Theistic evolution

Evolutionary creationism encompasses the concept of theistic evolution, a synthesis of the religious belief in a creator God with the scientific theory of evolution. It holds that these two beliefs are not incompatible, and that the acceptance of evolutionary biology is not fundamentally different from the acceptance of other sciences, such as astronomy or meteorology.

Spectrum of viewpoints

Evolutionary creationism is at one end of the spectrum of creationist viewpoints. It differs from Old Earth Creationism in its acceptance of both microevolution and macroevolution; it differs from atheist, materialistic evolutionism in its belief in a God or gods. It is fully compatible with certain interpretations of Day-Age Creationism.

Theistic evolution is accepted (or at least not rejected) by most major Christian churches, some Judaism denominations and other religious organizations that don't subscribe to a literalist position with regards to their scriptures.

Deism

In one variant of theistic evolution, the creator is seen as having set in motion a universe in which evolution occurred. God designed the system and the laws, and does not interfere except in some important miracles. Theologically, this is equivalent to Deism.

Other variants

Another perspective is that God directs quantum events, in a way which appears random to us, thus controlling the world without violating natural laws.

Alternatively, God may intervene through miracles, in the creation of souls, in an afterlife, or in other ways that are outside of the remit of science.

Religious organisations that officially accept, or do not reject, evolutionary theory

Although some religious organisations accept evolution, their precise theology varies. In addition, there may be individuals or movements within the organisations that do not accept evolution, and the position may have varied historically.

Christianity

Church of England [1]
Roman Catholic Church [2] In 1996 Pope John Paul II stated that "new findings lead us toward the recognition of evolution as more than an hypothesis," but, referring to previous papal writings, concluded that "if the origin of the human body comes through living matter which existed previously, the spiritual soul is created directly by God."

Islam

Judaism

Evolutionary biologists who were also theists

Although evolutionary biologists are often atheists (most notably Richard Dawkins), there have been some who were theists too. Alfred Russel Wallace (1823 — 1913), who in 1858 jointly proposed the theory of evolution by natural selection with Charles Darwin, was a theist, though Darwin's views remain unclear. Theodosius Dobzhansky (1900 — 1975), one of the of the modern evolutionary synthesis 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.

Another architect of the synthesis, Ronald Fisher (1890 — 1962) was also a Christian. More recently Brown University Professor Kenneth R. Miller, author of many textbooks has written on the subject. [3]

Criticisms of theistic evolution

Young Earth creationists in particular criticise the position on theological grounds (see #external links).

Criticism from a Western atheistic point of view is the same as for any other religious doctrine. Belief in evolutionary creationism invokes a supernatural creator God, and thus does not fit into the falsifiable, naturalistic framework of science.

References

Miller, Kenneth R.; (2000) Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution. ISBN 0060930497

External links

For theistic evolution

Against theistic evolution