My Views of Creation
The purpose of this page:
In an effort to avoid misunderstanding
and stereotyping,
this page summarizes my views about
origins (in the first
30% of the page) and then provides an appendix with details.
Regarding origins, I'm scientifically agnostic without dogmatism, but if I were forced to bet — which I would do hesitantly, with appropriate humility — I would bet that:
the universe and earth are billions
of years old (very little humility is needed here because a wide range of scientific evidences for an old universe are overwhelmingly strong, but maybe there was perfect "antiquing" by young-universe creation with apparent age);
• the first life was independently
created by God (but this could not be scientifically proved, especially if the possibility of a multiverse is considered), and
• biological development occurred
mainly by an evolutionary natural process (with genetic changes sometimes guided by God *) but this process may have been supplemented
by occasional "miraculous-appearing theistic action" to modify
some of the genetic material in previously existing organisms. / * I define "natural" to mean "normal appearing" — not "without God" — because I believe that natural process is designed, created, sustained, and sometimes guided by God.
but I hold these two •-views lightly, as tentative proposals that are open-minded, that encourage the current posing of productive questions for science and theology; in the future, after we have learned more about nature and its history, if all claims for detectable divine action (for the first life and its evolutionary development) appear to be improbable, I will simply say "ok, now we know."
Why do I think this is how it
probably happened? Because
it seems that:
there is abundant scientific
evidence (in a wide variety of areas) for an old earth, and an old earth is theologically satisfactory;
based on scientific evidence,
it seems that a natural origin of the first life was very improbable, unless immense probabilistic resources (in a huge multiverse) are invoked;
and that natural process alone may not have been
sufficient to produce the biological complexity we observe;
compared with independent
creations (of new species), genetic modifications (to create new species)
is more
scientifically plausible, and is more consistent with a Biblical history
in which God usually works with currently available resources instead
of "starting
over from scratch."
Here is a summary for
five aspects of my views:
Theologically, I think that: Genesis
1 describes creation history in a non-chronological
framework; God
created everything, and is involved in natural process by designing and sustaining
it, and sometimes guiding it; miracles in formative history are probable
if this history was analogous to the salvation history of humans recorded in
the Bible, in which God's actions were usually naturally-appearing and occasionally
miraculous-appearing; for miracles, there is theological support for "creation
by modification of existing matter" rather than independent creation of
matter, as explained below in The Creation Process in
Biblical History; but miracles in formative history are not theologically
preferable or necessary, so theistic evolution is a theological option for a Christian; a
Judeo-Christian theist has a wide range of options — in the many variations
of theistic evolution (evolutionary creation), old-earth
creation, or young-earth creation — and
is free to follow the evidence and logic of science wherever it leads.
Scientifically, based on
evidence and logic, I think God designed the universe so it would be mostly
self-assembling, and my theory for "how God created" is independent miraculous-appearing
creation of the first life, followed by old-earth creation (mainly with continual
creation by natural-appearing evolution over billions of years, possibly supplemented
with occasional creation by miraculous-appearing genetic modifications) for
the production of complex life. Regarding age, strong scientific evidence, from a wide
range of fields so we have multiple independent confirmations, supports
a confident conclusion ("proved" beyond any reasonable doubt) that the earth
and universe are billions
of years
old.
Methodologically, I think
an open science — which begins by assuming "it
happened by natural process" but treats this as an assumption that can be
tested, not a conclusion that must be accepted — is a useful scientific
strategy in our search for truth about nature. But methodological naturalism (which
requires that scientists must always begin and end with a conclusion that "it
happened by natural process") differs from philosophical naturism (claiming
that only nature exists) in two ways — methodological is
not philosophical, and naturalism is
not naturism — so methodological naturalism
is theologically acceptable for a Christian.
Relationally, my goals are accurate
understanding and respectful attitudes because our "views about other
views and other people" are an important part of life. These goals
are consistent with my recognition that an appropriate humility,
about science and theology, is justifiable and useful. I claim to have
some productive ideas about Origins Questions, not The Origins Answer. But
our humility should be appropriate: not too little and not too much. Humility
should be balanced with confidence, because even though some humility is logically
justifiable and is useful (both intellectually and relationally), we often have
reasons for some rationally justifiable confidence, so I think postmodernism "goes
too far" and converts a good idea (re: humility) into a bad idea (re: skeptical
extremes and radical relativism & Reality 101).
Educationally, I think critical
evaluations of evolution — at a level that is matched with students' abilities — can be educationally useful in public school classrooms, by providing evidence and using logic. The
scientific support for a wide range of questions about evolution (astronomical,
geological, chemical, and biological) should be examined in a neutral, unbiased
way. { As editor of the ASA website for Whole-Person Science Education,
my
philosophy
and
goals are described in the home-pages for Origins
Questions and Origins
Evidence and in Understanding & Respect.
