Genesis, Creationism, and Evolution: Does God Play At Dice?
Session Notes

Introduction.
1. Invocation (Ps93)
2. Agenda
  1. First session:
    - A Reading of Genesis
    - Review of Evolution
    - What is Creationism?
  2. Second session:
    - Heumenetics: ways to read the Bible
    - Does God design?
    - Does God play at dice?
3. Some Statics from USNews and World Report[7]
  1. nearly half of Americans subscribe to a fairly literal reading of the biblical creation account (Gallup)
  2. another large segment believes God played a major role in Creation
  3. 2300 scientists are evangelical Christians
    - accept evidence for natural processes, but belief in God as creator and sustainer
    - God has revealed self in both sci and rel
    - scripture not wrong; interpretation faulty
4. A History of Conflict[2][3][4]
  1. Not first clash of science and religion
    - Galileo
  2. Evolution and religion
    1. Evolution challenged notion of biblical literalism; seemingly conflicting with Genesis
      - if you read Genesis as factual history, evol. necessarily conflicts with it.
    2. Darwin's natural selection and organic evolution seemingly contradicts Ju-X:
      - Darwinistic survival of the fittest runs counter to the last will be first notion of Christianity: social darwinism
      - God sole guiding force in cosmos
      - human's in God's image, not in animal's
    3. If sin merely a sign of less evolution, then redemption losses meaning -- we can save ourselves with more science and technology
    4. Alternatively, biblical creation is symbolic or spiritual
  3. Public schools became the battle ground
    1. Prior to 1920's Evolution taught in public school
    2. 1920's Fundamentalists William Jennings Bryon (Prebs) and Rev. William Bell Riley (Bap) launched a crusade to ban evolution in public schools
      - anti-evolution laws passed
    3. Evolutionists fought to keep their teachings in public schools (1925 Scopes Trial)
      - the anti-evolution won, but fundamentalism discredit
      - went "underground" founding own institutes and journals
      - most people actually agreed with creationism
    4. 1930s many states banned teaching of evolution
    5. Not until '60s was evolution widely taught:
      - 1968 supreme court: declares bans unconstitutional
      - fed gov promoted teaching of evol.
    6. scientific creationism revived with Genesis Flood
    7. Now, creationists fight to get their teachings in public schools
      1. 1970s, 1980s laws proposed to teach scientific creationism in addition to evolution, or to omit evol altogether
        
        use sci data to prove biblical acct
        text book on intelligent design promoted[8]
      2. 1981 Arkansas first state to require public school to teach creationism along with evolution: declared unconstitutional as a religious teaching
      3. In 1999:
        
        Aug: Kan. B. E. deleted mention of evolution from state's science curriculum
        Nov: KY B. E. elimated word "evolution" but not the science theory of evolutionfrom the science curriculum; substituted the phrase "change over time"
        OK B.E. textbooks must have disclaimer about certainity of evolution
        Nov: NM B.E. voted to bar creationism and endorsed evolution
  4. Currently influenced by S. Baptists and Seventh-Day Adventists

Genesis 1-2:9

Genesis 1:

Table 1: The Seven Days of Creation
Day 0	formless void, dark deep, waters, God's breath
Day 1	light day and night	Day 4	sources of light: stars, sun, moon
Day 2	sky separating the waters: heaven and earth	Day 5	fertile sea creatures, fertile birds
Day 3	dry land vegetation: fertile plants and fruit trees	Day 6	fertile land creatures: animals and insects fertile humankind in God's image
Day 7	Creation finished: God rested

Genesis 2:
1. before humans were made:
  - there was no rain: no plants and no tillage
  - contradicts Genesis 1 chronology: plants on Day 3, humans on Day 6.
2. humanity made from the dust of the earth in God's image
3. God breathed the breathe of life
4. God made a helper for the male (God experiments with determining the appropriate helper):
  - first the beasts and birds
  - then a female human

