Can A Christian Be A Darwinist? The Masters in Science and Religion Program attempted to answer this controversial question with a free debate February 5. Despite the pouring rain, Sutherland Auditorium was filled to capacity, with people sitting in the aisles and lobby for this unprecedented event.

Karl Giberson, author of Saving Darwin: How to Be a Christian and Believe in Evolution, argued for the affirmative. John West, senior fellow at the Discovery Institute and author of Darwin Day in America argued in the negative.

According to John Bloom, founding director of the Masters in Science and Religion Program, “The two speakers had very different answers to these questions, and their interaction was illuminating. Dr. West pointed out that many theistic evolutionists minimize God’s role as creator, by saying that God only set mechanisms in place which actually did the work, for better or worse. This is a very different viewpoint from that seen in the Old and New Testaments, where God is portrayed as the creator from whom “all things came into being through him.’”