The other day, I was at a hospital visit, and I was telling a lady about Apologia Institute; I laid out our mission and our goals, to which she responded, "Yes, evolution has to be defeated." This experience generated a thought in my head, “Is the Church focusing too much on Darwinism?

Darwinism does pose challenges to the Christian faith. It has a rightful place at the apologetics table of discussion. It should be dissected and defeated. However, it cannot be the only topic discussed by apologists in the Church because there are other areas which deserve just as much attention that we may be neglecting.

Hypothetically, if tomorrow, the entire scientific community accepted Intelligent Design theory over Darwinian Evolution, would that automatically result in victory for Christianity? Not necessarily. There would still be multiple objections to Christianity which would need answers: Why does God allow evil, pain, and suffering? How do we know that we have a soul? How do we know the intelligent designer isn't Allah? Was Jesus a historical figure? Was the resurrection an adaptation of previous resurrection mythologies? Is the New Testament reliable?

Apologetics is about more than just defeating Darwin's theory of evolution. It is a robust field of study that should be mined by Christians. If the Church's only area of concern is defeating Darwinism at the neglect of other vital subjects, it will produce malnourished apologists, and even worse, malnourished Christians.

We live in a time where twenty-five percent of the North American population identify as religiously unaffiliated.[1] Thus, a defense of the Christian faith must be more than the "boo-Darwinism." but rather a commitment to train and study in areas such as ethics, history, and philosophy. These are the battlefields often neglected by the Church on a popular level but are utilized by skeptics on an academic level. If the Bride of Christ wants to retain the current generation and the future generations, she must look beyond just defeating Darwinism.

Question: Do Christian apologists focus too much on defeating Darwinism? Please comment below!

Footnotes

[1] Gabe Bullard. “The World’s Newest Major Religion: No Religion.” National Geographic. April 22, 2016. Accessed September 18, 2017. http://news.nationalgeographic...