Theistic evolution

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Part of the series on Creationism

History of creationism Creation in Genesis Genesis as an allegory

Types of creationism: Creation science Intelligent design Islamic creationism Modern geocentrism Neo-Creationism Omphalos creationism Old Earth creationism Progressive creationism Theistic evolution Young Earth creationism

Controversy: Creation vs. evolution ... in public education Associated articles Teach the Controversy

Theistic evolution, less commonly known as evolutionary creationism, is not a theory in the scientific sense, but a particular view about how the science of evolution relates to some religious interpretations. More specifically, it is the general opinion that some or all classical religious teachings about God and creation are compatible with some or all of the human understanding about biological evolution.

Theistic evolutionists may believe either 1) that evolution (namely macroevolution) is a viable biological mechanism but was guided by God for the determination of species, or 2) that it is not viable and each genetic alteration leading to a new species required God's intervention. Both camps accept the notion of a last universal ancestor. This is distinguised from Progressive Creationism. Theistic evolution does not deal with the origin of life.

This notion is accepted (or at least not rejected) by major Christian churches, including Roman Catholicism and most mainline Protestant denominations; some Jewish denominations; and other religious groups that lack a literalist stance concerning holy scriptures. Some evangelical Christians, including evangelist Billy Graham, are also open to theistic evolution.

With this approach toward evolution, scriptural creation stories are typically interpreted as being allegorical in nature. Both Jews and Christians have been considering the idea of the creation history as an allegory (instead of an historical description) long before the development of Darwin's theory, two notable examples being the writings of Philo of Alexandria (1st century) and St. Augustine (4th century). [2] [3] Today, many individuals stress the unreliability of Genesis as a scientific text, believing that God guided an evolution of life up to humans.

The term evolutionary creationism is used in particular for beliefs in which God transcends normal time and space, with nature having no existence independent of his will. It allows interpretations consistent with both a literal Genesis and objective science, in which, for example, the events of creation occurred outside time as we know it.

Contents 1 Definition 2 Spectrum of viewpoints 2.1 Deism 2.2 Christianity 2.2.1 The creation history 2.2.2 Contemporary Christian denominations 2.2.2.1 Anglicanism 2.2.2.2 Roman Catholic Church 2.3 Islam 2.4 Judaism 2.5 Other variants 3 Evolutionary biologists who were also theists 4 Contemporary advocates of evolutionary creationism 5 Critique 6 Response to critique 7 “Intelligent design” 8 See also 9 References 10 External links 10.1 Proponents of theistic evolution 10.2 Opponents of theistic evolution

[edit] Definition

	....creationism has come to mean some fundamentalistic, literal, scientific interpretation of Genesis. Judaic-Christian faith is radically creationist, but in a totally different sense. It is rooted in a belief that everything depends upon God, or better, all is a gift from God.
—Fr George Coyne, Director, Vatican Observatory, 1978-2006

Theistic evolution holds that the religious acceptance of evolutionary biology is not fundamentally different from the acceptance of other sciences, such as astronomy or meteorology. The latter two are also based on a methodological assumption of naturalism to study and explain the natural world, without assuming the existence or nonexistence of the supernatural. In this view, it is held both religiously and scientifically correct to reinterpret ancient religious texts in line with modern-day scientific findings about evolution.

This synthesis of the teleology underlying faith and religious teachings with science can still be described as creationism in holding that divine intervention brought about the origin of life or that divine Laws govern formation of species, but in the creation-evolution controversy its proponents generally take the "evolutionist" side. For this reason, some on both sides prefer to use the term "theistic evolution" over "evolutionary creationism" to describe this belief.

[edit] Spectrum of viewpoints

Evolutionary creationism describes an approach to the biological world that accepts the scientific concepts of microevolution and macroevolution while retaining the theistic belief that the world is ultimately the result of divine creation, of which evolution is held to be the mechanism.

As cited below, several religious organizations accept evolutionary theory, though their related theological interpretations vary. Additionally, individuals or movements within such organizations may not accept evolution, and stances on evolution may have adapted (or evolved) throughout history.

See also sections of Abrahamic creationism on "The Christian Critique of Creationism" and "The western world outside the United States".

[edit] Deism

Deism is belief in a God or first cause based on reason, rather than on faith or revelation. Most Deists believe that God does not interfere with the world or create miracles. Some deists believe that a Divine Creator initiated a universe in which evolution occurred, by designing the system and the natural laws, although many deists believe that God also created life itself, before allowing it to be subject to evolution. They find it to be undignified and unwieldy for a deity to make constant adjustments rather than letting evolution elegantly adapt organisms to changing environments.

