creation, evolution & intelligent design uko zylstra biology department calvin college

Creation, Evolution & Intelligent Design

Uko Zylstra

Biology Department

Calvin College

Introductory question

• What is a thing, event, or phenomenon?– For example:

• a glass of water

• a housefly

• human birth

• an ecosystem

• life

What is Life?THE HUMAN BODY CONTINUOUSLY SELF-

REPAIRS:• EVERY FIVE DAYS YOU GET A NEW STOMACH

LINING• YOU GET A NEW LIVER EVERY TWO MONTHS• YOUR SKIN REPLACES ITSELF EVERY SIX

WEEKS• EVERY YEAR, 98% OF THE ATOMS OF YOUR

BODY ARE REPLACED

From Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan, What is Life, p. 23 

Is life matter?

• “Living matter” is an oxymoron

• Matter is not “alive”

The crux of the matter:

• Is “matter” autonomous? Self existent?

• Does (can) matter bring forth life?

• This is connected to how we are to understand the God-nature relationship

The status of created reality

• “meaning is the being of all creaturely beings”

H. Dooyeweerd

• How does our understanding of

such “things” relate to our understanding of God? Do they help us know God

• How does that relate to the meaning of nature?

• To the meaning of miracle?

Dualism of God’s actions?

Supranature

nature

What is the relation between these two?

Major Questions for ChristiansMajor Questions for Christians

• what is the relationship of created world what is the relationship of created world to God?to God?

• how are we to understand the sovereignty how are we to understand the sovereignty of God? (Col. 1:17)of God? (Col. 1:17)

• must God be left at the laboratory door must God be left at the laboratory door for a Christian?for a Christian?

• cancan a Christian leave God at the a Christian leave God at the laboratory door?laboratory door?

A major tension for Christian scientists

• affirmation and role of divine actionaffirmation and role of divine action

• tension for the Christian scientisttension for the Christian scientist• deismdeism

• dualismdualism

• How does a Christian avoid these options?

Central Question for Central Question for Biology:Biology:

• what accounts for complexity?what accounts for complexity?• what is the causative agency for what is the causative agency for

complexity?complexity?

What accounts for those qualities that What accounts for those qualities that we typically associate with living we typically associate with living things?things?

Issues Relating to Discussion of Issues Relating to Discussion of Intelligent DesignIntelligent Design

• philosophical naturalism (materialism) is the philosophical naturalism (materialism) is the reigning worldview for natural sciencereigning worldview for natural science

• Carl Sagan: “matter is all there is , ever was, or Carl Sagan: “matter is all there is , ever was, or ever will be”ever will be”

• methodological naturalism as the paradigm for methodological naturalism as the paradigm for doing science even for those who don’t accept doing science even for those who don’t accept the worldview of philosophical naturalismthe worldview of philosophical naturalism

Causative Agency in Causative Agency in Philosophical MaterialismPhilosophical Materialism

• self-organizationself-organization• emergent propertiesemergent properties• natural selectionnatural selection

These are considered to follow “natural laws”; thus These are considered to follow “natural laws”; thus natural causes are invokednatural causes are invoked

Natural laws are “reduced” to physical/chemical lawsNatural laws are “reduced” to physical/chemical laws

Darwin's “long argument” against natural theologyDarwin's “long argument” against natural theologyNatural selection is the designer

ID as Causative AgentID as Causative Agent

• how does ID function as a cause?how does ID function as a cause?

• does ID continue to work as a causative agent does ID continue to work as a causative agent for each irreducibly complex structure?for each irreducibly complex structure?

• how does ID differ from causative laws?how does ID differ from causative laws?

• does ID as cause introduce a scholastic does ID as cause introduce a scholastic dualism: nature/supranature?dualism: nature/supranature?

Basic question: what does this have to do with God? Or, how does God relate to the world?How does God reveal himself?

Dualism of God’s actions?

Supranature

nature

What is the relation between these two?

God

World

Human Human

StewardshipServanthood

God

World

Human Human

StewardshipServanthood

LawChristWord

World

Human Human

Philosophical materialism:God is irrelevant, non existent!

A Thing

GodChrist

What We

Experience

Law Side

SubjectSide

Law

A ThingA Thing

WhatWhat WeWe

ExperienceExperienceSideSubjectSide

God

Modal Aspects of Things

AnimalsPlants

Protista

HumanBeings

God

Non-livingthings

pistic / faithmoraljuridicalaestheticeconomicsociallingualhistoricallogicalsensorymorpho. / differentiativebioticPhysical / chemicalkinematicspatialnumerical

Law

Christian faith and evolution:is this an inherent conflict?

