Why I’m Not a Theistic Evolutionist
by J Warner Wallace
I’m delighted to get the chance to teach at one of my favorite local churches in about a week. The topic will be Genesis 1:1 and what is, in many ways, the most important verse of Scripture: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” I’ll be talking about some things we can know with certainty (related to God’s creative work in the universe and in biological organisms) and some things that we know with a bit less certainty (as I review many of the ways Christians have interpreted Genesis 1 through the ages). While I am respectful of some of the efforts to understand precisely what Moses was trying to communicate in this text, there is one view of creation that I find difficult to accept. From my perspective, theistic evolution appears to be a contradiction in terms.
‘Like’ The Poached Egg on Facebook! Follow @ThePoachedEgg Donate to TPE! I’m not the first person to notice this, but I’d like to explain why so many of us have difficulty embracing this view of creation from a simple survey of the definitions. When scientists and theologians are allowed to define their own respective terms, they provide definitions that seem diametrically opposed. The textbook definitions illustrate the problem:
ev·o·lu·tion [ev-uh-loo-shuhn]
“Change in the gene pool of a population from generation to generation by such processes as mutation, natural selection, and genetic drift.”The changes occurring as a result of evolution are caused by three forms of unguided (or random) interaction (mutation, natural selection, and genetic drift). The unguided nature of these mutations (and the environmental circumstances that come to bear on them) is foundational to the definition of evolution. This quality of randomness is incompatible with a theistic view of the universe…
FOLLOW THE LINK BELOW TO CONTINUE READING >>>
Why I’m Not a Theistic Evolutionist
RECOMMENDED APOLOGETICS RESOURCES FOR FURTHER READING:
More Than a Theory: Revealing a Testable Model for Creation
Shop at Amazon and help support The Poached Egg or donate now!
Watching the National Geographic Chanel this week I heard the comment “out of Chaos came order.”…. now if that isn’t a contradiction of terms I don’t know what is. In the beginning God. That says it all, answers it all, and puts all into perspective. Personally I subscribe to the Big Bang. God spoke and Bang it happened.
I always said so. It’s called “natural” selection, not “supernatural” selection. Besides, another of the dirty plays of theism is they reconcile theories, but they never prove any. Evolution through natural selection is a verified scientific theory. Reconciling a divine intervention is not proving that divine intervention. It’s simply smuggling a god without feeling the need to back up that presumption.
As evolutionary biologist Francisco Ayala remarks, scientists in the field do not use “random” in the sense of “unguided” which is a metaphysical claim unavailable to science. Rather, they mean “irrespective of the benefit to the organism.”
With this definition of “random”, theism and evolution are wholly compatible. Unfortunately, despite his excellent apologetic work, I think Mr. Wallace is mistaken on this issue.