One good example of this is the recent (December 2004) conversion to deism of the former atheist philosopher Professor Antony Flew, who now argues that recent research into the origins of life supports the theory that some form of intelligence was involved. Whilst accepting subsequent Darwinian evolution, Flew argues that this cannot explain the complexities of the origins of life. He also stated that the investigation of DNA "has shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce [life], that intelligence must have been involved", though he subsequently retracted this statement in an interview with Joan Bakewell for BBC Radio 4 in March 2005.

Some Deists contend that God ceased to exist after setting in motion the laws of the universe.

[edit] Christianity

[edit] The creation history

See also: Allegorical interpretations of Genesis

Evolution contradicts a literal interpretation of Genesis; however, according to Roman Catholicism and most contemporary Protestant Churches, Biblical literalism is not mandatory. Christians have been considering allegorical interpretations of Genesis long before the development of Darwin's theory of evolution. A notable example is St. Augustine (4th century), who, on theological grounds, argued that everything in the universe was created by God in the same instant, and not in six days as a plain account of Genesis would require. [4]

[edit] Contemporary Christian denominations

Many denominations of Christianity support or accept theistic evolution. Particular instances are noted below:

[edit] Anglicanism

Although Anglicans (including the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, the Church of England and others) believe that the Bible "contains all things necessary to salvation," nonetheless "science and Christian theology can complement one another in the quest for truth and understanding." Specifically on the subject of creation/evolution, Anglicans view "Big Bang cosmology" as being "in tune with both the concepts of creation out of nothing and continuous creation." Their position is clearly set out in the Catechism of Creation Part II: Creation and Science. In an interview, the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams expressed his thought that "creationism is, in a sense, a kind of category mistake, as if the Bible were a theory like other theories. Whatever the biblical account of creation is, it's not a theory alongside theories.... My worry is creationism can end up reducing the doctrine of creation rather than enhancing it." His view is that creationism should not be taught in schools.

[edit] Roman Catholic Church

Main article: Evolution and the Roman Catholic Church

The position of the Roman Catholic Church on the theory of evolution has changed over the last two centuries from a large period of no official mention, to a statement of neutrality in the 1950s, to a more explicit acceptance in recent years. The Church has always agreed with scientists on matters such as the age of the earth and the authenticity of the fossil record. Papal pronouncements, along with commentaries by cardinals, have accepted the findings of scientists on the gradual appearance of life. The Church's stance is that this gradual appearance has been guided in some way by God, but the Church has thus far declined to define in what way that may be. Commentators tend to interpret the Church's position in the way most favorable to their own arguments.

The official Church's position remains a focus of controversy and is fairly non-specific, stating only that faith and scientific findings regarding the evolution of man's material body are not in conflict, and that the existence of God is required to explain the spiritual component of man's origins.

[edit] Islam

Some Muslims believe in evolutionary creationism, especially among the Liberal movements within Islam. More literalist Muslims, including followers of Wahhabism, reject origin of species from a common ancestor by evolution as incompatible with the Qur'an. However, even amongst Muslims who accept evolution, many believe that humanity was a special creation by God. For example, Shaikh Nuh Ha Mim Keller, an American Muslim and specialist in Islamic law has argued in Islam and Evolution that a belief in macroevolution is not incompatible with Islam, as long as it is accepted that "Allah is the Creator of everything" (Qur'an 13:16) and that Allah specifically created humanity (in the person of Adam; Qur'an 38:71-76). Shaikh Keller clearly states in his conclusion however:

"As for claim that man has evolved from a non-human species, this is unbelief (kufr) no matter if we ascribe the process to Allah or to "nature," because it negates the truth of Adam's special creation that Allah has revealed in the Qur'an. Man is of special origin, attested to not only by revelation, but also by the divine secret within him, the capacity for ma'rifa or knowledge of the Divine that he alone of all things possesses. By his God-given nature, man stands before a door opening onto infinitude that no other creature in the universe can aspire to. Man is something else."

One of the main criticisms of evolution by Muslims is their assertion that it was created by and supports atheism, and so it is argued that it should be rejected (see for example, Why Darwinism is Incompatible With the Qur'an).

See also Islamic creationism.

[edit] Judaism

An example of allegorical understanding of the creation history among Jews is the 1st century Jewish scholar Philo of Alexandria, who wrote that it would be a mistake to think that creation happened in six days, or in any set amount of time. [5].

In general, the major denominations of Judaism accept theistic evolution, with the exception of some Orthodox groups. The general approach of advocates of theistic evolution within Judaism is that the creation account in the Torah is not to be taken as a literal text, but rather as a symbolic work.

See also Jewish creationism.

[edit] Other variants

Another perspective is that a Divine Creator engineers quantum events, in a manner which is apparently random, thus exercising authoritative power over nature. Alternatively, a Divine Creator may intervene through miracles, in the creation of souls, in an afterlife, or ways beyond known physics.

