Darwinists are celebrating this month the 150th anniversary of the publication of their hero’s breakthrough book, On the Origin of Species. Christians who respond with ridicule of Darwin get nowhere—but understanding a few terms of the debate can help to start a dialogue.

(1) Let’s start with the distinction between types of evolution. Back in 1859 everyone knew that changes could occur within a species; that’s how we breed dogs. Darwin’s theory was that a process analogous to artificial breeding also occurs in nature; he called that process natural selection, and he postulated that one species could change into another species. (To put it biblically, since God talks about “kinds” of creatures, one kind could become another kind.)

It’s important to know the difference between change within kinds (microevolution) and change from one kind to another (macroevolution). Darwinists who argue for Read the rest of this entry »