Undirected
First, many theistic evolution proponents assert that because Darwinian evolution is by definition “undirected.”
First, many theistic evolution proponents assert that because Darwinian evolution is by definition “undirected.”
God could not have actively guided the evolutionary process, contrary to traditional Christian teachings about God’s sovereignty. Indeed, God supposedly cannot even know with certainty or specificity how the evolutionary process will turn out.
---Applied to human beings, this means that God did not know beforehand whether the evolutionary process would produce human beings or some other rational creature such as a big-brained dinosaur.
Unfallen
Second, many theistic evolution proponents repudiate traditional Christian teaching about the original goodness of creation and its subsequent “Fall.”
Second, many theistic evolution proponents repudiate traditional Christian teaching about the original goodness of creation and its subsequent “Fall.”
According to Karl Giberson in Saving Darwin, human beings were flawed and sinful from the very start because they were produced by an evolutionary process driven by selfishness.
---Thus, there was no “Fall” from original goodness in the history of humanity. The foreword to Giberson’s book was written by fellow theistic evolutionist Francis Collins.
Undetectable
Third, theistic evolutionists who seek to retain the idea that God guided the evolutionary process typically insist that God’s guidance in biology is hidden from us.
Such theistic evolutionists claim that God created evolution to look like “a random and undirected process,”.
---These theistic evolutionists repudiate the consensus view of Jewish and Christian thinkers who for more than two thousand years maintained God’s design could be clearly observed throughout nature.
Although theistic evolution receives much attention from the news media, it clearly represents a fringe position among leading evolutionary biologists. Nearly 95% of the biologists in the National Academy of Sciences describe themselves as atheists or agnostics, a far higher percentage than in any other scientific discipline. [Where Darwin Meets the Bible (2002), pp. 271-273]
Similarly, according to a 2003 Cornell survey of leading scientists in the field of evolution, 87% deny existence of God, 88% disbelieve in life after death, and 90% reject idea that evolution directed toward “ultimate purpose.” [Cornell Evolution Project Survey]
Thus, Darwinian biologist Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, is far more representative of the beliefs of evolutionary biologists than Christian geneticist Francis Collins, author of The Language of God."
Although theistic evolution receives much attention from the news media, it clearly represents a fringe position among leading evolutionary biologists. Nearly 95% of the biologists in the National Academy of Sciences describe themselves as atheists or agnostics, a far higher percentage than in any other scientific discipline. [Where Darwin Meets the Bible (2002), pp. 271-273]
Similarly, according to a 2003 Cornell survey of leading scientists in the field of evolution, 87% deny existence of God, 88% disbelieve in life after death, and 90% reject idea that evolution directed toward “ultimate purpose.” [Cornell Evolution Project Survey]
Thus, Darwinian biologist Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, is far more representative of the beliefs of evolutionary biologists than Christian geneticist Francis Collins, author of The Language of God."
EN&V