LifeWay carries out a lot of interesting research, and this particularly struck me as interesting. A random sample of 1,000 Protestant pastors in the USA were asked about their beliefs when it came to evolution/creation, the literal existence of Adam and Eve, and the age of the earth. Here’s the summary graphic:
Perhaps I’m cynical but I’d have expected far more to lean towards evolution! The most surprising fact for me, however, comes in the detail:
…younger pastors are the least likely age bracket to strongly disagree that the earth is 6,000 years old…24 percent age 18-44 strongly disagree
So, this post-modern, liberal, cynical younger generation of pastors are actually more likely to believe in a ‘young earth’ – who’da thunk it?!
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That is pretty ironic. Somewhat saddening, too, if those young pastors least likely to ‘strongly disagree’ wouldn’t suggest the possibility of other readings for those who struggle to accept their view.
There’s something about being ‘unlikely to strongly disagree with a young earth’ that really confuses me, so I’m not sure exactly what you mean (or possibly what I meant in the first place)…but yep, I suppose any pastor who took the age of the earth (whatever they thought about it) and placed it in the same category as believing in salvation by grace alone should reassess their priorities.
Is judging people for being judgmental allowed?
Double negatives…
One could also ask though: “Is believing in theistic evolution incompatible with Christian doctrine?” Would it mean that you are going to hell or just grieving the Holy Spirit by disbelieving the bible? I wonder what responses you would get from pastors of different ages.
Also would be the different responses between protestant and evangelical pastors?
Yep, interesting questions and obviously getting to the root of the issue (i.e. is a belief in evolution incompatible with an evangelical view of Scripture)…some influential Christian leaders (e.g. C.S. Lewis, J.I. Packer, Tim Keller) don’t mind at all believing wholeheartedly in evolution and seem to have perfectly good reasons for doing so (read the chapter in Tim Keller’s The Reason For God for an explanation of how), so I don’t think the debate is as black-and-white as it would first appear…