}
What about theistic
evolution? I'm a critic and defender,
who thinks (with humility) that totally natural evolution — with God designing the universe
so everything in nature would form by 100% natural process — probably was not the
way it happened. But even though I'm not a proponent of theistic evolution,
I think it can be theologically satisfactory, should be carefully considered,
and evolutionary creationists (who think natural
evolution
was
God's method
of
creation) should
be treated
with respect as fellow Christians, with no "theological deficit" in their views.
What about intelligent design? I'm
a defender of the questions they ask, but also a critic. Logically, most of my
views — about a "partially
self-assembling universe" (scientific), and thinking "an
open science...is a useful scientific strategy" (methodological)
— are consistent with allowing the questions asked by intelligent design. Sociologically, I would not fit into the current
"big tent" community of intelligent design, because I'm too friendly toward theistic evolution, and too critical of young-earth
views.
My views about origins are summarized in an Introductory-FAQ and
(with more detail, in the best page I've written about origins) Overview-FAQ and
my other pages are described at the end of Origins
Questions
for Science & Theology
and a brief history of my life is in a bio-page.
APPENDIX THEOLOGY: The
Creation Process in Biblical History In the summary above (re: five aspects
of my views), I say "miracles are probable
during formative history — if this history is analogous to the
salvation history of humans recorded in the Bible, which included divine
action that was usually natural-appearing and occasionally miraculous-appearing — but
are not theologically necessary." Later, I'll write
more about whether "this history is analogous," about
the similarities and differences between the two histories and how these
affect the possibility of analogy between the histories. SCIENCE: This is from the longer version of my page about Logical Evaluations of Evolution and Creation: According to old-earth creation (oeC), God's creative activity was spread over billions of years. At various times during this period, God used miraculous-appearing theistic action to create new types of organisms. There are two main types of old-earth creation: oeCindependent proposes independent creations "from scratch" (so a new species would not necessarily have any relationships with existing species) similar to the independent creations in yeC; oeCgenechange proposes creation by macromutation, with extensive modification (by changing, adding, or deleting) of the genetic material for some members (or all members) of an existing species. Both old-earth theories, oeCindependent and oeCgenechange, propose a natural history involving a combination of natural-appearing evolution and miraculous-appearing creation. ..... The
main scientific difference between the old-earth theories — oeCindependent and oeCgenechange,
with creations that are independent or by genetic changes,
respectively — is common descent. The
independent creations of oeCindependent (or yeC) would break a chain
of continuous common descent. By contrast, with oeCgenechange the
chain is unbroken because during creation by a macromutational "extensive
modification of genetic material" most of the original genetic
material is not modified, and the parent/offspring relationships are
retained. Can scientists distinguish
between oeCgenechange and evolution? With detailed data — such
as lab reports (for physiology, structure, DNA,...) for all organisms
during a period of change — it would be easy. But it's more
difficult with the data we actually have because oeCgenechange, which
includes two mechanisms (continual natural-appearing
evolution and occasional miraculous-appearing
macromutational genetic modifications), is consistent with most
evidence for evolution. The major differences are that oeCgenechange
challenges Total Macro-E by raising questions (re: irreducible complexity,
rates of change,...) about important details of bio-E. * * All of the non-E theories (design, oeCgenechange, oeCindependent, yeCindependent) challenge a claim, made by Total Macro-E, that "undirected natural process" mechanisms are sufficient to produce the entire history of life. These theories question the plausibility of an extrapolation from micro-E through minor macro-E to Total Macro-E by asking "How many mutations and how much selection would be required, how long would this take, and how probable is it?" Another question is whether systems that seem irreducibly complex (because all parts seem necessary for performing the system's function) could be produced in a step-by-step process of evolution, since there would be no function to "select for" until all of the parts are present. OLD-EARTH
CREATION (details
from an earlier overview, before revising/condensing) Why an old earth? In
brief, the science of young-earth creation (yeC)
lacks plausibility, but there are credible old-earth interpretations
for Genesis. Why old-earth creation? If God chose theistic evolution (TE) as His method of creation, by designing a universe with all of the characteristics needed to naturally produce complex life, this would be fine with me, and it would not weaken my faith. But based on scientific evidence, I think it is more likely that some knowledge-gaps in biological E (especially regarding a natural production of all the biocomplexity we observe) are actually nature-gaps that were bridged by miraculous-appearing theistic action during the history of nature. Theistic Evolution (Evolutionary Creation) and Theology Why oeCgenetimod (with creation
by miraculous-appearing macromutational genetic modification)
rather than oeCindependent (with independent creation)? I think claims for intelligent design are more scientifically justifiable than claims for creation: "A basic design theory is limited to claims that can be scientifically evaluated. For example, biochemical analysis might help us determine whether a particular system was produced by design or non-design, but it probably could not help us determine whether the designer was God or..." |
Another page describes what I've written
about a wide range
of Origins Questions.