“Do you believe in God the Father and the Almighty?” a student asked from the audience.

“What? Am I at Mass?” was the response of John Haught, Georgetown University theologian and author, at his speech titled “God After Darwin” Monday night in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union.

“Do you believe in Jesus Christ?” the student continued.

“What’s your point?” asked Haught.

“Do you believe that God judges sin?” the student grilled.

“I think that’s a question you need to ask the next speaker, next semester or something,” Haught said at a speech that received mixed reactions from a diversely religious audience of about 250 people.

Haught discussed different theologians’ responses, including his own, to the idea of how to conceptualize God after Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and natural selection.

When Darwin’s “Origin of Species” came out in 1959 “the work caused a fierce storm of controversy,” Haught said.

Reasons for this controversy stem from the large differences between religion, especially Christian religions, and Darwin’s theory, he said.

Haught said Darwin’s theory suggests three reasons for variation of species: random chance, individual struggle for survival and blind natural selection.

With this in mind, speaking about God after Darwin is a difficult task, Haught said.

One of the responses comes from the scientific skeptics, he said. According to Haught, Richard Dawkins, a British biologist who worked with genetic coding, says it is the nature of genes to do everything they can to survive.

Dawkins believed that Darwin had given atheism the firmest, strongest hold it’s ever had, Haught said.

Another response stemmed from the “dangerous thought” that demolishes any idea that life was ever planned. This kind of thinker might say, “Evolution is nothing more than the working out of an algorithm,” Haught said.

The third response is that of the scientific creationists, which, according to Haught, really is not based on science at all, especially compared to Darwin’s results that are so complete.

In addition, there are a few different theological reactions beyond the creationists based on the Bible.

“The first theological proposal is that science and religion are so radically different ways of understanding that they shouldn’t be compared, therefore they can’t conflict,” Haught said.

Darwin’s ideas may be accurate, but they bear no threat to theology, he said. He believes the idea that religion and science go together, and that they are compatible.

Haught said, “God created the universe so the universe could actualize itself,” explaining that nature’s autonomy is a gift from God and a reflection of God’s love. “Evolution’s randomness is not a reflection of God’s impotence, but a reflection of a God of love selflessly giving the world its ample scope,” Haught said.