Plantinga's Essay- Part 1 (The Simple Question)

When Faith and Reason Clash:
Evolution and the Bible.

Alvin PlantingaUniversity of Notre Dame
Notre Dame IN 46556

Christian Scholar's Review XXI:1 (September 1991): 8-33.

My question is simple: how shall we Christians deal with apparent conflicts between faith and reason, between what we know as Christians and what we know in other ways, between teaching of the Bible and the teachings of science?

My first question is- What does Plantinga mean by “what we know as Christians” and “what we know in other ways”? I hope he clears this up, because as it stands it is unclear what he means by this. Is he advocating a fragmented Christian Epistemology of some sorts, like a Jenga tower, built by its individual blocks? Or perhaps something like an epistemological stew, where the whole is made up of its parts (special revelation, empiricism, reflection, …and so on).

The paradigm of the Bible vs. science is so entrenched in modern thought that I wonder if we are even allowed to question its accuracy. Is there really a wall dividing the two?

I should point out here that one topic I am bent on pursuing on this blog is the nature and limits of scientific inquiry. Without going into too much detail, it should be pointed out that the teachings of the Bible are encountered through the senses, but their origin lies with God and His divinely appointed message to us as his creatures. Science, on the other hand, is rooted in the senses and has its origin in the employment of rational principles (logical deduction, induction, and the like) and methodologies (testing, observing, measuring, and other empirical avenues) to determine aspects of the universe and ourselves. This is a point that, in my opinion, many Christian philosophers, theologians, and everyday men and women miss in this whole discussion. The nature of these two "sources" of knowledge is vastly different. Their reach will be constrained by their nature. That is a point worth and returning to many times over.

As a special case, how shall we deal with apparent conflicts between what the Bible initially seems to tell us about the origin and development of life, and what contemporary science seems to tell us about it? Taken at face value, the Bible seems to teach that God created the world relatively recently, that he created life by way of several separate acts of creation, that in another separate act of creation, he created an original human pair, Adam and Eve, and that these our original parents disobeyed God, thereby bringing ruinous calamity on themselves, their posterity and the rest of creation.

According to contemporary science, on the other hand, the universe is exceedingly old-some 15 or 16 billion years or so, give or take a billion or two. The earth is much younger, maybe 4 1/2 billion years old, but still hardly a spring chicken. Primitive life arose on earth perhaps 3 1/2 billion years ago, by virtue of processes that are completely natural if so far not well understood; and subsequent forms of life developed from these aboriginal forms by way of natural processes, the most popular candidates being perhaps random genetic mutation and natural selection

So, Plantinga has placed the question before us- What are we to do with the apparent conflict between faith and reason? And has now started with a specific problem: What do we do with the biblical story of creation and contemporary science’s take on things? The contrast is obvious of course.


I find it interesting that most people who study the topic of evolution and the Bible admit that Genesis (written as historical narrative) sure seems to relate an account of special creation by God himself in an understandable and clear manner. Note Plantinga’s own words- “Taken at face value, the Bible seems to teach that God created the world relatively recently, that he created life by way of several separate acts of creation…” This is seems to be a tacit admission that the Young Earth Creationist (YEC) position is based upon a solid exegetical understanding of the text.


With that aside, Plantinga has laid out the dilemma before us. Contemporary science (CS) paints a picture that seems to be squarely at odds with biblical teaching. It seems that we as Christians are in dire straits. We either hold to biblical teaching and become ignorant fideists, or we embrace the teachings of CS, and thus become foolish in wanting to still hold on to the Bible as truth.