My youngest has recently been studying evolution.  This is a hot topic amongst homeschoolers where many teach “Creationism” and not evolution – so much so that we now have had to remediate this topic omitted from her Biology class last year before she takes her Biology SAT-II test this spring.  The dialectic is often posed between Darwin’s theory and God, but neither my daughter nor I are having a problem reconciling these two.

Most of the debate on this issue basically centers around:

1.   Does God exist or not?

2.  If God created things materially, once and for all, with no need of improvement, how do you explain extinct animals and new species?  The supposition of material evolution as changing equates for many as eliminating the role of God, or overarching Principle.

3.  What happens after we die? Does heaven exist, or do we return to dust and nothingness?

The controversy about these points can get heated, but it seems to me they are chasing their tail needlessly (albeit earnestly) comparing apples with oranges.  Why are they not asking: did God make a material universe or a spiritual one?

Darwin’s postulate about natural selection is not only supported by scads of objective data, it makes as much sense as any other explanation of material creation.  But more pertinent to mankind and the universe itself is the grandeur, truth and power of spiritual evolution, which is definitely and clearly supported by intuitive spiritual sense.

Here are some quotes by Mary Baker Eddy to consider when thinking about this issue:

“God creates and governs the universe including man. The universe is filled with spiritual ideas, which He evolves, and they are obedient to the Mind that makes them.”

“Spirit, God, has created all in and of Himself. Sprit never created matter. There is nothing in Spirit out of which matter could be made, for as the Bible declares, without the Logos, the AEon or Word of God, ‘was not anything made that was made.’”

“The true theory of the universe, including man, is not in material history but in spiritual development.”

“Spiritual evolution alone is worthy of the exercise of divine power.”

Christian Science solves any incongruity between the Christian and the scientific perspectives on this issue. So how does one help people not argue about the origin of the material universe and turn instead to the spiritual realm where all these contentions and concerns are resolved?