Yes, Virginia, there are Christians who accept evolution. The entire Catholic church, for example.

Even among American Protestants, the majority of denominations accept that science has determined that evolution happened. Its one of the basic underpinnings of most of the biological sciences, and its not even an issue in most religious circles. So I’m always distressed to see well meaning articles by Christians that purport to challenge evolution quoting scientific principles they are unqualified to cite. Its a fire I don’t think we should play with; James 3:1 makes that clear.

I’m not a scientist, I’m a Christian. Most of them are just like me, with a few exceptions. I have a hard time finding what appear to be outright lies … the careful arranging of quotes out of sequence or the use of ellipses to remove important and clarifying information within a single quote, for instance. Cooler heads than mine discuss what we Christians should call such statements by our brothers in the faith (see Quintessence of Dust).

Stephen Matheson at Quintessence uses the phrase “Folk Science” to describe the practice because the proponents truly believe they have found a collection of facts that disprove evolution or supports the Creationist-flavor-of-the-month. But like me, he tends to find that untruths, created erector-set style with quote-mining and selective excising, can be called nothing less than “lies”.

Matheson is the real deal, a developmental cell biologist and Associate Professor of Biology at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. And he’s a Christian. So his critique of what I’ll call the “teachers ignorant of James 3:1″ comes from both the scientific and Christian perspective.

Quintessence is fine reading, and is on my list.