Evolution in simple terms means that life came into being without a creator. It is a theory that states animals, plants and by extension humans, changed or mutated according to its surroundings over millions of years. It was a naturalistic and materialistic process, not guided by God. Therefore there is no intelligent designer.
While there are those who believe purely in the creation, there are some who believe that God created the world using evolution. Yet, there are still others who accept evolution from a purely scientific point of view, but does not deny that God exists. These people are referred to as theistic naturalists.
A lot of religious leaders accept evolution from a scientific point of view but still hold on to their religious principles. The general thinking is religion and science are separate so that the teaching of science will not take on a religious tone. Creation-science is not acceptable as far as the scientific world is concerned.
However, Christian theists have the responsibility to defend the Genesis creation account by using scientific arguments to discredit the idea that there are alternatives. This will add more believers to the creationists group. But there is no doubt that the evolution craze has created confusion and division in the Christian world.
The impression is the divide is between evolutionists and biblical fundamentalists, but this is not really the case. The disagreement is not over the age of the earth or how it was created, but whether we owe our existence to a creator or a naturalistic process. It is clear that Darwinists prefer to cling to their beliefs despite all its flaws. To them evolution is the only way life came about and not through an intelligent designer.
What is also disturbing is that some Christian academics defend the evolution theory. The theistic form of naturalism is that God does not take an active part in the natural realm. For him to do this he has to take on a temporary form of creature to perform functions within the economy of the creation that other creatures have not been equipped to perform. According to Howard Van Till, as Christians, we cannot accept this line of reasoning. Religion should only play an active part when science has done everything it can. In other words, science can explain everything else except the whys. Religion can do this.
It is felt that religion and science should be separate and a boundary drawn between them. This basically means to the atheists that reality belongs to science and everything else to religion which to them is myth. Unfortunately, theistic naturalists have fallen for this thinking and cannot now seem to distinguish between theism and atheism.
Before Darwin, the existence of a Creator was a principle adopted by many. There may have been a few philosophers who argued against this, but that was just the exception, but not the rule. The belief that God and nature were connected was so strong that clergymen studied biology and natural history as they believed this would further prove the connection. But then came Darwin with his theory of evolution that changed, not only the belief in a creator, but the way people lived also. Darwin gave atheism the boost it was looking for. Darwinism makes God irrelevant.
Theistic naturalism is just an attempt to make the best of a bad situation. But the situation is not as bad as it seems. Darwin’s theory is just that – theory. It is not embedded in fact. As a matter of fact, science has only proven that there must be an intelligent designer as mutation and differential survival cannot create the complex features of biological organisms. It is just a matter of proving once and for all that evolution has no basis whatsoever.