Evolution
1. Theory[7][5][1][6]
  1. process of gradual change
  2. organic evolution: living evolving from the non-living
  3. evolution explains the variety and similarity of creatures
    - variations result from adaptation to different environments
    - similarities result from descending from common ancestors
  4. in every population there exists small random variations, which can be inherited
  5. results in relation by common descent
    - common ancestry further back in time
    - descent with modification
    - no reversals: complex forms never proceed simpler ones
    - comparative anatomy
  6. governed by two processes
    1. natural selection
    2. heredity
  7. in the struggle for survival some of these variations confer a slight competitive advantage, leading over many generations to the natural selection of the characteristics contributing to survival
  8. natural selection
    1. determines general trend of evolutionary change
    2. organisms best suited to environment survive (survival of the fittest)
    3. recently modified to recognize cooperation (such as symbiosis, division of labor by ants) is as important as competition
    4. environment selects organism, but also organism selects environment
      - a change in behavior in response to a change in environment may optimze the survival of a variatioin
      - purposeful behavior + chance -> natural selection
    5. Darwin: depends chiefly on
      - hereditary variability
      - tendency toward over population
      - struggle for existence
    6. heredity variability: different in color, temperment, size
    7. tendency toward overpopulation: produce more offspring than needed to replace current generation
    8. existence: creatures best suited to environment have advantage and survive to pass on their favorable traits
  9. heredity
    1. mechanism for passing on changes
    2. chromosomes bear inherited traits
    3. chromosomes carry larger numbers of genes which are segments of DNA containing the codes for traits
    4. animals and higher plants have double sets of chromosomes
    5. inherit one set from each parent
    6. hereditary characteristics change
      - mutation
      - recombinations
    7. mutation: changes in structure of gener caused by chemicals or radiation (most mutants are unfavorable)
    8. recombination: changes in the arrangement of genes
      - during formation of egg or sperm cells geners from one pair of chromosomes may change places with genes from the other chromosome
      - does not introduce new hereditary traits
      - allows natural selection to act on different combination of traits
  10. speciation
    1. a common species splits into more than one species by
      - geographic isolation: different areas
      - ecological isolation: same area, different habitats
      - genetic isolation: mutation changes sexual traits
  11. evidence for evolution
    1. too slow to detect directly
    2. sources: fossils, adaptation in organisms, geographic distribution of species, comparative studies of species, embryology
    3. fossils
      - most direct
      - age determined by radioactive dating, etc.
      - many gaps in record, since only a relatively few species were preserved
      - reveal evolving stage: simple to complex
    4. adaptations in organisms
      - changes in environment
      - environmental change is gradual generally
      - since 1800s more rapid environment changes: technology, population
      - adaptation noticable
      - peppered moth: white w/ black spots, all black; UK industrial area; black against white birches preyed on by birds; trees sooted up; black not seen and displace white
