How do theistic evolutionists differ from Creationists?

Answer 1

Theistic evolution is an origins paradigm that incorporates both creation and evolution. The term 'Creationist' has a wider application than to persons who believe that God created the universe and the world recently, that is, within the last ten thousand years or thereabouts. There are Young Earth Creationists, Old Earth Creationists, and Theistic Evolutionists, all of whom compete for recognition as the representative of Creationism. Young Earth Creationism takes the most literal interpretation of the first three chapters of Genesis, and the genealogies from the biblical Adam to Christ. This approach led to Bishop Usher placing the date for creation at 4004BC. Old Earth Creationists interpret the days of creation variously to indicate that the age of the earth and the universe is compatible with the evaluations of Astronomy and Geology. The day/age view of the days of Genesis appears to the most popular approach. They maintain, however, that life can only be explained by way of special creation, and generally that the various species or phyla were also created by acts of special creation at various times throughout pre-history. They generally maintain, for instance, that the similarities between extinct human-like hominids such as homo erectus and anatomically modern humans, are either only apparent similarities, or superficial, representing differences that may have come about due to differing regional environments. Alternatively, if they acknowledge the pre-human hominids as different extinct species, they maintain that they were soulless animals that looked human, and a distinct act of creation gave rise to their origin. In contrast to the above two positions, pure theistic evolutionists hold that the origin of the universe, including of course our solar system and therefore the earth, seamlessly integrates with the emergence of life on earth (and theoretically, therefore, elsewhere in the universe). Evolution, therefore, has four stages. Astronomical, Geological, Chemical, and finally ongoing Biological evolution. All four of these stages of evolution, which are postulated by those working within the natural sciences, are said, by theistic evolutionists, to have occurred under the creative and guiding influence of God (usually, the God of the Judeo/Christian tradition). In other words, pure theistic evolution holds that since the original singularity that gave rise to the universe, usually referred to as the 'big bang', the universe itself has been fully gifted with all that was necessary for life to emerge and evolve. This is the 'pure' theistic evolutionary paradigm of creation. There are those within the ranks of theistic evolutionists who are less 'pure', holding, for instance that Divine intervention has occassionally been necessary for life to emerge and develop, within, of course, the evolutionary paradigm. Most commonly this intervention is in the chemical stage. The evidence for abiogenesis is weak at this point in time, and many theistic evolutionists regard 'spontaneous generation' as impossible. This would be so if the creation was not gifted with all that was necessary for the emergence of life from pre-biotic materials from its beginning. The other major area of divine intervention is the implanting of a soul within humanity at the point in time that they had evolved to a point of intelligence sufficient to be able to exercise moral responsibility. Theistic evolutionist who are evangelical Christians view the early chapters of Genesis as a creation allegory or literary device containing very minimal historical fact, but rich in theological truth. By viewing these chapters as allegory, they maintain belief in an authoritative and infallible bible, but do not require accurate scientific data from it.