Evolution and Theology
James A. Van Slyke
Azusa Pacific University
Evolution and Theism
• Four Views
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Creationism
Intelligent Design
Theistic Evolution
Evolutionary Naturalism
• Disagreement over the involvement of natural law
and Divine action
Important Theological
Doctrines
• Forms of Divine Action
• Cooperative – God works in, with, and through the natural
world
• Immanent in nature
• Special – God goes beyond the natural laws and processes;
accomplishes what nature can not do
• Miracles
Important Theological
Doctrines
• Biblical Interpretation
• Inerrancy
• Free from error in all aspects
• Theological
• Historical
• Scientific
• Infallibility
• Theological truth is free from error
• Other truths interpreted contextually
Creationism
• Basic Principles
• Sudden creation of the cosmos from nothing but
Divine action
• Insufficiency of evolution to explain development of all
living beings
• Changes occur only within fixed limits of originally
created kinds of plants and animals
Creationism
• Basic Principles
• No common descent; apes and humans have separate
ancestry
• Earth’s geology is explained by catastrophism,
including a worldwide flood
Intelligent Design
• Follows many of the basic principles of
evolution
• But, macroevolution is ascribed to special
divine action in natural history
• Evolutionary theory provides an incomplete
picture
• Evolution leads to a Naturalistic philosophy
Evolutionary Naturalism
• All of life can be explained through evolutionary theory
• Evolutionary theory unites the sciences under one major
theoretical premise
• Human behavior is a set of traits that are genetically based and
subject to natural selection
Evolutionary Naturalism
• Evolutionary Science proves that God does not exist
• Evolutionary science leads to a materialist philosophy
• All of life can be explained through natural processes
• Thus, there is no need to postulate the existence of a God
Theistic Evolution
• Evolution and Natural selection are theories that
have sufficient evidence to be accepted
• Progressive research program
• Involves several areas of science and explanation of
data
Theistic Evolution
• Scientific Creationism and Intelligent Design fail as
theories of science
• Insufficient support for their theories
• Many views based on bad science or incorrect assumptions
• Yet, the reasons for opposing Evolution as a philosophy are
valid
Theistic Evolution
• Evolutionary Naturalism assumes a materialist
philosophy that is not supported by the evidence
• Evolutionary theory can be understood within a
Christian theological framework
• Theology becomes the metaphysics that helps to
inform science and answers certain questions
Theistic Evolution
• Evolution is the way in which God chose to create
life in the universe and on this planet
• Evolutionary history is like an epic novel with human
consciousness being the present chapter – Arthur
Peacocke
• Evolutionary history created the possibility for free will
and was ultimately what God intended all along