    5. geo. distr. of species
      - developed in one area
      - speread out until stopped by an environmental barrier: ocean, mountain
      - some carried beyond barrier by ship, wind, etc.
    6. comparative studies
      - many similarities in structural and biochemical characteristics
      - suggest descent from common ancestor (theory)
    7. embryology == neo-Darwinism
      - development during earliest stages of life
      - embryos of many species resemble each other at certain stages, such as frog = chicken = pig
      - therefore, show a common ancestry (theory)
      - higher order embryoes pass through lower order stages; fertilized mammimal eggs resemble 1-cell organism, then primitive multi-celled invertebrates, athen fish, reptiles, etc.
      - development of embryo recapitulates the evolution of a species (theory)
    8. molecular biology == neo-Darwinism
      - reenforces common descent
      - DNA
      - genetic code
      - amino acids
2. History
  1. 1700s by Comte de Buffon and Baron Cuvier: fossils and comparative studies -> evolution
  2. 1809 Jean Baptiste de Lamarke: first comprehensive theory of evolution: theory of inheritance of acquired traits: later disproved
  3. Darwin, 1859: natural selection: few common ancestors; survival of the fittest; The Origin of Species
    1. personal observation on HMS Beagle 1831-1836
    2. geological theory of Sir Charles Lyell: earth formed in stages gradually
    3. popular theory of economist Thoms Robert Malthus: pop.>food supply
    4. rejected divine creator
  4. synthetic theory
    1. 1930s and 1940s by Dobzhansky, Mayer, and Huxley
    2. synthesized Darwin's natural selection with genetics (neo-Darwinism)
    3. Darwin observed characteristcs may change when passed on
    4. genetics explains this variation and mutation
    5. Mendel: genetics in 1860s
    6. also includes molecular biology (DNA, etc.)
    7. life might have originated in a pre-biotic soup
3. Current Debates
  1. in scientific circles debate is not over whether evolution occurs, but how[6]
  2. 1970's some evolutionay biologists advanced punctuated equilibrium
    1. few examples in fossil record of ancestral species gradually changing to a new one
    2. instead appear unchanged for 100s of 1000s of years, then relatively abruptly changed
    3. therefore, gaps not because of missing evidence, but is fact really reflect what happened
  3. species selection
    1. not only are individual organisms selected, but species are selected
    2. differences in rates at which speciation and extinction occur amoung different species
    3. if some species speciate faster and become extinct less rapidly, it will have more descendents
    4. challenges notion that most evolutionary change results from survival of fitess in a species since speciation and extinction are largely dependent on chance geological and climatic changes
  4. Nonadaptive changes
    1. not all surviving changes are good
    2. some all even detrimental
    3. genetic drift: neutral mutation survives by chance
4. Anti-theistic aspects of Darwinism[5]
  1. evolution not directed by any purposeful intelligence: chance mechanisms guided by natural selection
  2. creation has no purpose
  3. humans are the products of blind natural processes
  4. universe is uncaring
  5. denies the Fall, therefore no need for redemption and a Savior
    1. evolution => development
    2. Fall theology => degeneration and no death before Adam
      1. fossil record refute these
      2. second law of thermodynamics (entropy) ["disorder will tend to increase, but that order can never arise spontaneously from chaos"] apparently agrees
        