[edit] Evolutionary biologists who were also theists

Although evolutionary biologists have often been agnostics (most notably Thomas Huxley and Charles Darwin) or atheists (most notably Richard Dawkins), from the outset many have had a belief in some form of theism. These have included Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913), who in a joint paper with Charles Darwin in 1858, proposed the theory of evolution by natural selection. Wallace was effectively a deist who believed that "the unseen universe of Spirit" had interceded to create life as well as consciousness in animals and (separately) in humans.

An early example of this kind of approach came from computing pioneer Charles Babbage who published his unofficial Ninth Bridgewater Treatise in 1837, putting forward the thesis that God had the omnipotence and foresight to create as a divine legislator, making laws (or programs) which then produced species at the appropriate times, rather than continually interfering with ad hoc miracles each time a new species was required.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955) was a noted geologist and paleontologist as well as a Jesuit Priest who wrote extensively on the subject of incorporating evolution into a new understanding of Christianity. Initially suppressed by the Catholic Church, his theological work has had considerable influence and is widely taught in Catholic and most mainline Protestant seminaries.

Both Ronald Fisher (1890–1962) and Theodosius Dobzhansky (1900–1975), were Christians and architects of the modern evolutionary synthesis. Dobzhansky, a Russian Orthodox, wrote a famous 1973 essay entitled Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution espousing evolutionary creationism:

"I am a creationist and an evolutionist. Evolution is God's, or Nature's, method of creation. Creation is not an event that happened in 4004 BC; it is a process that began some 10 billion years ago and is still under way... Does the evolutionary doctrine clash with religious faith? It does not. It is a blunder to mistake the Holy Scriptures for elementary textbooks of astronomy, geology, biology, and anthropology. Only if symbols are construed to mean what they are not intended to mean can there arise imaginary, insoluble conflicts... the blunder leads to blasphemy: the Creator is accused of systematic deceitfulness."

[edit] Contemporary advocates of evolutionary creationism

Contemporary biologists and geologists who are Christians and evolutionary creationists include

• Kenneth R. Miller, professor of biology at Brown University, author of Finding Darwin's God (Cliff Street Books, 1999), in which he states his belief in God and argues that "evolution is the key to understanding God." Dr. Miller has also called himself "an orthodox Catholic and an orthodox Darwinist" (the 2001 PBS special "Evolution"). His book has been strongly criticised by creationists.[6]
• Derek Burke, Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Warwick;
• R. J. Berry, Professor of Genetics at University College London;
• evangelical Christian and geologist Keith B. Miller (no relation to Kenneth) of Kansas State University, who compiled an anthology Perspectives on an Evolving Creation (Eerdmans, 2003);
• biologist Denis Lamoureux of St. Joseph's College, University of Alberta, Canada who has co-authored with evolution critic Phillip E. Johnson Darwinism Defeated? The Johnson-Lamoureux Debate on Biological Origins (Regent College, 1999);
• biologist Darrel Falk of Point Loma Nazarene University, author of Coming to Peace with Science;
• paleontologist Robert T. Bakker;
• microbiologist Richard G. Colling of Olivet Nazarene University, author of the book Random Designer;
• paleobiologist Prof. Simon Conway Morris of Cambridge University, well known for his groundbreaking work on the Burgess Shale fossils and the Cambrian explosion, and author of Life's Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe.
• Francis S. Collins, geneticist, physician, mathematician and chemist; former president of the Human Genome Project and author of The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief and other works.

Philosophers, theologians, and physical scientists who have supported the evolutionary creationist model include

• theologian-philosopher John Haught of Georgetown University;
• theologian Rev. Keith Ward, former Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, author of God, Chance, and Necessity;
• physicist and theologian Rev. John Polkinghorne of Cambridge University;
• theologian-philosopher Thomas Jay Oord of Northwest Nazarene University
• Fr. George Coyne of the Vatican Observatory.
• Eco-theologian Fr. Thomas Berry

[edit] Critique

The major criticism of theistic evolution by non-theistic evolutionists focuses on its essential belief in a supernatural creator, for whom there is no place within the framework of scientific philosophy and its methodological requirements of naturalism and falsifiability. By the application of Occam's razor, sufficient explanation of the phenomena of evolution is provided for non-theistic evolutionists by the principle of natural selection, and the intervention or direction of a supernatural entity is not required. As an illustration of this basic position, Robert Todd Carroll contends that "the universe would appear the same to us whether it was designed by God or not" (The Skeptic's Dictionary).

