by Lauren Beyenhof

Created on: January 27, 2007   Last Updated: May 13, 2010

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. -Hebrews 11:3 (NIV)

During my freshman year of college, one of my major's requirements was a biology course entitled "Evolution and Ecology". I registered for the class with a great deal of trepidation. For most of my life, I had been conditioned to regard theories of evolution as preposterous, and I thought that, as a Christian, I had no business even entertaining such ideas for fear that it could jeopardize my faith. In reality, the class served to solidify my belief in Creationism. For the rest of my college career, the more I studied subjects like environmental science, geology, ecology, and yes, even evolution, the more I developed a deeper appreciation for the elements of God's creation and the incredible ways that God has designed the physical, biological and chemical processes to work together.

Controversial theories abound regarding creation and evolution. Some people believe in a creation week made up of 7, 24 hour days. Others think that each day of creation was representative of an era or age. Still others subscribe to the idea of what has been termed "progressive creationism" which is creation by means of evolution. Like this verse in Hebrews points out, God's creation is much more than meets the eye. Even though I learned a lot about God's earth in my classes in college, I also had to look at it more deeply by reading the Bible. However, even with the Bible's account of how the world began, I don't think anyone can truly know exactly how it all happened. I believe that Creation is factual. I also believe that there are a great many scientific realities that further explain parts of how God enabled creation to take place.

Because I am a Christian who also happens to be a scientist, I often find that my theories about creation and evolution are no less controversial that some others. The root of my belief is that God did indeed speak this universe into being. This is Biblical. I was not there to witness it, neither was the author of the book of Genesis, neither was Hugh Ross, Charles Darwin, Johannes Kepler, John Calvin nor Rick Warren. The earth was not formed by accident, nor was it formed without purpose. Many people will never discover that purpose, because they fail to understand that some things must be taken on the basis of faith.

People without faith may only ever observed the world around them on a surface level. The things that are visible-fossil records, the Grand Canyon, even our DNA -even though these can be described or observed in detail by science, cannot tell the whole story. Faith helps us fill in some of the gaps and allows us to focus on the things of the most value and importance. What is important is not how old the earth is or how the process of natural selection works. The important thing is that there is a God who formed our universe out of nothing. He brought us into being and breathed into us the breath of life. He gave us a soul that we might know Him and seek after Him, even without having seen Him.

My faith enables me to believe in things I don't understand. It also helps me trust that God has a plan for me. My future is not in the hands of fate, and I am not subject to some great cosmic game of chance.

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