Keeping Faith: Evolution and Theology

The article tries to spouse an apparatus of mathematical philosophy and theological reasoning. In particular, several implicit assumptions underlying common understanding of objects of probability theory are explicated for the purpose to demystify the term 'chance' that poses a major threat to deity through its pervasive occurrence in the theory of evolution. Finally, an epistemological understanding and usage of concept of contingency or random events is proposed. Such understanding allows us to shake well-known critique of concept of existence of God as violation of principle of best explanation. An argument in favor of deficiency of the principle is formed.

2017

The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework through relational theology for understanding the randomness evident in genetic variation which is an element within evolution. I propose that evolution can be incorporated into a theology of creation by placing evolution in context of the interaction of love between God and creation when interpreted through a framework of relational theology. Relational theology, as engaging God as primarily self-giving and holistically hospitable (towards God’s self in the Trinity and towards creation), provides space for a theological understanding of randomness genetic variation and mutation within the evolutionary process. Chapter 1 discusses Ian Barbour’s four methods of engagement (or disengagement) between theology and the empirical sciences, and concludes with Barbour’s method of dialogue as the chosen method for continuing the discourse through a mutually illuminative conversation. Chapter 2 considers the central theme of kenosis in the n...

Andrews University Seminary Studies, 2003

During the last 150 years, evolutionary theory has become the standard theoretical explanation for the origins of life and the center of a new cosmology that other sciences dogmatically assume when developing research methods and interpretations of reality. Christian theology, as a scientific enterprise, is no exception to this rule. Evolution dismisses divine creation as nonscientific myth. To avoid this charge, theologians have proposed various versions of theistic evolution and harmonization. Thus, the challenge theologians must contend with is whether the only choices available to them are mythological faith or scientific truth. Further, it is necessary to consider whether a belief in creation necessarily entails a sacrifice of the intellect. The creation-evolution debate, including the theological attempt at harmonization, generally takes place at the level of conclusion without taking into account the nature of the processes through which theologians and scientists arrive at t...

Theology Today, 1998

B iology has developed at two scales. Molecular biology, discovering genes and DNA, has decoded the "secret of life" (once ascribed to the Spirit of God). Evolutionary history has located the secret in natural selection operating across enormous timespans, with the fittest selected to survive. The two levels are theoretically interrelated. The genetic does the coding of life in DNA and constructs molecular proteins, lipids, assembling them into organisms. Organisms cope at their nativerange levels, inhabiting ecosystems. Across deep evolutionary time, species are selected as they track changing environments, transforming one into another. The process is prolific but not fine-tuned in rather strong contrast to what physicists have been saying with their "anthropic principle." To the contrary, evolutionary history can seem makeshift and blundering at the same time that, within structural constraints and mutations available, it optimizes adapted fit. Natural selection is thought to be blind, both in the genetic variations bubbling up without regard to the needs of the organism, some few of which by chance are beneficial, and also in the evolutionary selective forces that select for survival without regard to advance. Frances Crick complains that biology is not "elegant." As organisms evolve through the interplay of chance and necessity, they become encrusted with solutions by which they cope, but which have no more overarching logic than the layout of the Manhattan subway system. 1 Stephen Jay Gould insists that the panda's thumb is evolutionary tinkering and that orchids are "jury-rigged." 2 Even Darwin, though he could find in some moods a

Verbum et Ecclesia

This article sketches how the debate on Christian faith and evolution has evolved. Seven challenges are identified and described in the debate, namely, regarding a recognition of deep (geological) time (challenging the historicity of the biblical creation narratives), understanding the role of chance in natural selection (posing questions about the nature of divine action, e.g., providence), human descent (challenging presumed human distinctiveness), a recognition of natural suffering (challenging the benevolence of the Creator), identifying the evolutionary roots of evil (challenging Christian views on the fall of humanity), a recognition of natural disselection (challenging notions of divine election) and, finally, evolutionary explanations of the emergence of morality and of religion (reiterating the challenge of atheism). It is argued that with each of these challenges, some of the underlying problems were provisionally resolved, only to reappear later in an even more challengin...

Zygon, 2008

Zygon skeptical reader will conclude that Davies, for all his brilliance in cosmology, never gets much further than banging into intractable metaphysical problems. He concedes: "Confused, I certainly am" (p. 204). So much for the subtitle with its promised answer to the why question.

Evolutionary biology has a complex relationship with ideas of chance, purpose, and progress. Probability plays a subtle role; strikingly, founding figures in statistics were motivated by evolutionary questions. The findings of evolutionary biology have been used both in support of narratives of progress, and in their deconstruction. Likewise, professional biologists bring to their scientific work a set of preconceptions about chance and progress, grounded in their philosophical, religious, and/or political views. From the religious side, questions of purpose are ever-present. We explore this interplay in five broad categories: chance, progress, intelligence, eugenics, and the evolution of religious practices, each the subject of a semester long symposium. The intellectual influence of evolutionary biology has had a broad societal impact in these areas. Based on our experience, we draw attention to a number of relevant facts that, while accepted by experts in their respective fields, may be unfamiliar outside them. We list common areas of miscommunication, including specific examples and discussing causes: sometimes semantics and sometimes more substantive knowledge barriers. We also make recommendations for those attempting similar dialogue.

2014

Zygon®, 1999

The challenge and stimulus to theology that is constituted by the scientific version of Genesis which will prevail for the foreseeable future is expounded in relation to the significance of the succeeding stages of the life process and to the general features of biological evolution. A responsive theology of evolution is discerned as involving a renewal of insights associated with the themes of immanence, panentheism, the Wisdom and Word of God, and a sacramental universe. Such a revitalized theology allows one to conceive of humanity and Jesus the Christ in a fully evolutionary perspective without loss of an emphasis on the particularity of the Incarnation.