Growing up in church, many of us learned a creation story that felt airtight: six days, all life created from scratch and Adam formed from dust as the grand finale.
Then came your earth science class.
Suddenly, we were faced with a different narrative: life emerged gradually over billions of years through natural processes. Evolution wasn’t just a theory — it was presented as the bedrock of modern science. And somewhere between Genesis and genetics, Christians were left asking: Can both be true?
The question isn’t about picking a side in a culture war. It’s about reconciling two things we’re told are both true — our faith and what science shows us. The good news is that the tension isn’t nearly as irreconcilable as it might seem.
In fact, there’s a growing community of Christians who say you don’t have to choose.
At BioLogos, a science and faith organization founded by geneticist Dr. Francis Collins, the term for this middle way is “evolutionary creation.” Not “theistic evolution,” which suggests evolution with a sprinkle of God on top, but a view that starts from faith: God created everything. Evolution is just the scientific descriptor of how.
Evolutionary creationists affirm the core beliefs of the historic Christian faith — God as creator, the Trinity, the full humanity and divinity of Jesus, the resurrection, salvation by grace, the authority of Scripture. They also accept evolution as the best scientific explanation for how life on Earth has changed over time.
That means they believe all species, including humans, share common ancestry. But instead of seeing that as a threat to Christian identity, they see it as part of God’s creative genius.
Collins, who led the Human Genome Project and served as director of the National Institutes of Health, has long argued that science and faith are not enemies.
“The God of the Bible is also the God of the genome,” he wrote. “God can be found in the cathedral or in the laboratory. By investigating God’s majestic and awesome creation, science can actually be a means of worship.”
Collins coined the term BioLogos as a reframe of “theistic evolution,” a label he felt often misrepresented what Christians actually believe. One issue, he explained, is that it can imply God is a passive observer of natural laws. But evolutionary creation starts with the conviction that God is the active, present creator — evolution simply describes how he works.
“Science reveals the order and majesty of God’s creation,” Collins said. “Faith answers the questions that science can’t — why we are here, what our purpose is, how we should live.”
One of the biggest sticking points for many is the story of Adam and Eve. If humans evolved, how does the Garden of Eden fit into the picture? Evolutionary creationists don’t all agree on the answer. Some believe Adam and Eve were historical figures specially chosen by God from among early humans. Others read the story as a symbolic account of humanity’s spiritual awakening. All agree, though, that humans are made in the image of God, bear moral responsibility and are in need of redemption.
And while evolution is often assumed to be random and purposeless, Collins suggests that randomness isn’t the enemy of divine intent.
“Evolution could appear to us to be driven by chance,” he said. “But from God’s perspective, the outcome would be entirely specified.” In other words, what looks like randomness on a molecular level can still be part of a God-ordained design.
None of this means taking the Bible less seriously. Evolutionary creationists are deeply committed to Scripture as inspired and authoritative. But they also understand that the Bible was written in an ancient, pre-scientific world, and speaks in poetic, narrative and theological terms — not in charts and formulas. Genesis is not a lab report. It’s a declaration that the universe is ordered, intentional and good, and that humans are created for relationship with their Maker.
Science, on the other hand, tells us about mechanisms — how cells divide, how galaxies form, how species adapt. It’s not equipped to answer the deepest questions of existence, love, justice or grace. But when science and Scripture are viewed together, each illuminates the other.
As Collins wrote in The Language of God, “There is no conflict in being a rigorous scientist and a person who believes in a God who takes a personal interest in each one of us.”
This approach doesn’t deny miracles, the resurrection or divine intervention. It simply allows room for both the supernatural and the natural, trusting that God can work through both. The process of evolution doesn’t erase God’s hand — it reveals just how vast and intricate it is.
It also opens up space for deeper theological reflection. Instead of clinging to rigid literalism out of fear, evolutionary creation invites believers to engage with both Scripture and science with curiosity and wonder. It welcomes difficult questions and ongoing dialogue. It offers a faith that doesn’t flinch at fossil records, carbon dating or genetic evidence. And perhaps most importantly, it frees young Christians from feeling like they have to suspend intellectual honesty in order to remain faithful.
Collins often compares the work of scientists to “thinking God’s thoughts after him,” borrowing a phrase from Johannes Kepler. In that light, studying the natural world is not a threat to faith — it’s an invitation to worship.
For a generation raised on both TikTok and TED Talks, many of whom are deeply skeptical of dogmatism and drawn to authenticity, this framework is a breath of fresh air. It’s not about pitting belief against biology. It’s about stepping into a bigger story — a story where God is still creating, still speaking and still calling us to live in awe of both the Scriptures and the stars.
So where does evolution fit into the creation story?
Right where it’s always been: woven into the fabric of a world that’s been God-breathed from the very beginning.
