Theistic Evolution

[Brightmoon]

Just saw this thread . I tend to let science be scientific which means no supernatural stuff . Since scientists can’t detect the existence of any deity I’ll just have to say that I believe on faith . Not evidence.

 

[SkyWriting]

Engineering and design are what limited creatures do. Go has no need of figuring anything out. He merely creates.

I'm puzzled as to why a theist would think God is capable of producing everything naturally, but life. That would be no problem for an omnipotent being, but I suppose it would be entirely out of reach for the little "space alien designer" of the IDers.

However, it has nothing to do with Darwinian theory. Darwin himself supposed that God just created the first living things.

So even a limited God would be consisted with Darwnian theory. Wouldn't be consistent with Christianity, though.

Jesus is considered the creator. All Darwin ever did was explain how life adapted to a changing environment. Likely he knew God was responsible for all life. He just left that out of his writings to see if the scientific noodles of the day would take the bait.

 

[stevevw]

One of the issues I read about with Darwin's theory is that it has led to people losing faith in God because they perceive it as a natural explanation for how life exists and looks designed. As the prominent biologist Francisco Ayala said, Darwin accounted for “design without a designer” and showed “that the directive organization of living beings can be explained as the result of a natural process, natural selection, without any need to resort to a Creator or other external agent.
https://www.nap.edu/read/11790/chapter/3

It is interesting that Darwin's Orthodox faith in God diminished during and after he developed his theory. So I guess it can depend on what personal faith a person has and for many who may not understand the ways in which evolution may integrate with Gods creation it can be seen as a deterrent to belief in God as a creator.

 

[SkovandOfMitzae]

For Christians theistic evolution/ evolutionary creationism is essentially a Christian who accepts the general scientific consensus of the greater scientific community while also continuing to have faith in Yahweh. So generally although they accept the supernatural, and they accept Yahweh and the death and resurrection of Jesus and they believe the Bible is word of God, they don’t interpret genesis 1-11 as being literal. The way believe contextual analysis indicates genesis , although 100% true, is not literal. There is a difference between believing something is true vs believing it’s literal. There are several legitimate interpretations of genesis’s creation story.

 

[The Barbarian]

Isn't the term "theistic evolution" contradictory in a sense... neo-Darwinian theory is believed to be completely natural, unguided... it is supposedly natural selection acting upon random mutations in populations over long periods of time.

Further, God's word gives no indication He has been evolving life through billions of years of death, error, disease, mutation, carnage, etc...

This is merely some man's assumption that God is not able to use contingent processes in creation. Given His omnipotence, a bad assumption, I think.