> In other words, at risk of
>oversimplifying this issue, if creation itself continues to evolve
>(whatever that means), why is God needed for directing the evolu-
>tionary process?
Firstly, I would like to second and commend the response to your question
given by Paul Arveson. I will only add a few comments which might help to
clarify what I at least understand as God's providence. Scirpture is very
clear in stating that _all_ events are under God's providential control and
occur in response to His will. That is, even when we can determine a
complete series of physical cause-and-effect processes, God still upholds
those processes. If this were not the case there would be no reason for
most prayer. Why would I pray for a drought to end if I did not believe
that God was in providential control of the weather? Yet, we can describe
the series of cause-and-effect meteorological events responsible for
changing whether. Because we can describe a process, does not make God
unnecessary. Scripture declares that God brings the rain and drought,
feeds the birds, plants the trees, shelters the animals, etc. God declares
that I was created in my mother's womb, yet we can observe and describe
conception and birth as a series of uninterrupted cause-and-effect
biological processes.
Similarly, random or chance events are explicitly described in scripture as
under God's control. That understanding of God's providence is what
underlies the casting of lots for example. The death of Ahab is described
as a result of the random act of shooting an arrow into the air, yet it
occurred in direct response to God's will. According to scripture nothing
occurs autonomously.
Theistic evolution is simply a specific application of this scriptural
understanding of reality. Evolution is our cause-and-effect description of
the Earth's biological history. But God's providential control underlies
the whole process (including its random aspects) in a way invisible to our
observation. God is as much the creator life and its diversity as He is my
creator. He knit me together in my mother's womb!
Keith
Keith B. Miller
Department of Geology
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66506
kbmill@ksu.ksu.edu
http://www.ksu.edu/~kbmill/