        so how does evolution occur from chaos to order, simplicity to complexity?
        energy is drawn from outside the system, such as the sun
5. theistic evolution
  - all the evolution Darwin taught but evolution guided by God and instrument of God[9]
Creationism[5][9]
1. Common beliefs
  1. evolution is hypothesis not fact
  2. special creation of at least humankind
  3. no macroevolution
  4. catastrophism vs uniformitarism
  5. degradation, not development
2. Not monolithic
  1. day-age theory
  2. gap theory
  3. progressive creationism
  4. scientific creationism
  5. intelligent design
3. day-age theory
  1. the Mosaic days are each a era.
4. gap theories[4][7]
  1. two variations
    - gap and restitution
    - multiple gap
  2. gap and restitution
    - Harry Rimmer guiding light
    - Genesis describes two creations, separated by a gap of time (between v1 and v2)
    - The first creation "in the beginning" began millions of years ago
    - The second occured <10K years ago after first was destroyed (restitution)
    - Geological eras occur in the gap
  3. multiple-gap theory
    - creation a series of instantaneous acts over 6 24-hour periods
    - but each day seperated by long periods of time
    - accounts for sudden appearance of some life forms
5. progressive creationism[9]
  1. defined by Bernard Ramm, 1954 in the Christian View of Sceince and Scripture
  2. creation revealed in 6 days, not performed in 6 days (Pictorial - day theory)
  3. God progressively created to set the stage for humans, the crown of creation
    - forests grew and decayed -> coal
    - sea life born and perished -> oil
    - surface of earth weathered -> rivers
    - God intervened to create new root species that "radiated" into other species
  4. flood NOT geological significance
6. scientific creationism[3][4][6][7]
  1. Geo. M. Price guiding light -- actual originator; an Adventist[9]
  2. Henry M. Morris, S. Bapt and John C. Whitcom, Jr, Brethern coauthored The Genesis Flood
  3. believes most evidence points to a young earth & special acts of creation
    1. fossil evidence does not show transitions, but systematic gaps
  4. the earth and all forms of life, including humans, were miraculously created essentially as they exist today
    1. each form of life was always unique within genetic limits -- birds always birds, etc.
    2. microevolution - yes, macoevolution - no
      - microevolution: within each type there is development
      - Adam and Eve are a type that diversified
      - macroevolution: types develop into other types
  5. rejects chemical and organic evolution
  6. Genesis Flood (Feb 1961)[9]
    1. verbal inerrancy and infallability of Scripture
    2. a universal flood at the time of Noah explains the geological record ("catastrophism")
    3. evidence supports a relative recent date for creation <10K years (young earth)
      - creation of earth: 23 Oct 4004 BCE (Bishop Ussher)
      - Genesis Flood: a few centuries before this
      - creation of earth: Sept 3760 BCE (Hebrew Calendar)
      - dinosaurs and humans lived together
    4. 6 literal days of creation
    5. Creation -- Fall -- Flood dominate early history
    6. no death before Fall
      - fall from grace triggered the second law of thermodynamics (tendency to disorder)
    7. great vapor canapy enveloped antediluvian world
      - formed on 2nd day of Creation when God divided waters under firmament from waters above firmaments
    8. rejects day-age and gap theories
  7. Note, this is not the traditional antievolution and fundamentalist stand:[9]
    - gap theory and day-age traditional
    - creation science, i.e., flood theology is a late comer from the Adventist tradition
    - has now superceded the others
  8. shift to scientific emphasis, from biblical emphasis in 1980s[9]
    1. As defined by the 1981 Arkansas law
      - sudden creation of the universe, energy, and life from nothing
      - insufficiency of mutation and nat. sel in bringing about dev. of all living kinds from a single organism
      - changes only within fixed limits of originally created kinds of plants and animals
      - separate ancesters for humans and apes
      - explanation of earth's geology by catasphophism, including a worldwide flood
      - relatively recent inception of earth and living kinds
      - declared unconstitutional
    2. no mention of
      - 6 days of creation
      - name of first man and woman
      - fall
      - Noah's ark
    3. scientific creationism and evolution equated as equally valid
      - fought scientific establishment with its own tools
      - wrapped in science, can argue sci. creat. is just another scientific model
    4. refuted by the National Academy of Science[6]
    5. leads to intelligent design
  9. intelligent design[8]
    1. promoted by The Foundation for Thought and Ethics[10]
    2. life is the result of intelligent design
    3. wrt the Origin of Life
      - prebiotic atmosphere NOT conducive to the emergence of life and the development of underlying genetic code
      - "The decisive factor in living things is not the simple components but the patterns"
      - natural causes do not give rise to complex structures spontaneously
      - therefore, genetic code => intelligent design
    4. wrt Genetics and Macroevolution
      - creatures are an adaptational package
      - they are not individual traits, but a set of inheritable traits working together
      - the odds of all the necessary interrelated traits occuring together is enormous
      - intelligent design is the mechanism that generates an integrated matrix of changes
      - microevolution is fine tuning
      - macroevolution is the blue print of the intelligent agent
    5. wrt the Origin of Species
      - speciation is not macroevolution
      - speciation creates diversity only within a single type
      - results in a diminshed gene pool
      - macroevolution requires increase gene pool
    6. wrt to the Fossil Record
      - gaps in record
      - no transition forms have been observed (but see NewsWeek, 23 Oct 1994)
      - no missing links found
      - therefore, clusters separated by gaps; evolution by leaps
        
