What do theistic evolutionists believe in?

Answer 1

Theistic evolution is a concept that asserts that the classic religious teachings about God are compatible with the modern scientific understanding about biological evolution. In short, theistic evolutionists believe that there is a God, that God is the creator of the material universe and all life within, and that biological evolution is simply a natural process within that creation. Evolution, according to this view, is simply a tool that God employed to develop the various life forms seen today. Theistic evolutionists may also believe that humans evolved, or that they were specially created by God, and that all other life was allowed to evolve.

Answer 2

It is a disparaging title bestowed upon evolution by followers/inventors of the pseudo-science, Intelligent Design, who cannot deal with the facts of evolution over the mythical story of a magical creation by a magical "Sky Daddy".

Answer 3

There is no such thing as atheistic evolution.

Atheism is the counterpoint to theism and they both are related to belief in deities. However, atheism is not a religion. It is the absence of belief in gods. Theism is expressed through religious beliefs, doctrines and dogma. At the basis of religious doctrines and dogma is the belief that some divine being created everything.

Evolution stands in the realm of science. There is no such thing as atheistic evolution because evolution requires no such adjective. It stands alone.

Answer 4

Evolution is a scientific discipline like any other. It does not need a God or gods to be explanatory, but neither does any other theory in science. Similarly, no theory in science proves or disproves god, which is why a number of evolutionary biologists are religious individuals. You can also freely add gods without issue, but these gods add no explanatory power. For example, you can still say that gravity works because angels push objects towards one another and that we simply understand that process under the rubric of G*m1*m2 / square distance. Evolution is the same.

Creationists like to argue that evolution is atheistic so that they can commit the fallacy of poisoning the well. Poisoning the well is when you imply or state that an argument has some connection to an idea or person that the other person does not like in order to avoid discussing the merits of the argument. A similar type of argument would be to call vegetarianism "Hitlerian" since Hitler was a vegetarian and you are using Hitler to denigrate vegetarianism without dealing with the benefits and detractions of vegetarianism on the merits.