Do you think theistic evolution is more compatible with inclusivism or exclusivism? Do you think that more or less people would end up in heaven if God chose to created the world supernaturally like how young earth creationists think he did?
Hello, DenSol, and welcome to the forum!
Interesting question! My initial reaction is think it may lean more toward âinclusivismâ; but Iâm not sure that it is the evolution (in its merely scientific sense) that might cause such a lean (if indeed that âleanâ exists.) Maybe itâs just my theology talking there, regardless of how I see the science. I guess one could point out that evolution makes our familial relationship to the rest of the animal kingdom much more explicit, and so ought to be more âinclusivistâ in that way. Certainly Darwin thought of that as a feature - and in his day it would have been âinclusivistâ to even just get slaves and racial differences included as âfully humanâ and not thought of as inferior (much less different) races. But those words (âinclusivismâ and âexclusivismâ) will be slippery fish, even just in the present time, much less as used over the last couple centuries. And beyond that, you might also want to specify: do you mean âevolutionâ as in the merely scientific kind? or Evolutionism, which refers to a much broader materialist philosophy that goes far beyond the mere science? YECs may be blind to the distinction between those two usages, but informed and aware participants here do not share in that confusion. And as to how much difference that makes in answering your question - that remains to be seen I guess.
Hi Den.
First, given YEC is less than 100 years old (roughly 5% of the time since Christ) I donât think it has had much time to actually impact the total number of people that have accepted Christ.
Second, I donât think how long the earth has been here or how God created makes much of a difference in if a person believes or not.
So isnt inclusivism vs exclusivism just simply about how many paths there are to salvation? Being religious while also accepting evolution does not really go for or against either one of those. You can be someone who thinks that the only way to be saved by Jesus is to say a prayer or get baptized and still believe in evolution. You can be someone that thinks that universalism is true and still believe in evolution. You can even be someone who believes in Omnism and believe that God revealed themselves to mankind through a dozen religions and that anyone who seeks love and justice will be saved, or still be a universalist and accept evolution. You can also be those things and not accept evolution. I donât see how there is any real intersection of how these different concepts work for or against one another.
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If I read you correctly, what you are asking is not about Evolutin at all. It is about what eliefs matter. Exclusivis is about criteria. If you do not fulfil te criteria (Beliefs?) then yu are excluded.
Why should belief in evolution exclude? because it contradicts Scripture? Most scientist here would claim that Scripture has no baring on e olution. YECs smm too believe that belieeving evolution is just the tip of a very big iceburg that diminishes or eveen removes Scripture as being true and impostant.
At the end of the day we have to ask ourselves whether what we believe matters (to God) And that opens a very big can of worms that I have already opened elsewhere.
Please define Theistic evolutionâŚ
Richard