>Do you think that evolution was a result of the fall or was it part of the pre-fall design? If evolution has always been there even prior to the fall, then what do you suppose is God's purpose for designing such a process?
By pre-fall design, I presume you are referring to how things worked before the fall, as events after the fall still are part of God's eternal plan. Biological evolution was evidently taking place in bacteria billions of years before the existence of humans. However, it could still be an aspect of fallen conditions. If Satan's fallenness led him to attempt to meddle with non-sentient life, that could account for the apparent violence of the process. Another possibility is that Adam's fall afflicts organisms before as well as after him in chronology, just as Christ's salvation can save those who lived before His resurrection. Conversely, the death of animals is not clearly a moral evil, though careless or malicious harming of other organisms by us is a problem.
Probably the only certain answer to "why did God create evolution?" is the trivial one-in order to create organisms. More interesting, but more difficult, is "why did He select evolution rather than some other process?". As far as I can tell, it is a very effective way to create a high diversity of organisms, and adaptability through evolution is also an excellent way to give life the flexibility to survive in a variable environment. Assuming that God is at least inclined to do things using natural law (a rather weak version of formational economy, justifiable both by the observed patterns of God's activity in history and in the present and by our created role as rulers, requiring regular behavior of creation), then I do not know of any other way to produce a variety of organisms. Perhaps a greater degree of imagination would provide an alternative.
God's goal in creating evolution was the Incarnation.
Dr. David Campbell
"Old Seashells"
Biology Department
Saint Mary's College of Maryland
18952 E. Fisher Road
St. Mary's City, MD 20686-3001 USA
dcampbell@osprey.smcm.edu, 301 862-0372 Fax: 301 862-0996
"Mollusks murmured 'Morning!'. And salmon chanted 'Evening!'."-Frank Muir, Oh My Word!
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