Science in Christian Perspective

New Facets of the Evolution Controversy
Richard H. Bube, Editor

From: JASA 22 (September 1970): 81

This September issue of the journal ASA is devoted primarily to a series of discussions related to the issues of the classical evolution controversy. Although this controversy in its usual forms has not contributed greatly to a Christian position in the modern world, the concepts involved are basic to an understanding of modern thought and we have received numerous requests by readers of the Journal ASA to continue in an instructive role on this subject.

It can probably be predicted in advance that no reader of the journal ASA will be completely happy with this issue. The approval of a large fraction of its readers could have been gained by publishing an issue which was exclusively either pro-evolution or anti-evolution. By choosing to present a series of apparently conflicting papers, we have reconciled ourselves to displeasing all partisans. On the other hand, we hope that this issue will serve as a stimulus for readers to set right the wrongs that they feel exist in this kind of presentation.

There is a structure to the world that can be described in scientific terms. Whether this structure is detected by assuming the validity of evolutionary theory as a description of the development of more complex from less complex forms, or by analyzing the structure presently observable by starting with the complexities of human society and breaking down into successively smaller components until we arrive at the "elementary" particles, the result is similar. And the question that must be faced is similar: "When we have at our disposal a scientific description of the structure of the world, do we have any need or any room for a religious description?"
That is the question the December issue of the Journal ASA faces.