Are Evolution and Creationism Compatible?

Outside of the possible British political undertones, Muslim students are walking out of college biology classes where professors are teaching evolution. Muslims, just like us Lutherans, believe in creationism (the belief that God created all things). Of course, a majority of Christians in the United States accept the belief that we all evolved from monkeys. When I was in high school, I was taught evolution and its theory. I didn’t believe it since my faith leads me to believe that God created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th. There wasn’t any conflict for me in school — I needed to pass tests, so I parroted the evolution theory back to Ms. Biondi.

There have been times in my life as a pastor when the issue of evolution vs. Creationism has popped up and those with whom I was talking about it are kind of surprised that I would take a strong stand in favor of God-creating-everything.

They would ask me questions like:

Don’t you think that evolution and creationism are compatible?

God says a day to him is like a thousand years. Doesn’t that give a hint that evolution could possibly be tied in with Creationism since God says the world was created in six days and that could mean that God took thousands of years to create?

Why would you believe in something so Dark Age-ist? It doesn’t make logical sense to believe that God can put the whole world together in a six days.

My answer is usually a simple one: If the Bible is lying about how the world is created, how could I or any Christian believe anything in the book? I mean, if the bible’s first couple of chapters are chock full of lies and/or allegories, then what’s to stop anyone from believing the rest is lies as well?

I believe the Word of God since it is His Word. My Lutheran faith and heart tell me that God created the world in six days, that He created me and all creatures, and He sustains me and all creatures.

Below is a 30-minute video from Al Jazeera English that tackled the Muslim-Creationism issue recently.