Although I am a conservative evangelical who leans toward a young Earth, I have always insisted that a literal six-day creation must not be a litmus test for orthodox Christianity. But that does not mean I am “soft” on Darwin. Many would argue, as I once did, that the Christian faith does not rest on what one thinks about Darwinism. While that may be true theoretically, the practical result among college students is often quite different.
As I have seen many times over my teaching career, a college student may, for a time, embrace Darwinism and maintain an allegiance to the Nicene Creed, but the naturalistic worldview that undergirds Darwinism will, too often, slowly wear away at his faith. First, he will come to see his fellow Christians who do not embrace Darwinism as backward, uneducated, and close-minded. Second, he will come to doubt the authority of church leaders, the church, and finally, the Bible. Worse yet, he will come to feel superior both to the church and to the Bible, patting himself on the back for his liberation from what he now falsely considers to be the anti-science ethos of the Christians he once respected.
Over the last 10 years, I have seen the same insidious process happen to college students who, wanting to be fashionable, progressive, and/or compassionate, embrace critical theories and social justice ideologies related to race, class, the sexes, and sexuality. At first, they cling to the Bible, often so that they can mine it for
