Faith and Theistic Evolution: A Top 10 List

If pressed, most Christians in my sphere of contact, both here at Parables and in my brick-and-mortar life, would tend to say they believe in some variation of a "Theistic Evolution" framework, that is, in the God who created a billions-year-old universe from which humans evolved.

Me too.

But do we REALLY believe that? Do we FAITHFULLY believe that?

I don't think so, because we don't tend to speak, think and act on the assumption that its true. That's not necessarily our fault, however. The scientific data that supports Theistic Evolution, though massive, is relatively new (evolutionarily speaking). It really hasn't had enough time to penetrate deeply the language, the thought processes, the "heart-and-soul" of those of us who would cognitively assent to it.

What would be the implications if we REALLY believed in Theistic Evolution, that is, if we had FAITH in it.

10 things, at least...

1. We MUST conclude that the Bible is not "our final authority." I'm not saying that one can't be a Bible-believing Christian and believe in Theistic Evolution. On the contrary, I'M a Bible-believing-evolutionary-theist-Christian. But if you hold to Theistic Evolution, you didn't get that belief from the Bible. The biblical narrative, I believe, doesn't even hint at such a possibility.

2. We MUST marvel at the poetic truth of Genesis.

3. We MUST see that God is a billion times greater than mankind's most beautiful and insightful anthropomorphisms have ever been able to capture.

4. We MUST start to look at EVERYTHING with systems-eyes. There is no room for independent units within this worldview, save for One. Everything is part of a larger whole and comprised of smaller wholes.

5. We MUST rethink "sin" and "death."

6. We MUST understand that the ancients had NO WAY to describe this cosmology literally, but could, and did, describe it TRULY within the limits of their knowledge.

7. We MUST appreciate the immense privilege and responsibility of living at this moment in cosmic history.

8. Pride and selfishness MUST be seen as states as pitiable as mental illness.

9. We MUST elevate the virtue of PATIENCE to a far higher pedestal than it has ever enjoyed. It is a virtue of God that is dramatically highlighted within this worldview.

10. We MUST begin to see and appreciate the HOLINESS of science and the PRAGMATISM of theology.

What's your cosmological worldview? Are you faithful to it?

Grace and Peace,
Raffi

Comments

Kurt Willems said…
This is excellent. I have been wrestling with these issues for the past year and a half. I agree with your top 10, probably with some nuancing here and there. I have discussed this issue on my blog and have noticed that even some more 'conservative' evangelical voices have come to terms with this reality in some way shape or form. I have also been blessed by a blog called: http://evanevodialogue.blogspot.com/search/label/original%20sin ... this has helped me begin to think about sin and death in regards to how I understand the biblical narrative. I still have many unanswered questions, but am enjoying the tension!
February 23, 2009 at 10:31 PM
Raffi Shahinian said…
Kurt,

I'm glad it resonated. I've really been looking more deeply into the implication of my cosmology for the last year or so myself.

Thanks for the evanevodialogue link; the series looks intriguing. Hopefully I can get to it this week.

Grace and Peace,
Raffi
February 23, 2009 at 10:42 PM
Logan Paschke said…
Hey Raffi, I might have spelled your name wrong in my blog, I apologize if I did, I'll correct it when I get the chance, I've been doing Troubleshooting for multiple computers all day. Great post, you can check my blog and see what I've added. I'm not a Theistic Evolutionist primarily because of the theological implications, I'll go into more detail on my next post.

grace and peace,
Logan
February 23, 2009 at 10:55 PM
Anonymous said…
I was just re-reading 'The Screwtape Letters' and came across the passage where Screwtape talks of the humans' tendency to allow several contradictory worldviews to exist in his head at once. This is possible because he doesn't think of them as 'true' or 'false.' Funny how those old words of Lewis resonate even moreso today as we struggle with a myriad of very complex worldviews. Some will try to find the truth. Others will be content to let them co-exist in their heads with no questions.
February 24, 2009 at 7:34 PM
Raffi Shahinian said…
More words of wisdom from Uncle Screwtape. Actually, I think we're juggling hundreds of different worldviews in our heads at any given moment. We would do well just to clarify the 2-3 top contenders.

