25. Creation: Do Miracles Muck with Science?
If God miraculously created the universe immediately, without the use of any natural processes, then should we expect the scientific investigation of natural processes to produce a correct description of the history of the universe?
The Bible clearly describes God as intimately involved in the creation of everything. Does this preclude the possibility of any natural processes as part of this? The answer to that likely depends on how we view God’s providence, which is the chapter of Systematic Theology we will turn to in a few weeks.
Key Takeaways
When a supernatural event has occurred, scientific investigation may yield and incorrect description.
A modern, medical doctor examining the body of Lazarus after he was raised from the dead would likely conclude: “This man was alive yesterday.” even though he was dead.
A chemist examining the wine Jesus produced from water, in Cana, would likely conclude: “This wine was produced by fermenting the juice from grapes (harvested from upper Galilee).” even though it never went through any aging process.
Theistic evolution is the theory that God guided the process of evolution proposed by Darwin, though God created matter in the beginning, created life in its simplest form, and perhaps directly created man.
Some theologians regard theistic evolution as incompatible with Scripture.
The driving force of all evolutionary theory is randomness, and that is incompatible with the purposefulness of God’s work described in Genesis 1.
Question: is it possible that what appears random (purposeless and unpredictable) from our perspective appears harmonious and explicitly guided from God’s perspective?
If yes, then the “random mutation” problem of evolutionary theory seems much less objectionable to me.
The New Testament seems to clearly understand Adam and Eve to be historical figures.
However, note that Genesis 4:13-14, and 4:17 also strongly implies the existence of other humans in addition to Adam, Eve, and their direct offspring.
Summary
The Bible clearly describes God as being intimately involved in creation the heavens, the earth, all living creatures, especially man. Some theologians believe this implies that no natural, evolutionary processes could have been part of this history of life on Earth. Personally, I think God’s sovereign rule over everything (including random processes such as evolution) allows for the possibility that some biological evolution could occur, and the Bible would still be correct to describe that process as being caused by God.
The question of whether there is any evidence that evolution has occurred or whether the process of natural selection are sufficient to produce the many species we see today is an empirical question we will return to in the coming weeks.