        step wise
        punctuated equilibrium
        sudden changes in a few species => only few transitional forms
      - alternatively, intelligent agent independently created types
      - both alternatives are theories, each with their problems
      - intell. dsgn admits not being able to deal with fossil record
    7. wrt to Homology
      - homology: classifying organism according to their similiar structures
      - analogy: classifying organisms according to their similiar functions (insect wings, bat wings, bird wings => same classification)
      - Darwinism: similarity in structure => common ancester
      - intelligent design: similarity => derived from a common design
      - flight didn't evolve independently four times (insects, birds, bats, pterasaurs)
      - similarities are fixed patterns that are assembled in various ways
    8. wrt to Biochemical Similarities
      - homology in the small
      - usually confirms anatomical taxonomy
      - Darwinists: confirms common descent
      - Intell. dsgn: similarity in structure reflects similarity in function
      - all organisms fit into a common universe and ecological web by intl. agent
    9. theory of evolution is not a fact
    10. intelligent design is a plausible alternative
    11. wrt to science and the laws of nature:
      - according to tradition science must explain via natural law, not God
      - but scientific law doesn't explain initial conds. and cosmic parms
      - intelligent agent does not violate nat. law, but may alter the casual chain of events
      - intelligent agent operates in the historical sciences, such as geology
    12. wrt observability: intelligent design invokes unobservable intelligent agent
      - unobservable => untestable: but many theories are unobservable, such as Big Bang and Neo-Darwinism
      - intelligent design: complex info never arises from purely chemical or physical antecedents.
    13. wrt Religion and Intelligent Design:
      - Intel. dsgn not limited to Xtian fundamentalists
      - includes other religious theists, pantheists, enlightment philosphers, scientists
    14. intelligent design does NOT imply
      - young earth
      - global flood
      - existence of Christian God
  10. Problems with Creationism
    1. Creationism ignores validity of scientific method[6]
      - science understands nature by direct observation and experimentation
      - scientific interpretation of facts are provisional and testable (cycle of critique and feedback and modification)
      - creationism puts revelation and biblical authority above evidence
      - creationist conclusions are untestable
      - scientific theories are predictions allowing anticipation of unknown phenominan
      - creationsim reverses the scientific processes: first reaching a conclusion, then seeking evidence for it
      - science seeks discovery and then conclusions
    2. no geological evidence of an universal flood in recorded time[6]
      - to form strata would require more water than ever present on earth
      - for sediment to be deposited in such an orderly fashion defies known physical laws
      - extensive flooding of inhabited areas certainly occurred, but no universal flood
    3. no more "missing links" in human development[6]
      - see Newsweek (Oct 3, 1993) article on recent find
Dialogue and Integration
1. Invocation
  - read Teilhard quote in Teilhardian retreat material, p. 1-4
2. Summary of Previous Discussion in Theological Issues
  1. Evolution
    1. Genesis is not science, but spiritual story
    2. God immanent, or not?
    3. web of life
    4. process; nature open-ended
    5. materialism
      1. spirit-body dualism
        
