Creation & EvolutionForum for the discussion of this important topic. This forum is open to non-believers. There is a Christians-only forum in the Christians-only section too.
I've mentioned Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield here several times, but no one seems to know who he is. He's very relevant to the interface between Christianity and evolution, so I think I should probably tell a little about him.
B. B. Warfield is widely considered to be the greatest Christian theologian of the last 200 years. Most Christians consider his understanding of the Bible to be matched only by the likes of Calvin, Augustine, and St. Paul. He was also a scientist, and accepted evolution on the basis of the evidence for it that he had collected.
I consider this to be significant for a few reasons. It is impossible to say that he accepted evolution because he did not understand the Bible--there has probably been no one since him that understood the Bible as well as he did. It is also impossible to say that his acceptance of it related to anything other than the physical evidence for it. He certainly was not looking for a way to avoid believing in a God, since the emphasis of his life was Christian theology even after he accepted it. It is likewise impossible that he was seeking to undermine Christianity. He probably did more to defend Christianity than any other person in the last 200 years--evolution was only one of several topics he wrote about. C. S. Lewis's attempts in this area are nothing compared to Warfield's. Evangelical historian Mark Noll described him as "the nation's most forceful defender of Biblical inerrancy at the end of the nineteenth century."
He was a truly unbiased scientist--or if he had any bias at all, it was in favor of Christianity. Yet even someone whose life was devoted to the Bible, and who understood the Bible better than anyone else in the world, ended up accepting evolution. There is no possible reason he could have accepted this theory except the reason that he himself gave: that the evidence for it is stronger than the evidence for any of the alternatives.
Here is a quote from his biography:
When Benjamin Warfield died, there were notices, memorial services, and eulogies in many parts of the nation. Warfield’s own denomination, the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, adopted a statement at its General Assembly that described his loss as “irreparable” and described him as “probably the most distinguished and learned theologian of the Reformed Faith in our day.” Following the adoption of this statement, the Assembly heard a brief tribute to him by President Kelso of the Western Theological Seminary, which was followed with prayer led by President Landon of the San Francisco Theological Seminary (Minutes, 128). In Dr. Warfield’s home state of Kentucky, sentiments were expressed in a special memorial service held in the Harbeson Memorial Chapel of the Theological Seminary of Kentucky. During the service each of the seminary professors, all of whom but one had known him personally, spoke “tenderly of the man and his great work and his abiding influence on every continent of the world” (The Presbyterian 91:9, March 3, 1921, 31). One writer, known only as “G. P. D.,” wrote of his three-year experience as a student of Warfield. He said that one man stood out “above all others as a teacher and as a man of God: and that man is Dr. Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield.” Dr. Warfield had taught him to stand “solidly upon the Rock of Ages” and he exemplified an “unswerving loyalty to the Word of God.”
The author also remembered Dr. Warfield’s continued instruction to his students to seek the resolution of difficult issues by seeing “what the Word of God says about that.” Showing his affection for Dr. Warfield, the author mentioned that he and his fellow students thought of him as “Bennie,” a name that would not likely have been used in his presence (91:10, March 10, 1921, 10). J. Gresham Machen, Assistant Professor of New Testament at Princeton, received a letter from LeRoy Gresham, Dr. Machen’s cousin, expressing in his own personal sorrow the sentiments of many regarding the loss of B. B. Warfield:
You may well believe that I was inexpressibly grieved and shocked at the death of Dr. Warfield. Truly there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel. Where shall we ever find his like as a defender of the faith once delivered to the saints? I know what it will mean to you personally, especially at a time when the tendency is to fill our faculties with men who represent a lower ideal of scholarship. It will be hard indeed to fill his place. (Letter dated March 5, 1921)
There is no one alive today whose understanding of the Bible can match Warfield's enough to say that Warfield had his doctrines mixed up. He also had no reason to accept evolution except because of the evidence for it, since he could have not had any of the alternative reasons for accepting it that creationists have proposed evolutionists to have. Apparently the evidence for evolution is strong enough to convince even the greatest Bible scholar in the world.
