Theistic Evolution: Views and Criticisms

Theistic evolution: views and criticisms ali shahbazi in this article, while contrasting the theory of evolution and creationism, which have become two classic rivals, we try to describe and evaluate the middle current that has been proposed by some theologians and scientists and is increasingly developing: theistic evolution. in fact, this middle current can be consider as rival of the evolutionism and creationism, in other words, as combination these two views. some views consider the fundamental features of reality to be becoming and process, not the traditional categories of being and substance, and therefore the orientation of evolution can be consider as complexity-consciousness. theistic evolution is sometimes referred to as the theology of evolution. the theology of evolution implies that god creates the world ex nihilo with certain fundamental laws and natural constants, and god acts everywhere in time and space as continuous creator in, with, and through the processes of nature. in essence, evolution is how god is creating life. life is not something already created, already done, so to speak. it is ongoing. most theistic evolutionists are in fact committed to methodological naturalism and therefore, like other naturalists, do not pay attention to divine interventions in explaining phenomena. god acts in, with, and under nature’s laws and processes. for the most part, theistic evolutionists try to describe god’s action in nature’s world in a noninterventionist yet objective fashion. the theory of evolution is where they can express god's activity in creation according to and based on it. evolution for proponents of theistic evolution is the unfolding of a divine plan. they belief that the emergence of individual species came about by the unfolding of a universal plan under the operation of natural laws that were expressions of the divine will. here is the most obvious compromise between the idea of design and the theory of evolution. evolution occurs, but it is not a totally natural process because the course of development, and the ultimate goal, is determined by god’s designing intelligence operating within the laws of nature. in fact, theistic evolutionism seeks to combine creationism’s commitment to the argument from design with the evolutionists’ insistence that nature is governed by law rather than miracle. hence, today we are witnessing the evolutionary versions of each religion-evolutionary buddhism, evolutionary christianity, evolutionary islam, evolutionary judaism, evolutionary hinduism, and more-are emerging. why is this happening? because adherents of each tradition have discovered the same thing: religious insights and perspectives freed from the narrowness of their time and place of origin are more comprehensive and grounded in measurable reality than anyone could have possibly dreamed before. in fact, it can be said that evolution is a natural process that science is responsible for explaining and describing, but this process is done under the guidance of god. the theological basis of some theistic evolutionists is panentheism: the belief that the being of god includes and penetrates the whole of creation, so that every part of creation exists in god, but that god’s being is more than, and is not exhausted by creation. in their view, the panentheism represents the one god wgo is at the same time transcendent, incarnate, and immanent. no aspect of god is detached from the god-world relationship. consequently, the being and becoming of the cosmos is integral to the being and becoming of the divine. therefore, all events in the life of the cosmos are events in the life of god. therefore, it is clear that the theistic evolutionism is in the middle of two extremist and opposing currents: creationism and atheistic naturalism. these two currents both consider the evolution incompatible with religion. in this regard people like francisco ayala, an evolutionary biologist, expresses the result of efforts to resolve the conflict between religion and evolution so: (1) evolution is good science and (2) there need not be contradiction between evolution and religious beliefs. the theory of evolution is theology’s disguised friend, not its enemy. apparent contradictions only emerge when either the science or the religious beliefs, or very often both, are misinterpreted.