What is it about evolution that is not absolutely necessary?
That’s a difficult question and one I can’t answer to be honest. Firstly, because I don’t consider myself a theistic evolutionist (yet). I’m still very much exploring and as of now, I still consider myself an Old Earth Creationist so I wouldn’t right now say evolution is necessary, but it could be.
The question is why and whether the answer is convincing. I agree that what is necessary according to God’s desires and purpose is to fashion a creature in His image that has (1) the capacity for free will (2) the capacity for love and (3) the capacity for moral decision making amongst other things of course. I don’t think that God simply miraculously creating a human like this goes against those three points as long as the human still has the ability to change, learn and explore. A baby learns and grows but it doesn’t make a transition between baby and non-baby after birth. That’s a bit of a bad analogy though.
I mean, in a way God did “poof” the universe into existence. It still is expanding, growing, changing, evolving (if you will), but it was still created ex nihilo. First it wasn’t there and then there was a Big Bang from nothing. It was made full of possibilities. So, in the same way I don’t see why God couldn’t create a human ex nihilo or from dirt or whatever which then has a capacity for learning, curiosity and change, full of possibilities. I wouldn’t say that creating something from nothing necessarily infers that that creation is some kind of dream-like thing without thought or will. God also created angels with free will and they aren’t bound by natural laws or evolution. Further, is God free? I mean, God is the thing bound by nothing except His own righteousness.
What I mean is, I think this question is more on the philosophical side. My question is more like - assuming evolution is necessary (for whatever reason), what relation does this have to the New Creation, our new bodies, our new minds, etc.? If a human being has to have evolved to be free, doesn’t this mean our resurrected bodies need to evolve too? (This is rhetorical, as you already gave me your answer). I find it really fascinating and appreciate your answers
I personally believe in a physical redeemed and restored Earth, not a completely new spiritual creation with no physical relation to ours. So I think that’s why this question of the parallels between our first creation and our (re)creation seem relevant to me. I don’t think our new natures are going to be vastly different from Adam’s original one, except that it has been perfected to God’s righteousness through Christ’s nature.
Anyway forgive my ramblings haha. It’s certainly super interesting to speculate.