In a YouGov poll of 30 books, 2,044 British adults were asked to rank the books from the most valuable to the least valuable to humanity. By a narrow margin—only 2 percent—the Bible beat out Darwin’s The Origin of Species. The Bible received 37 percent, while Darwin’s book came in at 35 percent.
Other books, chosen by the Folio Society for this survey, came in as follows: A Brief History of Time (17%), Relativity (15%), Nineteen Eighty-Four (14%), Principia Mathematica (12%), To Kill a Mockingbird (10%), The Qur’an (9%), The Wealth of Nations (7%), and The Double Helix (6%). [1]
The BBC reported, “There was some disparity among men and women, with men choosing On the Origin of Species as their number one most influential book, claiming that it answers ‘the fundamental questions of human existence.’ ” Women, on the other hand, more often favored the Bible, “which they argued contains the ‘guidelines to be a good person.’ ” [2]
It is certainly intriguing that the two books that ranked the highest to each other are fundamentally opposite in their views on the “fundamental questions of human existence.” Even the editorial director of the Folio Society noticed this polarization, describing it as a “more balanced approach to ideas [in the realms of science and religion] for the modern reader.” [3]
While efforts to harmonize these two diametrically opposed world views have been made through theories like theistic evolution (God working through evolution), the Bible leaves little, if any, room for any long ages of life evolving. It simply states in the very first verse of the entire book: “In the beginning God created…” (Genesis 1:1).
It is a distortion of Scripture to suppose that the Word of God does not address the fundamental questions of human existence. In fact, the issue of origins is so important that the Bible begins with the issue. The word “Genesis” actually means “beginnings.”
We can trust the Bible. It is not an outdated view of origins. There is no need to “cut and paste” its description of creation in order to make it scientifically valid. The earth was created in six days, not over millions of years. Attempting to mesh God and Darwin only results in a twisted view of the true Creator … and Redeemer.
After all, If humans evolved through eons of time in life-death cycles, then the story of the fall and entrance of sin is meaningless. And if disobedience to God’s law did not lead to death, the entire plan of salvation has no purpose.
It’s revealing that the Bible and On the Origin ofSpecies struggle for first place in human culture. It’s a controversy that has been going on for a long time. The stakes are as high as ever.