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It's hard to believe that over eighty years after the "Scopes Monkey trial" - the trial of John Scopes, a Tennessee teacher charged with teaching evolution; Scopes was convicted - that the topic of Creationism vs. evolution is still a matter of lively debate. Will the controversy ever end?

On the one hand we have the Creationists, who, on biblical authority, insist that God created man, and the "lower" creatures, and on the other we have the evolutionists who insist that the fossil record, and other evidence, proves that man evolved from the "lower" creatures, specifically primates.

The Creationists, citing the Bible as their authority, assert that the Earth is only some four thousand years old, while scientists commonly accept that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old, and offer up stromatolites - fossilized cyanobacteria or blue-green algae - as the oldest form of life in the fossil record at 3.5 billion years old.

How, wonder the scientists, can the Creationists ignore the hard scientific proof that the Earth is far older than the bible would have us believe? How, wonder the Creationists, can the scientists not recognize their own hubris? The Bible, the Creationists believe, is the timeless and infallible word of God, while evolutionary theory is only the very fallible thinking of man, subject to constant change and revision, and inevitably destined to be proven incorrect by a new batch of scientists eager to make their reputations on its demise.

Scientists point out that the word "theory" as used in science, is not the same as its lay use, in which a theory is a conjecture as opposed to a fact, but rather a scientific theory is a testable model; evolution they insist, is a fact.

That there is a resolution to the debate that allows for the existence of a Creator, while recognizing the scientifically proven reality of evolution seems to escape both camps. For could not God have used evolution as part of a divine plan in creating man, and the other creatures with which he shares the world?

The controversy between Creationism vs. evolution shows no sign of waning, and indeed will likely continue unabated as both sides harden, and become increasingly entrenched. Perhaps, though, the ranks of those who can accept a Creator, and also accept science, will continue to grow, making those who believe in a Creator less subject to ridicule, and those who teach evolutionary theory less prone to prosecution.

Learn more about this author, David Riel.
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