As I have stated previously, my professional life has been spent interacting with agnostic scientists–great folks, but skeptical about a caring God. They all were very well informed on the God of the Gaps argument for Christian Faith. The point I wanted to make with them (and would like to repeat to you) is that Darwinian evolution, while an excellent theory to explain animal life we see today and including the Homo sapiens that preceded us, does NOT account for humankind of today–creatures with minds and souls. Although he would be loathe to admit it, Dawkins points this out clearly in his book, The Ancestor’s Tale. The book begins at the present time with humankind, and then (like Pilgrim’s Progress) traces back the evolutionary journey that brought us here. To describe our unique characteristics, Dawklins takes two pages (35 & 36) ending with it was as if the human brain were programmed to act as mind. And he states: _as much as we would like to linger here, we must move on._For the next 600 pages he gives an excellent account of how Darwinian evolution ‘explains’ all other earthly life. What better evidence do we need that, however God chose to create humankind, our 'programmed brain/mind/soul combinations sets us apart, makes us special in his eyes. Did God use a mechanism he just conjured up at the time? I doubt it, but that’s not important to me. I think that we will allow us to eventually figure out how He did it.
Al Leo
Albert, I agree with you completely that Darwinian Evolution (i.e. Godless Evolution, ? right?) doesn’t really merit much discussion here at BioLogos.
But I find it hard to understand how you reconcile your position about Darwinian Evolution with your opinion that God didn’t guide evolution. This to me is a very odd combination of thoughts…
George,I am afraid we are NOT that much in agreement. I hope it won’t be disappointing when I explain further.
The mechanisms that developed the first simple forms of life into the complex and varied forms we see on earth today is what is most often referred to as Darwinian evolution (DE). I agree with agonistic scientists that DE provides the best explanation for the evolution of animal life up to and including our ancestral species, Homo sapiens. HOW God made us has a bearing on HOW SPECIAL we are in His eyes, and so it is a legitimate subject for BioLogos. Because I believe in God (from other evidence) I can accept that evolution is one of His methods of creation; therefore it is NOT Godless, at least in my view. The variety and beauty of the physical forms of life is certainly evident to any observer (and therefore good, as stated in Genesis). BUT there are certain moral characteristics possessed by God himself that are not promoted by the "selfish genes" on which evolution was based. It certainly is bothersome that God must allow both infanticide and fratricide to be fairly common ‘in nature’. We cannot tell just how much (if at all) God “guided” evolution up to the point Homo sapiens appeared on the scene. But some 150,000 yrs. later (i.e. just 40K yrs. ago) something (scientifically) strange happened: Homo Sapiens suddenly acquire a Mind and consciousness that enabled them to form societies, to create art and music, and to imagine a Creator to whom they owed worship and respect. Most importantly, they acquired a conscience which informed them of right and wrong and crystallized the concepts of love and compassion. With this Gift of Conscience, God gave humans the Gift of Freedom–use it and become His Image Bearer, or mis-use it and sin.
Just because science cannot currently explain the sudden appearance of the qualities that distinguish humankind from the rest of animal life does not mean they won’t someday find a reasonable biological mechanism. If this comes about, this should not diminish our belief that God does view us as special and, in a sense, made in His image. We can get some idea “what is in the Mind of God” from scripture, but it is all too easy to over interpret biblical passages. It is my belief that that God’s omniscience was sufficient to assure that consciousness and Mind would develop through the Laws of Nature He set up _at the outset of creation._Thus he allowed these 'Laws’ the freedom of operation that (somewhat accidentally) produced the line of large brained primates from whom we descended. The Great Leap Forward that seems to have separated us from the rest of animal kind might be thought of as ‘special creation’ or as an inevitable consequence of the operation of His will. Is it really that important which is the Truth?
Al Leo
It’s only important to the degree that we accept or deny that it took millions of years for the Great Leap forward to occur.
I’ve been here posting (not necessarily on this thread) all along. Noone’s scared me off!
Perhaps only in the realm of “the emergence of humanity” is there such a blend of motives:
Christians who claim God is part of evolution, and those who insist that God took a break from Evolution.
While Atheists, all the while, argue that there isn’t a God to even be a part of Evolution …
And out of this chaos, it is easy enough to see that some think Evolution doesn’t need God (and so is just ordinary Evolution), while others think Evolution would be wasted without God’s involvement, and so we have God-guided evolution.
@gbrooks9 There is some controversy amongst anthropologists as to the time span that was covered by the Leap in the GLF. Obviously it was nothing like “millions of years”. That could hardly be called a Leap. The important fact to determine: Was it too short a time for a favorable mutation to have become dominant in the population of Homo sapiens living at that time? The evidence from cave art and burial goods in Europe and the Mideast says it was too fast to be accounted for by genetics and sexual transmission. Other questions: Did some sort of GLF occur at different places, with a blending of both cultures and phenotypes occurring when the two groups met and interacted (e.g. European, Asian, & African)?
These are exciting times when we are learning where terrestrial humans came from and where they might find a habitable place to migrate to.
Al Leo
I see what you mean now … I was using the phrase “millions of years” as a sweeping reference to all of Evolution - - and not thinking about just the time for the “Great Leap” from hominid to Human!
Suffice it to say, it wasn’t 6000 years either.
It would seem Evolution requires plenty of near-extinctions to get good velocity on this roller coaster of Natural Selection !