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I stared at the pile of textbooks, not quite sure how to tackle my first term at UCLA. Scanning down the stack, my eyes settled on Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species. As a Christian student and a humanities major who had never studied the theory of evolution before, this year long seminar on "The Evolution of the Cosmos and Life" made me a little nervous. But one of the important lessons I learned early on is that in order to truly understand what you believe and why you believe it, you must also know what you don't believe and the reasoning behind your decision. It was with this attitude that I decided to take on Darwin in the classroom.
Natural selection. The Big Bang. Mendelian inheritance. Genetic mutations. The list of concepts on my study guide seemed to be endless. I sat in the library for over five hours studying for my first midterm, and all of the concepts started to blur together. The past two weeks in class introduced me to some of the primary theoretical foundations for evolutionary biology, reopening a world of curiosity for God's creation and the science behind it. By separating theory from fact in my assigned readings, I was able to better appreciate God's design and purpose behind His creation in new and exciting ways and know that there is much more to come this year. Looking back down at the study guide, I cracked open my textbook, wishing I had more coffee...
"Who claims that our universe is a product of divine creation?" my professor asked. A few brave hands slowly went up, followed by my own a few seconds later. Today was the interactive debate between creation and evolution, and you could feel the discomfort in the room.
"And after all of the scientific proof we have studied in this course, how can you defend your faith?" His sarcasm grew thicker with each word. A few of my classmates looked down, avoiding eye contact in hope of not having to respond to his loaded question. But instead of joining them, I slowly stood up from my seat and faced the entire class as one of my favorite scriptures (1 Peter 3:15) came to mind.
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