Evolution v. Creation: Why Not Both?

By: Crystal Carroll

So, what exactly is the controversy between evolution and creation? Evolution is the frequency of pieces of DNA that cause us to have our unique traits in a population of organisms, which ultimately changes over a period of time. Creation incorporates the literal understanding of Genesis: the creation of the world and of the human race. The big question this issue presents is whether or not the two can be combined.

Evolution says that we came from a single-celled organism in the water, which evolved over time into different species, but it never says why. Evolution does not deny the main theme of Genesis that God created the world and everything that is in it because scientists have never been able to prove why we are here. So, there is no reason to say that a higher power helped make life possible on Earth. Shakeel Khwaja, a junior, said, ”I believe in creation because God does exist and that is a main aspect of my Islamic religion.” On the other hand, Mr. Lund, the biology teacher at our school said, “Evolution is right because there is substantial evidence to back it up, while creation does not have much evidence at all.” Our physics teacher, Mr. Wood believes that both ideas can be accepted because he said that, “A higher being creating Earth is compatible with the theory of evolution.”

There is a possibility that a higher power could have helped with the evolution of organisms. The Bible always refers to God stepping in and helping His creation, therefore, there could be a guiding hand in evolution. It could be that He was active in the universe even before we existed. No one can assume that there is or is not a spiritual guide watching over us because we do not know that for a fact. Just because humans were not able to see the creation of life does not mean that there was nothing to observe at all. Scientists cannot prove whether or not God helped take part in the evolution of organisms, so we cannot say that there was not a being watching over these events. Junior Stephen Gardner said, “I believe that there is no way any one can prove one way or the other. They should both be taught just like any differing theories in any realm of science. I can't really explain why, but they both make sense because of the limited knowledge we have of creation. Darwin's theory of evolution has very concrete evidence along with the stories of the Bible, and each have their holes. It’s like the big bang makes sense and could be our description of how God created the universe. Who knows!”

Creation and evolution can work together. People are always trying to prove one or the other, but why not both? Scientists have been proving theories in which we evolved from primates, because our genetic codes are very similar. They have found the evolving skulls of our ancestors. But at the same time, that question lingers of who actually created all of these things. Nobody has ever answered the questions of why or how? Maybe there is a God somewhere looking over us and laughing about how much we argue about this issue. We will never know for a fact. We should be able to accept both evolution and creation because both have good points and ideas. It’s a plausible idea that a higher power created life on this earth, which evolved and is still evolving into something better every generation. It is not that farfetched. To believe in an afterlife just makes life all the more interesting, and to think that we have evolved from something so small, a one-celled organism, just shows how far we have come in life. The belief of evolution and creation are two distinct ideas that just might be right to draw closer and appreciate both for what they are. We will never know the truth, until we cross over into the spiritual life. Happy Easter!