        body is real
        spirit suspect, private
      2. nature mechanistic
  2. Creationism
    1. biblical literalness and inerrancy
    2. exclusivity; non-connectional
      1. types are distinct and separate
      2. humans not descended from apes
      3. bible only truthful source
    3. God in a box -- closed belief, no openness to the Holy Spirit speaking anew
    4. Predestination
      1. God has everything planned for the beginning of time
    5. Fall theology
      1. spirit-body dualism
        
        bible always right even when contradicted by the facts
        nature degenerate, falling
      2. God arbitrary
        
        kinds unrelated
        God makes things look old
  3. Methodology[5]
    - Creationists start with God's creation and God's will as reported in the bible
    - Scientists start with evolution and humans as a product of nature
3. Some Theology and Epistomology
  1. emphasize:
    - science and religion not in conflict
    - science and religion interrelated and intertwined
  2. There's more to reality than science can study
    - before time
    - after time
    - why, purpose
    - transcendance
  3. There's more to reality than the bible discusses
    - modern science and rapid technological advances
    - democracy, fascism
  4. Two domains that overlap and interact ("The truth shall make you free")
    - Both discourse on Creation
    - simplistically -- Sci: what and how; Rel: why
    - Two paths to truth
    - Each find partial truth alone
  5. Do not hang biblical validity on any scientific theory
    - "God of the Gaps": God explains what science cannot -- eventually God squeezed out
    - Sci. theories come and go; the bible remains
    - both evolution and creationism are scientific-oriented theories
    - the bible valid no matter which is true
  6. Bible, religion deals with our relation to God and then with nature; science deals with nature, and then with our relationship with God
    - John Paul II: science "can purify religion from error and superstition" and religion "can purify sceince from idolatry and false absolutes"[7]
    - "reading nature is like reading the bible ... the Spirit who illumines Christians to understand the gospel also ilumines scientists to understand nature"[2]
  7. History of interaction[2]
    - "Basil of C�saria, Ambrose, and Augustine saw science and technology as important to theology"[2]
    - during Middle Ages, science was a branch of theology, since theology was interested in learning everything about God and God's creation
    - Calvin and Luther positive
    - Calvin: it is an affront to God to reject the insight of scientific discovery
    - Horace Bushnell support sci and rel
    - H. Richard Niebuhr: rel. informed by sci.
  8. --latries:
    - Scientolatry
    - Evolulatry
    - Creatolatry
4. What Does the Bible Really Say?
  1. Genesis 1-2 (read Genesis 2:1-6)
    - "The fundamental and ongoing relationship between the Creator and the whole cosmos is the main message, not a lesson in cosmology.[12]"
    - God broods over creation -- love and grace
    - God creates humans from the dust of the earth -- we are part of nature
    - God experiments
    - We are to care for creation, be good stewards
    - God made a home and put things in it: the pair of the days
    - God created order -> science, wisdom
    - Creation is on-going: "When God began to create ..."
    - God created meaning and purpose out of chaos and meaninglessness
  2. Proverbs 8:22-31
    - Wisdom first, before creation
    - God created through Wisdom
    - Wisdom: order, right-living, right-belief, right-action
    - Wisdom is like a "master worker"
  3. John 1:1-5
    1. The Word holds the cosmos together
      - order and prophecy, creativity
      - Jesus Christ
      - light and life
    2. Creation is on-going: 8th day of Creation
    3. Creation is an instrument of God's saving action; Salvation is creative
  4. "... the New Testament sets forth the meaning and purpose of [creation], the unification of all creatures and the whole cosmos in Christ, the mystery of salvation. Not just humanity, but the whole universe is to be transformed and renewed in him.[12]"
  5. These notions precede science: they are values that govern our judgement of the meaning, impact, and proper use of a theory
  6. When we read Genesis and other parts of the bible as science, we lose sight of the values of the bible -- the true value of the bible: to judge and advise and guide
  7. so here is the meaning of creation: love and salvation
    - not mechanics of creation
    - not descent or special creation
    - but why God has set creationmoving
    - and how we should interact with it in a God-centered way
  8. humans in God's image (see E.iv.4.c):
    - maybe God is evolving too!
    - God is not all-knowing, but perfect in knowledge
    - God is emotionally effected by us
    - we co-create with God
5. Integration
  1. theistic evolution[5][7]
    - macroevolution is a possible explanation of how God has created new life forms
    - evolution is ok as a sci. theory, but shouldn't be abused to support atheism or paganism (Sagan and Dawkins)
    - sci requires methodological atheism, not philosophical or personal atheism
    - beware of the "God of the gaps"
  2. chance and design[1] -- is evolution a directional process?
    1. many blind alleys
    2. many extinctions
    3. pervasive role of chance: mutation, genetic combo, unpredictable changes in env. => blind chance, life is arbitrary
    4. but the dice are loaded:
      - not all combos of amino acids are probable or stable
      - earlier successes are inherited
      - nat. sel. is an anti-chance agency
    5. evolution is a subtle interplay of history, chance, and law
    6. design and chance:
      - traditionally a detailed preexisting blueprint in the mind of God.
      - God has a foreordained plan carried out in creation: no chance
      - evolution suggests general design, but no detail plan
      - order grows with use of chaos
      - improvement, but no perfection
      - no predictable final state
      - disorder does not mean evil
      - disorder is precondition of new forms of order, such as new life possible because of death of old (metanoia!)
      - chance provides needed variety and flexibility
    7. theological responses to chance
      1. God controls events that appear to be random
        
