Creation vs. Evolution - Theistic Evolution
by: Jerry Price - Nov 1, 2005 - comments: 3
“Darwinism is unbeatable as long as one accepts the thought categories of scientific naturalism that I have been describing. The problem is that those same thought categories relegate Christian theism, or any other theism, to the never-never land of subjective belief. If science has exclusive authority to tell us how life was created, and if science is committed to naturalism, and if science never discards a paradigm until it is presented with an acceptable naturalistic alternative, then Darwinism’s position is impregnable within science. The same reasoning that makes Darwinism inevitable, however, also bans God from taking any action within the history of the cosmos, which means that it makes theism illusory. Theistic naturalism is self-contradictory … Once we put God into the picture, there is no good reason to attribute the creation of biological complexity to random mutation and natural selection. Direct evidence that these mechanisms have substantial creative power is not to be found in nature, the laboratory or the fossil record. An essential step in the reasoning that establishes that Darwinian selection created the wonders of biology, therefore, is that nothing else was available. Theism is by definition the doctrine that something else was available.”
Phillip E. Johnson, Objections Sustained: Subversive Essays on Evolution, Law & Culture (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998), 30-31.
“Theistic evolutionists claim the Bible teaches that God created the world and humanity, but it does not tell us how He did it. Mixing their interpretation of Scripture with what they consider to be scientific evidence for evolution, theistic evolutionists conclude that God initially began creation, and then He directed and controlled the processes of naturalistic evolution to produce the universe as we know it today. God acted as a kind of ‘impersonal life force inherent in the system.’ He allegedly entered into the process of time on occasion to modify what was developing … Most theistic evolutionists hold to the day-age theory, though some believe the ‘days’ in Genesis are ‘revelatory days’ when God gave revelation about the creation … Theistic evolutionists typically deny the historicity of Adam and Eve (as direct creations of God) in the book of Genesis. They generally argue that at some point in the process of evolution, God took an already-existing higher primate (an ape), modified it, put a soul within it, and transformed it into Adam, in the ‘image of God.’ (God also transformed an existing female higher primate into Eve.) In this view, then, God directly created the spiritual nature of humanity, but the physical nature was a product of evolution.
“Theistic evolutionists recognize that this seems to disagree with the statement in Genesis 2:7 that God created Adam from the dust of the ground, so they reinterpret ‘dust of the ground’ metaphorically to refer to previously existing animals. By taking a non-literal approach to Genesis, theistic evolutionists are able to fit their evolutionist views into it.”
Ron Rhodes, The 10 Things You Should Know About the Creation Vs. Evolution Debate (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2004), 57-58.
Further Learning
Learn more about: Science, Creation/Evolution
3 comments (post your own) feed
1 On Oct 12th, 2006, at 9:29pm, jenny garcia wrote:
I thoght that your theistic evolution was very
helpful it was just so clear, so clear that
any one can understand
Thank you sincerly jenny
2 On Jan 14th, 2008, at 9:29am, Travis Bender wrote:
very interesting...i personally believe in a literal 6-day creation and that God did not just create and leave the earth to evolve on its own. God is intimately involved in His creation and did not create and simply stand back and watch it all happen…
3 On Feb 27th, 2008, at 11:45pm, Jeff wrote:
I don’t think that by supporting theistic evolution one is saying that God just “stood by” to “watch” the world evolve on its “own.” It seems theistic evolution gives strong support to God’s love of His creation and spending time perfecting it. We are created for His glory, and what is more glorious than the creation of God’s one true pride and joy? Random genetic mutations and natural selection are not random or natural at all. They are not ordinary or coincidence but a very careful planned event. Even today God doesn’t micromanage everything with meticulous detail. He set existence in motion with an intricate plan from the start and put humans in charge of this world. We are to be its caretakers as God created us to be.