QUESTION OF EVOLUTION
Biblical Anthropology must confront the question of evolution, because subsewuent to Darwin it has become the foundational concept for science and secular thinking. In the minds of many evolution is no longer a theory but is considered an be established fact.
It has become more than a fact; it is the key to understanding the cosmos. Julian Huxley affirmed: “Our present knowledge indeed forces us to the view that the whole of reality is evolution—a single process of self-transformation” (J. R. Newman, ed., What is Science?, 278). For those who embrace such thinking, evolution becomes their pseudo-religion. Note the ingredients from the statement by Huxley: first, he is speaking of “the whole of reality”; second, all of reality is characterized by transformation—change and development; and three, this transformation is “self-transformation,” that is, there is no power or Person outside the process affecting the transformation. For the evolutionist, the cosmos is a closed-system and man is alone in the system, and is at the mercy of the system.
Opposed to this is the declaration of the Scriptures: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1); and “Yahweh God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7). Thus the cosmos is an open-system created by God, and man is not alone—there is the Creator who is Sovereign over the system.
Can such conflicting viewpoints be harmonized or synthesized? Should any attempt be made to locate or create agreement? Or are these two perspectives in unyielding opposition?
Consideration will be given to the following topics:
Approach
Evolutionist versus Theist
Interpretation of Genesis
Observations
Questions
Classification of Man
Man's Religious Life
Return to: Man
For overview of THEOLOGY, see: Site Map - Theology and An Overview