Another criticism of some forms of evolutionary creationism (especially those of deists) is that they are simply a belief in a God of the gaps, where anything that cannot currently be explained by science is attributed to God. For example, the physicist Dr. Paul Davies has stated: "I flatly reject the argument that the origin of life was some sort of miracle. To be sure, we don't yet know how it happened, but that doesn't mean a cosmic magician is needed to prod atoms around." Theists reject evolution primarily on the basis of their scriptures. Most monotheistic scriptures contain a creation story describing an event in which animals and humans are instantly created by a supernatural being, typically each in a different way, which contradicts the process of natural selection if taken literally.

Young Earth creationists criticise theistic evolution on theological grounds, regarding it as adopting an unbiblical view of history and capitulating to Godless naturalism (What's wrong with theistic evolution?). (See also External links).

[edit] Response to critique

A theistic evolutionist who fully accepts the scientific view of evolution and at the same time has a personal philosophical acceptance of a creator, and for whom these two separate ideas coalesce to form a comprehensive worldview, sees no justification for dismissing supernatural direction of the evolutionary process. Theistic evolutionists also note that in science materialism and naturalism serve specifcally methodological, not ontological, ends. Among other things, this means that the question of the existence of a supernatural creator is outside science's terms of reference.

Theistic evolutionists respond to the challenge concerning the rôle of God in the evolutionary process with a fundamental counter-challenge: to account for the existence of our universe, structured so as to favour the origin and evolution of life (the anthropic principle), without recourse to a creating and sustaining deity.

[edit] “Intelligent design”

Some adherents of theistic evolution hold that the deity both designed the universe and has a continuing part in its development, and feel that a term they favour has been hijacked by the proponents of the viewpoint called "Intelligent design" (which is in effect a form of "literal" creationism, denying the principal tenets of the theory of evolution). Statements to this effect have been made by Kenneth R. Miller and Charles Townes, amongst others.

[edit] See also

• Atheism
• Biblical cosmology
• Cosmogony
• Cosmological argument
• Creator god
• Deism
• Existence
• Natural theology
• Arthur Peacocke
• Theism
• Timeline of the Big Bang
• Timeline of the Universe
• Ultimate fate of the universe

[edit] References

• Miller, Kenneth R.; (1999) Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution ISBN 0-06-093049-7
• Miller, Keith B.; (2003) Perspectives on an Evolving Creation ISBN 0-8028-0512-4
• Falk, Darrel; (2004) Coming to Peace with Science: Bridging the Worlds Between Faith and Biology ISBN 0-8308-2742-0

[edit] External links

• What is Creationism? by Mark Isaak, presents various forms of creationism
• What is Evolution? by Laurence Moran, presents a standard definition for evolution
• Answers In Creation old earth creationism, but open to theistic evolution
• Evolution & Creation: A Theosophic Synthesis Surveys critical problems in Darwinist explanations and common theistic views; explores ancient and modern "excluded middle" alternatives
• US Catholic News - Creationists Hijack Intelligent Design
• Nobel Prize winner Charles Townes on evolution and "intelligent design"
• Spectrum of Creation Beliefs From Flat Earthism to Atheistic Evolutionism, including Theistic Evolution

[edit] Proponents of theistic evolution

• Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution by Theodosius Dobzhansky (see also: Wikipedia's article)
• Kenneth R Miller's homepage
• God and Evolution — part of the talk.origins Archive
• Message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences: On Evolution subtitled "Truth Cannot Contradict Truth", by Pope John Paul II, 22 October 1996.
• On Cosmology and Fundamental Physics, by Pope John Paul II, 3 October 1981.
• Communion and Stewardship: Human Persons Created in the Image of God Statement on creation and evolution from the International Theological Commission headed by Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), 23 July 2004.
• Science Does Not Need God, or Does It? A Catholic Scientist Looks at Evolution transcript of talk by astronomer George V. Coyne, S.J.
• Perspectives on Theistic Evolution An examination of both the theological and scientific aspects of theistic evolution.
• The "Clergy Letter" Project signed by thousands of clergy supporting evolution and faith
• DMD Publishing Co. home page Essays arguing that even a literal treatment of Genesis requires theistic evolution.
• Thomas Jay Oord Science of Love: The Wisdom of Well-Being, Templeton, 2003.
• Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Le Milieu Divin: Essaie de Vie Intérieuré Seuil (1 Jan 1998) ISBN 2-02-020136-4

[edit] Opponents of theistic evolution

• About Atheism on the topic
• Answers in Genesis
• Why is evolution so dangerous for Christians to believe? (articles from Creation Ministries International)
• Institute for Creation Research
  • The Compromise Road by Henry Morris
• Saving the Appearances: A study in Idolatry (ISBN 0-8195-6205-X) by Owen Barfield
• What's wrong with theistic evolution? by Answers Depot