        God is in charge of every event
        God just makes it look like chance to fool us -- defrauding us
        But what of blind alleys, extinctions, evil, suffering, waste?
        predestination
      2. God designed a system of law and chance
        
        Darwin's view
        no predestination
        laws and universe set up just right for humans and other life
        God originates and sustains system, but otherwise does not interfer
        deism -- univers is a stochastic process
      3. God influences events without controlling them
        
        like a) God continually involved
        like b) no predestination and there exists chance
        event = f(chance, law, history, God)
        creation is an experiment, unfinished
        persuasive God, not coercive God
  3. models of the Creator[1]
    1. God as purposeful designer
      - imposes order on chaos
      - God's cmd is purposeful and the Word is effective
    2. God as potter (Jer 18:6; Is 64:8) and architect (Job 38:4)
    3. God as sovereign
      - leads to omnipotence and predestination
    4. World as a manifestation of God's Word and an expression of divine Wisdom (Jn 1)
    5. God as gardener (Gen 2:8)
    6. God as father
    7. God as mother (Is 49:15; 66:13)
      - God as parent, nurturing a child to growth and increasing independence
    8. God as spirit
      - vitality, creativity, mystery, active, rational, feeling, responsive
      - continuous creation Ps104:30
      - inspiration of the faithful
    9. God as artist interacting with a medium
      - both intentional and unpredictable
      - poet, writer, composer
    10. God as logos working through creation
    11. God as experimenter and improvisor
      - Note; the stepwise creation and declaration that it was good: indicates a judgement at each step of an experiment
  4. creation and evolution[1]
    1. Conflict
      1. scientific materialism
        
        sci. method is only reliable path to knowledge
        matter (and energy) is the fundamental reality of the universe
        no design
        reductionist
        chance and nat. sel. only source of complexity -- no God
        "Religion and science are seperate and mutually exclusive realms of human thought whose presentation in the same context leadss to misunderstanding of both scientific theory and religious belief" -- National Academy of Science[6]
      2. biblical literalism
        
        creation in a few days
        read Genesis as a blueprint of science
    2. Independence
      1. neo-orthodoxy
        
        sci. and rel. seperate spheres
        God acts in world through X, not nature
        neglects divine immanence
        dichotomy between human and non-human nature
        difficulty with continuing creation
        since arg. from design and nat. theo rely on human reason and not revelation, they are suspect
        doctrine of creation => ack. of one's dependency on God
      2. existentialism
        
        also seperation
        God only encountered in personal involvement, decision and commitment
        metanoia => new authentic personal living; no connection to nature's processes
        doctrine of creation => ack. of one's personal dependency on God
        nature impersonal
        does not recognize ecological view of our spiritual interdependencee with nature
    3. Dialogue
      1. addresses limit or boundary questions
      2. common ground between rel and sci
        
        both assume contingent, orderly, rational cosmos
      3. God as primary cause working thru secondary causes described by sci.
      4. God sustains the natural order
    4. Integration
      1. natural theology
        
        theistic conclusions drawn directly from the evolutionary evidence
        chance and nat. sel. insufficient to explain coordination needed for complexity
        therefore, God, but God of the gaps
        design built into law and chance
      2. theology of nature
        
