity, and most would go further and classify themselves as solidly evangelical in their hermeneutics and opinion on the authority of scripture.
On the issue of “How did God create the world?”, many of the links above reflect the dominant view amongst Christians professionally active in academia, which might loosely be characterised as “theistic evolution”. However, amongst the general Christian evangelical public other views on evolution or the age of the earth are also quite common, particularly in the USA and in Australia. Our US sister organisation, the ASA, has written a helpful ASA General Statement on Creation, summarising those views.
We have also compiled a large list of Young Earth Creationism, Old Earth Creationism and Intelligent Design Links.