Slightly smirking, he asked, “Don’t Christians believe God created the earth in six days?” He was a Jewish atheist scientist with a PhD. And a staunch Darwinist. We stood outside a laboratory of green-mirrored walls next to a man-made pond. There damp turtles rested on rocks and orange-and-white koi darted beneath the floating, round leaves of waterlilies. The smells of wet moss, mown grass, and dusty chaparral wafted in the hot breeze. Water splinked and splankled from a fountain in the center of the pond, mingling with bird songs, chirps, and calls—especially the harsh caw of a large, bluish-black bird with a trailing tail thrice its length. (Lab employees speculated about the stunning bird’s origins: imported illegally and dumped? zoo escapee?)

“Some Christians believe God created the earth in six earth days, some that he created it in six eras, and some believe God guided evolution,” I replied. “The way I see it, if an all-powerful God exists, he could create the earth in any of those manners.”

He raised his eyebrows, pushed his lower lip up, and nodded. He obviously hadn’t expected that answer. After a moment, he smiled and said, “I believe all religions are equally true.” He sounded like an indulgent grandpa not wishing to crush a child’s belief that shouting, “I believe in fairies,” saved Tinkerbell.

I laughed. “No, you don’t! You may believe all religions are equally false, but you certainly don’t believe that religions with contradictory premises can all be true.”

His smile disappeared and then returned. He bowed slightly. “You’re right. I believe all religions are equally … FALSE.”

“And I believe one of them is true—Christianity—based on the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” I gave him a short explanation. He listened with surprise; he seemed to have never heard evidence for the resurrection before. When I concluded, he politely changed the subject.

But the next time Clay and I ran into him at Costco, he said to Clay, “I want to talk to you about something, doctor to doctor. I want to hear your opinion about why this God you believe in allows evils like the Holocaust.”

With six-day creation no longer an impassable mountain, he was willing to ask further questions—with someone whose degrees more closely matched his own.

Another Lab, Another Way

Contrast that with a conversation that started similarly a year earlier at different lab, this one with white-painted concrete walls surrounded by loiterers and litter, black pavement and congested streets, honking horns and impatient shouts. We sat inside in a gray conference room with PCs shoved hastily against the sides so I could teach a computer class. On a break, one of my students—a dark-haired secretary in her late twenties—said, “Christians don’t believe in evolution, do they? That’s stupid.” She smirked and rattled off evidences for evolution.

I explained that her examples were of microevolution, and that while no one disputes microevolution (small changes within a single animal group, such as changes in beak shapes among finches on the Galapagos Islands), some scientists doubt that Darwin’s theory of evolution can account for the development of all life as we know it. For example, his theory says that all life evolved from small, successive changes that increase a creature’s ability to survive, but biochemist Michael Behe says that some cells can’t have evolved that way because they’re irreducibly complex: they require multiple parts to be present at once before the creature sees any advantage (see his excellent book, Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution, for the full argument).

She stared incredulously a moment and then said, “My two brothers are scientists and they say evolution is a fact.”

She couldn’t answer my argument, but neither would she address it. As other students filed back in, she returned to ridiculing Christians. I realized that she would never consider Christianity if it were tied to a position on evolution her brothers would mock. It was too big a barrier. And neither would she listen to someone who lacked scientific credentials.

Removing the Stumbling Block When Witnessing to Darwinists

That’s when I decided that when I’m witnessing to Darwinists who ask me what Christians think about Darwinian evolution, it’s better for me (a non-scientist) to say Christians have a variety of opinions. The evidence is certainly against Darwinism, but one’s position on it is not an essential Christian doctrine. Bible-believing Christians interpret Genesis 1 in different ways.

Physics professor and Christian apologist John Bloom puts it this way:

I don’t like creation models being laid as a stumbling block to the cross, and prefer an old-earth creation model in apologetic situations for its unifying power in showing the God of the Bible as the Creator of the universe. For seekers who feel that macro-evolution demands more than two individuals as the founders of the human race, I advise patience as the size of the pool of human common ancestors has been shrinking in recent decades, and there even exists plausible evidence for an initial pool size of two. For impatient seekers, I would commend an allegorical interpretation of Genesis regarding human origins, as many theistic evolutionists already do.

John Bloom, “The Lost World of John Walton,” Christian Research Journal 38, no. 3 (2015): 60.

I have friends (and a husband) who have the degrees that keep them from being dismissed out-of-hand. They keep up with the latest scientific developments. They deftly and convincingly handle these conversations when witnessing to Darwinists. I’m happy to steer curious people to them. After all, some seekers do come to believe in God on the evidence of design.

But for me, when I sense that evolution is a hurdle and my arguments will be written off based on my lack of scientific credentials, I often judge it best to postpone a discussion of Darwinism until after they have come to believe in the God of the Bible.

Show Respect for Different Views

Paul in Romans 14 tells us how to get along with those who hold different views on disputable matters (non-essential gray areas). He says neither judge them as faithless nor despise them as foolish. Instead, keep what we believe to ourselves, resolve not to put stumbling blocks in another’s way, and pursue peace and mutual edification (Romans 14:22, 20, 19). When witnessing to Darwinists, we can extend this courtesy to seekers stumbled by some views of creation.

But we must show respect for those holding views that differ from ours. Little hinders the gospel message more than disunity and lack of brotherly love.

Think of it this way. The first lab could welcome bird photographers seeking the long-tailed bird without involving them in a controversy of its origin. Likewise, we can welcome religious truth seekers without involving them in the controversy of human origin. We can explain the different views without disparaging those who hold them as being faithless or foolish. In that way, we’ll remove a stumbling block in the path to the cross.

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