Kathryn Applegate and J.B. Stump. How I
Changed My Mind About Evolution: Evangelicals Reflect on Faith and Science. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2016. See here to buy the book.
How I Changed My Mind
About Evolution contains reflections by scientists, theologians, pastors,
and biblical scholars about their journey with the creation-evolution
controversy. The contributors include
Scot McKnight, Tremper Longman III, Francis Collins, John Ortberg, N.T. Wright,
and others. Most of the contributors
wrote their essays specifically for this book; a few essays appeared in other sources
and have been reprinted in this book with permission.
Most of the stories are about how an author of an essay initially
interpreted Genesis 1-2 literally, but his or her exposure to evolution and
other scientific ideas challenged his or her Christian faith. The authors varied on how open-minded their
religious background was and when in their life they converted to Christianity,
but most of the essays overlapped in that they dealt with how the authors
changed their mind about evolution: they went from disbelieving it to accepting
its truth, while still maintaining their Christian faith. An exception to this pattern was the essay by
N.T. Wright. Wright’s essay was not about
changing one’s mind about evolution, but rather it compared American responses
to evolution to British responses.
The essays got better as the book proceeded. The earlier essays referred to books that
might be useful to people on a similar journey, and they had endearing stories,
but the later essays were better because they got into more scientific meat,
while still being accessible to the layperson.
For example, Daniel M. Harrell said: “I tried to preach about how
entropy was a consequence of the fall, but physicists in my congregation were
quick to correct me on that. Had there
been no entropy in the Garden, Adam and Eve would have been up to their necks
in bacteria and bugs” (page 126). Rodney
J. Scott said that he used to believe that similarities among animals testified
to a common designer rather than evolution, and he likened that to similarities
among automobiles. He says on page 162: “This
illustration was actually more compelling in those days, but as I’ll mention
below, insights from the genome projects make it less compelling now.”
Occasionally, essays in the book offered theological
reflections on evolution or scientific insights. One author compared the scientific view that
order came from randomness with Christian beliefs about God’s sovereignty in
the face of human free will. A few
essays wondered why God would wait millions of years before finally creating
life on earth, and one author said that God takes God’s time.
A question that I wish more authors had addressed is why one
should become a Christian. They seemed
to assume the truth of Christianity, and they tried to show by various means
how evolution can be consistent with Christianity, or at least not inconsistent
with it. But why believe in
Christianity? Why not conclude that
Genesis 1-2 contradicts modern science because the Bible was written by human
beings rather than God? What makes the
authors of this book think that Christianity is true? Even though most of the authors told stories
about how they came to faith, they did not wrestle with the question of why
Christianity is true; rather, they assumed it.
There were a few incidents in which authors came close to saying why
they thought that Christianity was true: one appealed to his experience and
said that God continued to work in his life, even after he accepted the truth
of evolution; another appealed to a physicist who said that the cosmos looks
like it developed with human beings in mind.
Overall, though, they did not explain what it was about Christianity
that made them want to believe in it, amidst the challenges posed by science.
This is still a good book, though. Those with similar struggles can read it and
feel less alone.
I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the
publisher, in exchange for an honest review.