By Rebecca Groen (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: February 29, 2012
The Biology and Chemistry Student Association hosted a talk last Friday with Dr. Barbara Moon, a biology professor here at UFV. Her talk was entitled: “Evolution and Faith – Perspectives on Evolution and Creationism.” She began by saying that, in contrast to Richard Dawkins’ views, there doesn’t need to be a conflict between evolution and faith. Dawkins had said that to accept the theory of evolution means to become an atheist. “This is not necessarily so,” she said. “The relationship between evolution and creationism is a continuum, not just a dichotomy between two incompatible choices.” She continued, “Acceptance of evidence for evolution is not incompatible with religious faith.”
Moon explained how evolution is seen as a “fact.” She described that the word “fact” is not to be taken as in how we used the word every day. A fact is “repeatedly confirmed by the studies of multiple scientists.” Evolution would therefore be a fact because the evidence is so strong. In the scientific community 99.75 per cent agree that evolution is a scientific fact. The one-quarter per cent remaining is the creationists.
During the lecture, Moon outlined the standpoints for several creationist views, among them young-earth creationism, gap creationism, day-age creationism, progressive creationism, and evolutionary creationism (intelligent design). Explaining these provided her audience with understanding for other viewpoints that don’t necessarily focus on evolution as explanation into the origins of the universe. She went on to describe exactly how the two could be combined. “There are many different approaches to studying science.” Pope John Paul said, ‘Some new findings lead us toward the recognition of evolution as more than an hypothesis.’