BTW, love the stuff going on at CNP. Keep it up and I just might have to add you to my blogroll.

Grace and Peace,
Raffi
February 24, 2009 at 8:35 PM
Jeremy Pierce said…
I think most people who talk about the Bible as the final authority don't mean that it's impossible to get information from anywhere else. I think a more accurate description for that view would be to see the Bible as the only allowable authority or perhaps the exclusive source of truth. Those who see it as the final authority simply see it as the only infallible source or as a source that can trump other potential sources, all of which are fallible. (And the honest ones recognize that our interpretation of the Bible is fallible as well, even if the Bible itself is infallible, having been produced by God). So I'm not sure if the language you're objecting to really means what you're taking it to mean. The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, for instance, is perfectly consistent with the thesis you're maintaining in this post, but I think it does use the language of the Bible as the final authority.
February 27, 2009 at 4:00 AM
Sam Martinez said…
great site, especially NT Wright stuff.

i agree with @Jeremy Pierce. the problem is with the phrase "final authority." i doubt few would seriously argue that the bible is the final authority for roman history (though it contains names and dates) or the final authority for geometry (though it contains measures for new jerusalem, the temple, etc). (back to the chicago statement)

its like NT Wright argues: labeling a view of the atonement fails to account for the full work of the life, death, resurrection or labeling a view of inspiration takes away from the fullness and beauty of the biblical narrative.

our need to define and qualify has reach its limit. i would say the phrase "final authority" is a false construction and an unhelpful restriction.
March 28, 2009 at 11:43 AM
Unknown said…
Just a point on the final authority of the bible, I suggest that most Christian creeds or statements of faith state that the scripture is the final authority for faith and conduct. It is a book about God, revealed to us through Jesus, not a science or history text. I love the view expressed by many through history that God has given two revelations, one the Word of God, and the other Nature. Romans say that His invisible power and Godhead is clearly seen through the things He has made. Ps 19 says the Heavens declare the Glory of God. These two revelations are entirely complementary, and we need to apply the same careful rules in honestly and thoroughly interpreting the data from both sources.

God bless you, Peter Hack, Perth Australia
May 20, 2009 at 5:06 PM
Valentin said…
Still, I doubt that the theistic evolution is as sure as it seems to you. There is at least one point (and others will add others too: ex Alvin Plantinga will have doubts about the evolutionary explanation of the aparition of human reason) in which the evolution seems unconvincing. This point refers to the problem of origin of life. As Francis Collins, the great geneticist (and evolutionary theist) admitted, there is no serious scientist today who will claim she has a naturalistic explanation to the problem of the origin of life. And it is understandable: to imagine that there is possible a naturalistic scenario for explaining this extraordinary combination of biological software and hardware, as it was in the first cell is totally implausible. Generally the evolutionary theists admit this point, but try to separate the problem of the origins of life from that of the evolutionary process that followed after it. However, to me this dichotomy seems ad hoc. An authentic theory of evolution must include, in my opinion, both processes.
September 22, 2009 at 3:06 PM
Jeremy Pierce said…
It depends on what you mean by an explanation. They certainly have an explanation for the origin of life in the sense of having a naturalistic account of how it happened. What they don't have is an explanation of why such an unlikely event should have occurred, because the chances of having all the right variables in place are so remarkably low that we should never have expected any life to occur unless someone had set up the initial conditions in order to achieve such a result.

As for Plantinga, he doesn't argue that the capabilities to reason couldn't occur with evolutionary processes. He argues that we shouldn't expect any sort of truth-conducive reason to occur with naturalistic processes alone without any design by a creator. There would be no reason to trust our reason if evolution alone were the explanation. But what he says is compatible with evolution actually having occurred, so long as it was guided by a being who intended reasoning creatures to come out of the process. So it's not an argument against evolution, if that includes theistic evolution. It's an argument against a purposeless, unguided universe.

Most intelligent design arguments take this form, actually. They're compatible with theistic evolution, because they're not arguing against evolution per se. They're arguing against an unguided, purposeless universe and for a divine being who influences natural processes (whether by evolution or by other means is not part of the argument).
September 23, 2009 at 8:25 PM
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January 19, 2010 at 3:22 PM
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