None of the gods love wisdom or desire to become wise, for they are wise already -- nor if someone else is wise, do they love wisdom. Neither do the ignorant love wisdom or desire to become wise; for this is the grievous thing about ignorance, that those who are neither good nor beautiful nor sensible think they are good enough, and do not desire that which they do not think they are lacking.
BB Warfield rocks! You are kidding me, he believed in evolution!?! Man, no way!
That guy was so right about so many things...
(except for classical apologetics vs. presuppositional).
Oh well, guess he has clay feet after all. Doesn't prove evolution, just proves no man (no matter how brilliant) is perfect.
You'll find that's true of life. That should disprove evolution, shouldn't it? Our species isn't getting more & more perfect, but staying exactly the same as they have been since the fall of Adam. Tell me, what is the evolutionary advantage of homosexuality, lying, stealing, cheating on your taxes, etc? Shouldn't those 'base impulses' be about weeded out of the species by now?
I wonder whether or not there's an evolutionary advantage to scientific illiteracy? Sure seems to be a lot of it about these days.
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BB Warfield rocks! You are kidding me, he believed in evolution!?! Man, no way!
That guy was so right about so many things...
(except for classical apologetics vs. presuppositional).
In Your opinion? Was he wrong because You don't agree with him?
Oh well, guess he has clay feet after all. Doesn't prove evolution, just proves no man (no matter how brilliant) is perfect.
This is his downfall because You don't believe in evolution?
You'll find that's true of life. That should disprove evolution, shouldn't it?
No
Our species isn't getting more & more perfect, but staying exactly the same as they have been since the fall of Adam.
Who is this adam of which you speak? Did he fall down? If so, I hope he is alright.
Tell me, what is the evolutionary advantage of homosexuality, lying, stealing, cheating on your taxes, etc? Shouldn't those 'base impulses' be about weeded out of the species by now?
Evolution is a very slow process. If we haven't wiped out humankind in a few million years, it will probably be apparent to people what (if any) the evolutionary advantage of these examples is.
Our species isn't getting more & more perfect, but staying exactly the same as they have been since the fall of Adam.
Evolution is not a ladder of progress towards perfection. It's about adaptation.
Tell me, what is the evolutionary advantage of homosexuality, lying, stealing, cheating on your taxes, etc? Shouldn't those 'base impulses' be about weeded out of the species by now?
The only thing that determines evolutionary "success" is differential reproductive success. The only thing in there that you might have a case for is homosexuality, but even then that's not a b&w issue since homosexuals can still reproduce (there's also the matter of the root cause of homosexuality for which there is still debate).
__________________ Creationism has not made a single contribution to agriculture, medicine, conservation, forestry, pathology, or any other applied area of biology. Creationism has yielded no classifications, no biogeographies, no underlying mechanisms, no unifying concepts with which to study organisms or life. - Botanical Society of America's Statement on Evolution
BB Warfield rocks! You are kidding me, he believed in evolution!?! Man, no way!
That guy was so right about so many things...
(except for classical apologetics vs. presuppositional).
Oh well, guess he has clay feet after all. Doesn't prove evolution, just proves no man (no matter how brilliant) is perfect.
Or possibly proves that it's possible to be a Christian and accept evolution and that you're the one who's wrong.
__________________ "Sadly, biblical literalism brings not only the bible but Christianity itself into disrepute." - The Rt. Revd. Richard Harries, Anglican Bishop of Oxford.
Tell me, what is the evolutionary advantage of homosexuality, lying, stealing, cheating on your taxes, etc? Shouldn't those 'base impulses' be about weeded out of the species by now?
What about the base impulse of denying science because one cannot understand it. I thought that would have been weeded out of the species by now but it seems to be propogating along, stronger than ever.
__________________
None of the gods love wisdom or desire to become wise, for they are wise already -- nor if someone else is wise, do they love wisdom. Neither do the ignorant love wisdom or desire to become wise; for this is the grievous thing about ignorance, that those who are neither good nor beautiful nor sensible think they are good enough, and do not desire that which they do not think they are lacking.
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