POSITION OF THE CHURCHES (last updated: 13th April 2021)
Theistic Evolution is an attempt by many in the Church, and society in general, to accommodate Neo-Darwinian Evolution as an explanation for the emergence of life on our planet by adopting one or other variants of this theory. In our view all of these modern day compromises, to a varying degree, eliminate the requirement for a God of Creation in the traditional sense, whose workings were known and understood throughout human history.
To explain further, theistic evolution, theistic evolutionism, evolutionary creationism, divine direction, or God-guided evolution are views that regard religious teachings about God as compatible with the modern scientific understanding of Darwinian evolution.
That is all very well but it assumes that Darwinian evolution with all its modern day variants, such as God driven evolution, is a sound doctrine, otherwise what is the point? There is no support for such views in the Bible, they are all theories derived by scientists to try to explain how life arose on Earth by naturalistic processes. There is also no sound evidence based on 'the scientific method' to support these views either.
At the very least these compromises and fudge factors are all God demeaning approaches that cast doubts, and sow confusion, in the minds of ordinary people.
There are variants of Theistic Evolution that deny there is real design in nature arguing instead that it is only apparent design, and this eliminates God completely in our view.
Francis Collins is a leading geneticist and BioLogos founder. Biologos attempts to merge scripture and evolution and rejects ID as a complete explanation for the origin of life. They reject the notion that ID is a testable scientific hypothesis arguing instead for God controlled evolution. In biology, evolution is the change in the characteristics of a species over many generations and relies on the process of natural selection. There are very good reasons why God would not institute a method for developing life as we know it on our planet by means of natural selection, or survival of the fittest, as explained further down in this section. Embracing even part of Darwin's theory is pandering to mankinds desire to be able to fully explain how life originated and is yet another figment of man's imagination which is itself subject to change over time.
We agree that there is small scale biological change over time courtesy of the ingenious design of living organisms that enable them to adapt to changes in their environment, coupled with inevitable genetic drift over generations.
It is only at the molecular level that the true genius of the design built into all living organisms becomes apparent, evidence not available in Darwin's day.
Biologos is mixing Intelligent Design (ID) that is sufficient by itself to explain the origin of the many and varied life forms seen on Earth today with their own version of evolution to make it more palatable to secular scientists, but this unnecessary step only succeeds in muddying the waters.
The theistic evolutionist defers to the authority of ever changing secular science,
in other words to men and women, rather than to the unchanging authority of the Word of God (History repeating itself again, and again, ... Where did Genesis 2:17 lead us!).
According to Christian Ministeries International (CMI) the doctrines of creation and evolution are so strongly divergent that reconciliation is totally impossible. Theistic evolutionists attempt to integrate the two doctrines, however such syncretism reduces the message of the Bible to insignificance. The inevitable conclusion is: There is no support for theistic evolution in the Bible, so it should surely be rejected by everyone in the Church?
CMI warning about signing up to Theistic Evolution
Because there is no universally accepted definition of Theistic Evolution, advocating it as an explanation for life's origins is a dangerous path for the Church to tread, leading to much uncertainty, and the widespread practice in Churches of avoiding the issue of origins.
A wealth of recent discoveries in molecular biology cast severe doubt on all these various evolutionary models, and the result of being ill-informed in the past has sadly resulted in many in the Church, and in society at large, going down this ill-judged path that defers to the supremacy of man rather than God.
Dr Meyer explains in detail why Theistic Evolution detracts from the truth about origins
Dr Douglas Axe explains that the complexity found within living cells far exceeds anything that man has produced including, for example, the mobile phone.
However, it is hard to see how the blind materialistic processes of evolution, based as they are on random mutations and natural selection, can be squared with the purposeful direction of a supreme Creator.
At present (2020) there seems to be a marked reluctance on the part of the Church, across all denominations, to turn their attention to the crucial issue of how in the light of the new discoveries in science life originated on our planet.
One�s presuppositional beliefs will inevitably influence his interpretation of scientific �facts.� I find it unbelievable that so many believers believe the unbelief of unbelievers as the basis for their belief instead of believing the Bible, which they claim to believe.
