Three Misunderstandings About God-Guided Evolution

[swamidass (S. Joshua Swamidass)]

@structureoftruth

keeping the theology vague enough so that Christian evolutionary scientist are free to explore the universe under MN.

Personally, I would very much like to find a way to do better than “keep the theology vague” and instead develop a robust theology of creation, divine action, and science - I think @Eddie and @jongarvey are interested in this as well - I just haven’t figured out how to do it yet. It’s a complex subject.

I agree. We need a better way.

3. God didn’t need to micromanage evolution to get what God wanted.

Misunderstanding #3: Some people would interpret the sentence “God-guided evolution” to mean something like the following. “Evolution isn’t limited to making small-scale changes. And of course God is in charge all the time so evolution never happens “on its own.” But evolution had the potential to go down many possible paths. So God acted from time to time to select, or to nudge evolution down particular paths to produce particular species and ecosystems.”

This seems to be theological statement without grounding. There is no evidence for this in theology and in science, and it is why the BioLogos position is so commonly questioned as deistic. There is no way Haarsma could know this from evidence. Both the theology and the science is weak here.

I think this is a better way: Would God's Guidance Be DNA-Detectable? - #32