To ask the question "What is evolution?" can result in a variety of responses.  Evolution is something everyone has heard about.  Most people have formed opinions.  Yet evolution is something few Christians have bothered to research.  Evolution can be touted as fact, taught as theory, scrutinized as a working hypothesis, preached as philosophy, or propagated as a lie.  Certainly evolution cannot be all of these at the same time - or can it?

While everyone tosses the word around, almost no one offers a definition.  Critics and defenders alike attempt to avoid definitions because: (1) carelessly they assume their listeners already know what they are talking about; (2) it is a multi-faceted subject that resists one simple comprehensive definition; and (3) they do not want to show their ignorance on a subject in which they are supposed to be authorities.

Just agreeing on a definition can be troublesome.  For starters, we can categorize evolution as theistic or atheistic, micro or macro, phenotypical or genotypical.  Evolutionary theories such as Darwinism, Punctuated Equilibrium, and Catastrophism compete for prominence.  Scientific theories of evolution are distinct from the philosophy of evolution, sometimes called evolutionism.  Also, evolution can be broken down into component parts such as biochemical, biomorphical, biolineal, and biological.

It should be obvious that one catch-all definition will not work with this subject, although many people equate evolution with Darwinism.  Richard Dawkins defines Darwinism thus:  "In essence it amounts simply to the idea that non-random reproduction, where there is hereditary variation, has consequences that are far-reaching if there is time for them to be cumulative."

The easiest way to think of evolution is to consider it simply as change through time or descent with modification.  It says nothing about ultimate origins, whether God created life, or whether life was seeded from space dust, or arose out of a primordial soup.  That is an open question evolution is not equipped to address.  Once life has started, the theory states, random genetic drift that occurs in a population and natural selection determines the future of its offspring.

Whether the environment can affect change on its own, or whether God invokes divine intervention from time to time to alter the outcome are questions that have been raised, but as yet neither of these ideas have gained traction in the scientific community.