The ID movement started as far back as 1984, and the accumulating evidence from research into molecular biology since then should have caused society to re-evaluate its position long ago.
Many in society seem entrenched in the mistaken belief that life on Earth came about via Neo-Darwinian processes despite the evidence to the contrary. You would think that, once their attention has been drawn to it, people would welcome the news from ID with open arms but this is proving not to be the case. Firm leadership from the Church could help educate people and reset minds.
I wonder if the hymn surprisingly still sung in schools and churches, 'All things Bright and Beautiful', produced in 1848 by William Henry Monk with lyricist Cecil Frances Alexander would have been written after the watershed of 1859 (publication of Origin of Species). Isn't there something to be learnt about human nature from this attachment alone I wonder?
To help cast more light on the difficulties experienced by the Church this is what Lewis Sperry Chafer an American theologian who founded and served as the first president of Dallas Theological Seminary wrote in 1943, 'In each age, the science of its time has imposed its ever-shifting notions as to origins upon theology, and it has been the burden of theology in each age to rid itself of the ghosts of defunct philosophical and scientific opinions of a preceding age. . . . It is the conceit of man which contends that the divine account of the origin of things is true only so far as it conforms to the science of his own day.'
There is a growing tendency in society to regard scientists as infallible, and there is almost a worship culture surrounding their achievements, but is this justified? The answer is a resounding no! Since 1980 numerous errors of judgement have been foisted on the public, and outright deceptions have been perpretrated by scientists working in the field as well. They are as susceptible to making errors of judgement, or acting fraudulently as anyone else, therefore proclamations they make need to be carefully scrutinised allowing for passage of time before new scientific claims can be written into law.
20 of the Greatest Blunders in Science in the Last 20 Years
So it seems that we are at another crossroads where history may be about to repeat itself. The Church and society at large is being asked to travel down yet another path of man's inventiveness (Intelligent Design Theory) with no guarantee as to where it will lead, but surely it is different this time round? Those in the Church who subscribe to Neo-Darwinian Evolution in one or other of its different guises will hopefully learn their lesson this time and never again deviate down another man made path to disrepute, acknowledge their past error of judgement and accept the findings of the ID movement, giving The Glory back to its rightful owner where it should remain throughout eternity.
Many in the Church set out to court popularity by embracing evolutionary principles with the consequent abandonment of the Genesis account of origins, the bedrock of Christianity. This had the reverse effect to that intended, instead helping to bring about a marked reduction in Church attendance in many areas over decades. The reduced exposure of the population to regular moral teaching has arguably helped fuel the increasing lawlessness seen on our streets, the huge rise in marriage breakups, the proliferation of abortion practices, etc., etc. Atheists have seized on this perceived weakness to further their own agenda with considerable success.
Churches that are found wanting should help combat the years of
decline by acknowledging that science is now pointing in a different and altogether more satisfying direction in tune with biblical teaching. Is it not time to grasp the nettle, declare the truth about origins and restore the Christian God back to His rightful place as the Creator of all things!
Furthermore, �technologically savvy� people should realize that if the technologies that they enjoy using (cell phones, ipods, computers, telescopes, MRI machines, etc.) are the result of intelligent design, it is the height of absurdity to think that the almost infinitely more complex living and reproducing bacteria, plants and animals came into existence by time and chance and the laws of nature.
You will by now have gathered, based on our arguments above and statements on other pages, that we have come to fully accept the position set by the ID movement that there is intelligent design in nature, and the good news is that it reinforces the traditional understanding that life came about as an act of creation by an Almighty God.
The ID community of scientists do not generally dispute this obvious conclusion but rightly insist that their discoveries are not informed, or influenced in any way, by the Genesis account in the Bible.
This illustration conveys how information reliably points to design far more easily than deconstructing all of the junk science floating around the Internet claiming that natural processes can generate large quantities of information for free
All can replicate themselves with seeming ease, an act far beyond even the most complex human artifact. Some can even reconstruct themselves completely from tiny fractions cut surgically from the cell!
CMI warning about signing up to Theistic Evolution