Online Missions Trip Day 4

Erin the Evolutionist: Erin calls herself an atheistic evolutionist because she believes the human race evolved from less complex life forms as a result of random mutations over millions of years. Erin also believes that the either universe has always been around, or came about as a result of a huge cosmic "bang". Atheistic evolutionists believe there was no Supreme Being or Intelligent Designer involved in the development of human life. Theistic evolutionists believe an Intelligent Designer played some role in the origin of human life.

Things to Remember:

If someone says they believe in evolution, it doesn't necessarily mean they don't believe in God. Erin believes in atheistic evolution, which means evolution that happened completely by chance. There are also Christians who believe God used the process of evolution to create life. They are called Theistic evolutionists.

Your goal is not to disprove evolution, because a person can believe in evolution and be a Christian. Because of this, don't get into endless debate about whether we evolved from lower life forms. It is a much more effective strategy to get to the place where you have a discussion about how both evolutionists and Christians are exercising some measure of faith in their view of where life came from.

Like Alisha the Agnostic, talk to Erin about the observable evidence of God that is built in to creation like how "fine tuned" the universe is to support life, otherwise we wouldn't even exist. This fine tuning simply could not have happened by accident. For example, the earth is the perfect distance from the sun. If it were just a few miles closer, we'd all burn up. A few miles further out, and we'd all freeze to death!

Also like Alisha the Agnostic, try to work what is called "Paschal's Wager" into the conversation - which goes something like this: It makes more sense to believe in God than to not believe. If you believe, and God exists, you will be rewarded in the afterlife. If you do not believe, and He exists, you will be punished for your disbelief. If He does not exist, you have lost nothing either way.

If they ask questions like: "how do you know which God?" - focus on the claims of Christ as being the only way and his proving it by coming back from the dead. Remember to bring this up as a conversation starter, and not as an intimidating threat.

Bottom line with an evolutionist: (and anyone else, for that matter) You cannot argue someone to faith in Christ, but you can (and should) live such a Christlike life that those around you sense something different, which opens the door for you to explain the "evidence."