I want to give a flavor of the RANGE of opinions.
Note 1: Like Terry Gray, I prefer the term "evolutionary creationist" to
"theistic evolutionist," but I use "TE" here because it's more common.
Note 2: Many people don't fall into any one category below, but allow for
some range of possibilities, and a mixture of scenarios.
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1a. Recent Creation: Appearance of Youth.
The Genesis 1-2 account of creation is literally historically true; the
earth and the universe are a few tens of thousands of years old.
Although some "appearance of age" may have been included in creation
(e.g. active stars, light from the stars "on its way" to earth), proper
scientific measurements would yield ample evidence that the earth and
life were recently created.
1b. Recent Creation: Created with Apparent Age.
The Genesis 1-2 account of creation is literally historically true; the
earth and the universe are a few tens of thousands of years old.
However, the universe and the earth were made to "appear" several
billion years old.
1c. Recent Creation: Apparent Age Due to the Fall.
The Genesis 1-2 account of creation is literally historically true; the
earth and the universe are a few tens of thousands of years old.
However, due either to the fall of man or the fall of Satan, the earth
was made to appear "old."
2a. Progressive Creation with Special Creation of Each Lifeform.
The earth and the universe are several billion years old. At various
times during the creation period, God performed a distinctive miraculous
creation to produce each new lifeform. (_de_novo_ creation or
supernatural transformation of an existing lifeform.)
2b. Progressive Creation.
The earth and the universe are several billion years old. At various
times during the creation period, God performed distinctive miraculous
acts to produce lifeforms with certain new features or increased
complexity. (Microevolution can produce some amount of species
diversity, but novel biological or biochemical structures were
specially and miraculously created at the appropriate times.
(e.g. perhaps through miraculous genetic transformations in zygotes.))
2c. Progressive Creation through "Miraculous" Evolution.
Creation occured through evolution, but the success of evolution is
"surprising;" that is, one would not have expected the evolutionary
process to be as successful as it has been. Thus God must have been
"directing" the evolutionary process, perhaps arranging (or
pre-arranging) for the process to travel along preordained paths,
leading to much better-than-expected outcomes.
3a. Theistic Evolution with Special Creation of Life.
Creation occured through evolution and there is nothing surprising about
its success -- we would expect evolution to produce something like what
we see. Nevertheless, creation occurred at God's hand and evolution was
the tool. However, the fact that evolution got started in the first
place is surprising.
3b. Theistic Evolution.
Creation occured through evolution and there is nothing surprising about
its success; nor is it surprising that evolution got started in the
first place. We would expect abiogenesis and evolution to produce
something like what we see. What is surprising is that the laws of the
universe and physical constants are just right for giving conditions
conducive for a successful evolutionary process.
3b1. Theistic Evolution with Designed Outcome.
The laws which govern biochemistry and biological evolution are
designed to ensure that life will "self-organize" into certain kinds
of lifeforms. (Existing lifeforms being analogous to "strange
attractors" in phase space.) God ordained and intended our existence,
and designed the process to achieve it.
3b2. Theistic Evolution with Determined Outcome.
Biological evolution could, in theory, have followed many different
paths with divergent outcomes. However, the _exact_ path which
evolution took on earth, and the final outcome we see today, were
entirely ordained by God, since every event which appears to be
"chance" to us is actually determined by God.
3b3. Theistic Evolution with Flexible Outcome.
The exact path which evolution took on earth, and the final outcome
we see today, were not entirely predetermined by God; rather, God gave
his creation a certain degree of "freedom." God also knew that this
process would eventually produce intelligent, personal creatures to
whom he could reveal Himself.
3c. Theistic Evolution Known only through Special Revelation.
The fact that "the laws of the universe gave rise to a successful
evolutionary process" is not really surprising. Nevertheless, we
believe that creation occurred through God's hand because of God's
special revelation.
4. Deistic Evolution.
God created the universe and the laws of nature, "set them in motion,"
and let them "do their thing" without any intervention.
5. Atheistic Evolution.
The universe is self-existing; there is no creator. (This could be
further subdivided, but I'll leave that for someone else to do.)
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"There's nothing more exciting than science. You get |
all the fun of sitting still, being quiet, writing | Loren Haarsma
down numbers, paying attention. Science has it all!" | lhaarsma@opal.tufts.edu
--Principal Skinner (_The_Simpsons_) |