The Creationism debate

Here’s the latest instalment of Theo Hobson’s regular Coffee House column on religion.


Is the Telegraph’s religion correspondent, George Pitcher, a creationist? Last week he came out as one – sort of. But what he really means, he says, is that he believes in creation as a ‘meta-narrative.’ This is not the same thing. It is muddying the waters to confuse creation-faith with creationism. All Christians believe in God’s creation of the world – but if they are thoughtful and honest they will admit that this is a hugely problematic matter, which more or less defies rational explanation. Creationists are Christians who cannot admit this, who need a pseudo-scientific account of God’s creation, which is of course incompatible with evolution.

Post-Darwinian Christianity is faced with a choice: to accept this difficulty, or to run from it. This dilemma is the subject of one of the best memoirs ever written: Edmund Gosse’s Father and Son.