I'm Ken Gilmore, an Australian Christadelphian who has been a baptised member of our community since 1985. Shortly before my baptism, I had a major crisis of faith when I began reading widely at university and realised that my young earth creationism could not be reconciled with the scientific evidence. I was a fairly convinced old earth creationist until the late 1990s, when I began seriously looking into molecular biology and discovered the considerable genetic evidence for common descent. When I started my medical degree in 1999, I quickly discovered that the evidence for common descent just from human genetics was overwhelming, and accepted the fact of evolution.
Not only have I managed to maintain my faith in the light of evolution, I have found that evolution actually strengthens it. The problem of evil is greatly enhanced when one accepts the fact of evolution. However, I am aware that not everyone who enters university and discovers that the standard Christadelphian arguments against evolution are naive, flawed and out of date maintains their faith. Comments such as these:
Unlike faith traditions which believe in Original Sin, ours is not vulnerable to evolution for the simple reason that we traditionally have not believed that all humans inherit genetically the guilt of Adam's sin. Given that the evidence from human genetics means that it is impossible for the entire human race to have descended exclusively from two people living a few thousand years ago, any doctrine (such as Original Sin) which depends on monogenism has been falsified. There is no way to avoid this conclusion, and unbelievers have not been slow to capitalise on this fact. The fact that evolution does not invalidate the heart of our theology is something which needs to be pointed out to all Christadelphians, if only to show that the question of how God brought about the diversity of life on this planet is not a first principle.
Ultimately, this site exists to provide help for those who are aware that the evidence for evolution is considerable, and want to see how an orthodox Christadelphian faith is compatible with evolution.
About John Bedson
Not only have I managed to maintain my faith in the light of evolution, I have found that evolution actually strengthens it. The problem of evil is greatly enhanced when one accepts the fact of evolution. However, I am aware that not everyone who enters university and discovers that the standard Christadelphian arguments against evolution are naive, flawed and out of date maintains their faith. Comments such as these:
“My own eldest son has decided he cannot be baptized because he has seen the evidence for evolution with his own eyes, and our ecclesia will not tolerate discussion on the subject. Unlike some young people, he is too honest to say he doesn’t believe it, just so that he can ‘pass the test’ and be baptized.”are hardly rare in my experience, and are an indictment on our community in that they represent a sect that does not provide a safe environment for its young people to discuss hard questions about origins. Worse still is the obscene spectacle of believers being excommunicated for having the intellectual honesty to accept the evidence for evolution and not keep their position on the subject a secret.
“I will be spending most of this semester studying common descent and evolution in first year biology, and have done so through DNA and cells so far. It really is fascinating and very undeniable. There's also a young Christo girl from [X ecclesia] in the subject, and I am interested to know what she's thinking.”
Unlike faith traditions which believe in Original Sin, ours is not vulnerable to evolution for the simple reason that we traditionally have not believed that all humans inherit genetically the guilt of Adam's sin. Given that the evidence from human genetics means that it is impossible for the entire human race to have descended exclusively from two people living a few thousand years ago, any doctrine (such as Original Sin) which depends on monogenism has been falsified. There is no way to avoid this conclusion, and unbelievers have not been slow to capitalise on this fact. The fact that evolution does not invalidate the heart of our theology is something which needs to be pointed out to all Christadelphians, if only to show that the question of how God brought about the diversity of life on this planet is not a first principle.
Ultimately, this site exists to provide help for those who are aware that the evidence for evolution is considerable, and want to see how an orthodox Christadelphian faith is compatible with evolution.
About John Bedson
I have encountered some people claiming that there is some sort of
working relationship between myself and John Bedson, an atheist
ex-Christadelphian.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
My posts appear under a Creative Commons Licence (CCL), which means that
provided the terms of the Licence are met, anyone is free to reuse my
material, irrespective of their personal philosophical or religious
views. An unfortunate consequence of CCL is that Bedson can copy my
posts to his blog without my permission.
I regard Bedson's attacks on our faith as naive, risible, and beneath
contempt. I am strongly opposed to his position, and have no
association with him whatsoever.
Original material on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
