Evolution and Religion

Sorry about the length of time between posts, but I've spent an awful lot of time thinking about this post.

Recently I've been aware that several of my friends and acquaintances fall into one of two camps. One camp is the believers who feel that the theory of evolution is an argument used by others to attack the notion that God exists. The other camp is the sceptic who believes that the theory of evolution can be used to deflate certain of the 'absurd' beliefs endemic to most religions.

I happen to fall into another and much quieter camp, those who believe both in a religion and in evolution (whether Darwinian or a more modern form).

So, you ask, how do I reconcile the two?

My first thought is that God tends to use the most effective and elegant means of addressing his will. To my mind that means that there is no reason why evolution isn't the technique that God chose to use in creating the many and varied creatures on this planet.

Secondly I tend to take very seriously the assertion that God stands somehow outside of our conception of time. This means that to God it makes no difference whether it took 4 billion years of our time for us to evolve or we appeared in an instant. What matters is the result.

Something like evolution is almost required, because one thing that most religions are clear about is the importance of faith. Without evolution or its like, we would be able to point and say we know that a supreme being created us. Where would faith be then?

I also believe that there are reasons why we were created with intelligence; one of them is that we can start to approach an understanding of God (however slight an understanding), by investigating the marvellous universe around us..