• Need for distinguishing evolution from evolutionism

• Need for distinguishing among different meanings of evolution

• Need for distinguishing between worldviews• Evolutionism as a worldview is in conflict with

creationism as a worldview• Evolution as a theory of unfolding in God’s

creation is not necessarily in conflict with the worldview of creationism

Central thesis of evolutionism

• All things came into being by some natural causes without the action of any divine being

• Darwinian evolution is considered one of the chief natural causes for the appearance of living things

Central theses of creationism

• God is creator; all else is creature

• Relation of creation to God is through God’s laws

• Things may evolve; laws don’t’

• Evolution of living things is subject to God’s laws for such evolution

Conflict between a creationism evolution and evolutionism evolution

• The belief that God works through some evolutionary process conflicts with a belief in a Darwinian evolutionary process

• If the evolutionary process is directed by God through his laws, then it can’t be considered to be due to chance and necessity, involving merely chemical and physical laws of an autonomous universe, a universe that is self existent

Meanings of evolution

• Evolution as pattern

• Evolution as process

• Evolution as mechanism

It’s important to keep in mind in what sense we are speaking of evolution

Abundant evidence of pattern of evolutionMuch less evidence for process of evolution

Mechanism of natural selection inadequate to account for many structures and phenomena

A basic question:

• Is God’s Word infallible in both Scripture and Creation (Nature)?

GOD is revealed in and through

the WORD(Christ)

in

CREATION SCRIPTURE

interpreted by

SCIENCE THEOLOGY(fallible) (fallible)

An example of God’s revelation of “evolution” as pattern

• Comparison of amino acid sequences in cytochrome C

• Cyt C is a necessary component of the respiratory process in living things

• Sequence of amino acids in a proteins is important for their overall structure and function

Model of Cytochrome

C

Cytochrome C amino acid sequence

Cytochrome C phylogeny

Hemoglobin sequence

comparison

Concluding question concerning the pattern of evolution:

• How do we read (interpret) this revelation of God in such sequence analysis in the similarity of proteins, universality of genetic code, etc?

• Does it point to some degree of common ancestry of living things?

• Does it indicate that perhaps God unfolded the creation through an evolutionary process?

DISCONTINUITY IN CREATION

• CREATION

• CREATIVE ACTIVITY

• ORIGINS

• OUTSIDE OF TIME

• UNFOLDING

• PROVIDENCE

• APPEARING

• IN TIME

Genesis account History

Implications of the discontinuity of God’s activity in creating and unfolding

• How do we read the Bible, especially Genesis 1-2 in light of God’s revelation in creation

• God’s Word as proclamation or description

Illustrative questions:

• What is the shape of the earth? How do we know? What does the Bible indicate?

• Job 28:24 “he views the ends of the earth”• Ps. 19:6 “it (sun) rises at one end of the

heavens”• Is. 40:28 “the creator of the ends of the earth”• Is. 11:12 “he will assemble the scattered people

of Judah from the four quarters of the earth”• Rev. 7:1 “four angels standing at the four

corners of the earth”

• Is the earth stationary in space, with the sun, moon,

planets and stars in motion around the central earth? How do we know? Or is the earth rotating as it travels in an orbit around the sun? How do we know?– Ps. 93:1 “the earth is firmly established; it cannot be

moved”– Ps. 104:5 ‘He set the earth on its foundations; it can

never be moved”– Ps. 19:6 “It (sun) rises at one end of the heavens and

makes its circuit to the other”– Eccl. 1:5 “the sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries

back to where it rises”– Matt. 5:45 “he causes his sun to rise on the evil and

the good”

• Why does the Bible “describe” the relationship this way?

Some questions

• Is the Genesis account really descriptive? More so than the language of Revelations or the passages quoted above?

• Did God create all things de novo? Out of nothing?

• What really is the intent of Genesis?

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there wasmorning-the first day. What is the meaning of “light” in these passages?

Genesis 1:1-5 – the first day

6 And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning-the second day.

Genesis 1:6-8 – the second day

WaterSkyWaterEarth

9 And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning-the third day.

Genesis 1:9-13 – the third day

4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens- 5 and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, 6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground- 7 the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Genesis 2:4-6In what form were plants created?

14 And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as Signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. 16 God made two great lights - the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made The stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separatelight from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning-the fourth day.

Genesis 1:14-17 – the fourth day

20 And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky."21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according To their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." 23 And there was evening, and there was morning-the fifth day.

Genesis 1:20-23 – the fifth day

24 And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along The ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to heir kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds.And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:24-25 – sixth day part one

26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds Of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning-the sixth day.

Genesis 1:26-31 – sixth day, part IICreation of man: male and female

18 The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." 19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them To the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

Genesis 2:18-22 – creation of Eve – On what day?

Conclusion• Genesis is primarily a proclamation that God is

the Maker of heaven and earth!• Genesis 1-2 is proclaiming a message of God’s

activity which is incomprehensible to human beings. The proclamation is put into human language and images to accommodate the limitation of human understanding as finite creatures.

• To attempt to read Genesis 1-2 as some form of description is putting God’s activity within the limitations of human comprehensibility. This violates the very proclamation message of the creation account