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Theistic evolution is one of three major origin-of-life worldviews, the other two being atheistic evolution (also commonly known as Darwinian evolution and naturalistic evolution) and special creation. Versions of theistic evolution fall somewhere between two extremes. One perspective is akin to deism, which posits that God permits only natural processes to influence the development of life. The other perspective suggests that God consistently employed miraculous intervention to steer evolution.
The primary tenet of theistic evolution asserts the existence of a God who, however, was not directly engaged in the inception of life. According to this viewpoint, God established the fundamental elements and natural laws with the eventual emergence of life in mind. Nevertheless, at an early stage, He withdrew and allowed His creation to unfold. He permitted it to function as intended, and life eventually arose from inanimate matter. This perspective bears resemblance to atheistic evolution in that it presupposes a naturalistic—albeit God-designed and ordained—genesis of life. Atheistic evolution also postulates that life naturally arose from preexisting, non-living components under the influence of natural laws. However, atheistic evolution does not acknowledge the existence of God, nor does it explain the origin of those natural laws.
On the opposite end of the spectrum of theistic evolution is the belief that God continuously performed miracles to bring about life as we know it. According to this standpoint, He guided life incrementally along a trajectory from ancient simplicity to modern complexity. This perspective mirrors Darwin’s evolutionary tree of life, but with God’s intervention supplanting mutation and natural selection. In instances where life could not evolve naturally, God intervened. This perspective shares similarities with special creation in that it assumes that God supernaturally intervened in some manner to bring about life as we know it. Special creation asserts that God directly created life, either individually or in groups.
Her from nothing or from preexisting materials.
There are numerous differences between the perspectives of special creation and theistic evolution. One significant difference concerns their respective views on death. Theistic evolutionists typically believe that the geologic column containing the fossil record represents long epochs of time. Since man does not appear until late in the fossil record, theistic evolutionists believe many creatures lived, died, and became extinct long before man’s belated arrival. This means that physical death, at least for animals, existed before Adam and his sin.
Special creationists believe that the earth is relatively young and that the fossil record was laid down during and after Noah’s flood. The stratification of the layers is thought to have occurred due to hydrologic sorting and liquefaction, both of which are observed phenomena. This puts the fossil record and the death and carnage it describes hundreds of years after Adam’s sin.
Another significant difference between theistic evolution and special creation is how the two systems interpret the age of the earth. Theistic evolutionists tend to subscribe to either the day-age theory or the framework theory, both of which are allegorical interpretations of the length of the “days” in Genesis 1. Young earth creationists subscribe to a literal, 24-hour day as they read Genesis 1. Theistic evolution is generally incompatible with a literal reading of the first two chapters of Genesis.
Theistic evolutionists imagine a Darwinian scenario in which stars evolved, then our solar system, then earth, then plants and animals, and eventually man. The two viewpoints within theistic evolution disagree as to the role God played in the unfolding of events, but they generally agree on the Darwinian timeline. That timeline is in conflict with a literal interpretation of the Genesis creation account. For example, Genesis 1 says that the earth was created on day one, and the sun, moon, and stars were not created until.Day four. A common argument from theistic evolutionists is to point out that the wording of Genesis implies that the sun, moon, and stars were created on day one, but they were not visible through Earth’s atmosphere until day four, which is when they were positioned.
A literal interpretation of Genesis indicates that birds were created alongside sea creatures on day five, while land animals were not brought into existence until day six. This directly contradicts the Darwinian perspective that birds evolved from land animals. The literal account states that birds came before land animals, whereas the theistic evolutionist perspective asserts the opposite.
Irrespective of how individuals choose to interpret scientific findings or the Bible, history has demonstrated the reliability of the Bible. Over centuries of challenges, it has been confirmed that the Bible is not only consistent with science, but also that not a single word in the Bible has ever been disproven by established facts. While interpretations of Scripture may be flawed, the Word of God itself is infallible. The Bible is the living Word of God, bestowed upon us by the Creator of the universe, and His explanation of how He brought that universe into being remains unchallenged by atheistic interpretations of science.
