1.7.4 Theistic Evolution

Theistic Evolution (TE)

Another common belief among Christians is “Theistic Evolution”, or “evolutionary creation”. They believe the biological and fossil evidence indicates that natural processes were the physical processes (secondary causes) by which species came about over time, yet they acknowledge God as the primary cause of all things. In this sense, they agree with the “theory of evolution” (the science) in what it says about the biological history of life on earth, but rejects the conclusions (philosophical materialism) of atheistic scientists who conclude that there must be no God. Theistic Evolution doesn’t generally propose an alternative science to mainstream scientific consensus, as the other forms of creationism do, but proposes that the natural mechanisms within nature are just the part that we can understand scientifically. God’s action and providence are not meant to be understood through scientific formulas and processes.

For instance, one proposal is that God created this beautiful and complex world with inherent capabilities to be able to spontaneously produce life under the right conditions, and modify and adapt genetically to grow new forms and species of plants and animals. God did not directly create the visible universe through what we would call supernatural intervention. Instead, He acted indirectly through the design of the universe that was capable of producing structure and order as we see around us. God’s providence was expressed in the physical creation by “building in” the potential for it to develop as it has, and He still manifests His providence in sustaining us in our spiritual relationship to Him. This view credits God with such amazing creative ability that He could encode into the fabric of nature itself the ability to spontaneously develop all that God had decreed from the beginning, and doesn’t require God to “tinker” with the machinery along the way to keep it going on a certain trajectory. It doesn’t necessarily deny that God can or does do miracles, but claims that such interventions are not normally necessary. (An extreme form of this view is essentially what is referred to as "Deism," the idea of God as a Watchmaker who wound up the creation at the beginning, but no longer interacts with it directly.)

Another form of TE, and in some ways almost opposite of the view above, is that God’s presence in creation is completely pervasive. That is, rather than God creating the universe and then letting it spontaneously develop, or once in a while stepping in to make a special act of creation (forming the earth, creating a new species, etc.) as in other forms of creationism, God and His providence are present all the time in guiding creation toward accomplishing His purposes. He is intimately “in and through all things” and continuously involved with every aspect of the creation, but at a level that we cannot perceive scientifically (or at least not easily or often). The physical processes of creation are simply the means through which God is accomplishing the outward development of the universe, and His grace is similarly pervasive in working out His spiritual will within our lives. Thus, all the evidences for physical creation and development might one day end up being describable scientifically and have the appearance of purely “natural” forces, but God is working at a lower level which is not scientifically detectable.

Another variation on Theistic Evolution suggests that the apparent randomness in quantum theory, chaos theory, and other as yet unknown processes such as genetic mutation are some of the means through which God can effect specific outcomes or general variation and development within creation, and yet his actions can remain hidden behind processes that appear random to us. God could cause a genetic mutation, or a quantum event at an atomic level, which is to us simply within the range of random probability, so that He remains undetectable and yet active in moving creation forward toward His will, both in terms of stellar and planetary creation, and biological diversity culminating in humans who can comprehend His ways and bear His image.

There have been many proponents of the various forms of Theistic Evolution, from Alfred Russell Wallace and Asa Gray (contemporaries of Charles Darwin), Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and many modern writers including Keith B. Miller, Kenneth R. Miller, Francis S. Collins, Denis Lamoureux, John Polkinghorne, Simon Conway Morris, George Murphy, Alister McGrath, and Howard Van Till.