It took me many years, and tons and tons of research and reflection, to come to the few conclusions I’ve come to regarding faith and science. One of those being:

You can be a devout Christian and fully accept the Theory of Evolution. 

To most people, that point seems obvious. Religious people of all kinds can (and do) effortlessly reconcile their faith with the current understanding of science. However, to folks like me who grew up in a fundamentalist, evangelical church, we can’t be Christians and scientists. We must be one or the other. 

That perceived conflict basically sums up the “great debate” between Christians and atheists, particularly here in the States. 

On the very first day of my Introduction to Evolution class this semester, my professor addressed this “problem” head-on. 

“You can be religious and a scientist, at the same time!” she assured us. “That said, there are some very glaring conflicts between religion and science if you take everything in your religious texts absolutely literally.”

From there, my professor began to go over a brief history of evolutionary thought, ending with a Biologist called Theodosius Dobzhansky. 

“In 1973,” my professor began, “Dr. Dobzhansky wrote an essay which he titled, ‘Nothing makes sense in Biology except for in light of evolution’. He wrote this to critique Young Earth Creationism, and instead argue in favor of the idea that God made the universe and everything in it via evolution… as you can see, you can be both religious and an awesome scientist.”

While I’ve known that for years at this point, it still sent shivers down my spine to hear a professor- a self-proclaimed atheist professor at that- assure me that I could retain my faith and be a scientist, too.