        religious experience is formulated and integrated in light of evolutionary knowledge
        continuing creation => dynamic, interdependenct, evolving creation
        organisms use chance variation for their own improvement
        no seperation of sacred and secular realms
        Christ not intrusion into the world, but is a fulfillment of cosmic order
        resurrection: work of uniting all of reality and union with God
        creation and redemption a single work
        sin and evil byproduct of creative processes
      3. systematic synthesis
        
        synthesize evolution and creation into an inclusive metaphysical system
        expresses "the interdependence of all beings in an ecological understanding of the web of life"
        continuity of human and non-human
        unique character of human existence
        becoming and process are basic characteristics of reality
        time, change, and relatedness constitutent of all reality, including God
        "If human beings understand that they are fully part of the cosmic process, truly made from stardust, ... they will come to realize their relationship to, and responsibility for, all life on earth.[12]"
  5. UCBHM stand[11]
    1. issues:
      1. commitment to public schools
      2. excellence in education
      3. integrity of science
      4. academic freedom
    2. affirmations
      1. doctrine of Creator God not dependent on any account of origins for truth and validity
      2. creationist attempt to make Genesis a sci treatis obscures real meaning of Genesis
      3. ack. evol. theory as best so far ...
      4. ... not at odds with revelation
      5. affirms freedom of conscience and religion
      6. nurturing of faith and religion is resp. of ch. and home, not pub. sch
      7. creationism is rel, not sci
      8. sci curriculum not place for rel ...
      9. ... ok to teach about rel.
      10. committed to pub. sch.
      11. resists adjusting text books in face of creationism
      12. affirms resp. of prof. educatiors to make final decision about pub. sch. curr.
  6. Summary[2]
    1. Does God play at dice?
      - yes -- in a continuing interplay of creative logos and guiding Sophia
      - yes -- in our co-creation with God: new social orders; new relationships; new technology
      - yes -- God self-limits to give us freedom to love -- or hate
      - yes -- like a loving parent, a graceful dance, a skillful artisan
    2. Does God design?
      - yes -- but as an engineer, who experiments, reviews, and tries again
      - yes -- with our help as co-creators
      - yes -- using the processes and techniques that scientists are uncovering
      - yes -- like a serene gardener, an architect
"...when we say that God creates through the evolutionay process, are we saying that God adds anything to this process, affecting its outcome? Can we think that God is the goal or the guide of the evolution when, according to biologists, evolution has no goal? Do we have an evolved sinful nature from which we need redemption? Have we evolved a capacity for kindness or altruism from the same evolutinary process? Is God awaiting something beyond our species? How does Jesus Christ fit into evolution?"
--Ronald S. Cole-Turner

References
1. Barbour, Ian; Religion In An Age of Science; HarperSanFrancisco; ©1990.
2. Cole-Turner, Ronald S.; An Unavoidable Challenge: Our Church in an Age of Science & Technology; ©1992 The Division of Education and Publication, UCBHM.
3. World Book Encyclopedia.
4. Encyclopedia Britannia.
5. Phillip E. Johnson; Darwin On Trial; 2nd Ed. ©1993.
6. Science and Creationism: A View from the Natural Academy of Science; February 1992.
7. The Creation; US News and World Report; December 23, 1991.
8. Percival Davis and David H. Kenyon; Of Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins; Second Edition; Haughton Publishing Co., Dallas TX.
9. Ronald L. Numbers; The Creationists: The Evolution of Sceintific Creationism; University of California press, Berkeley; 1993,
10. Resource Index; Science, Technology, and the Church: for Personal Study/Reflection and for Congregational Study/Resourcing; compiled by Richard Van Voorhis and Donald M. pedley; ©1993 Division of Education and Publication, UCBHM.
11. Creationism, the Church and the Public School: A position paper of the UCBHM; October 1992.
12. Jerry D. Korsmeyer; review of Made From Stardust: Exploring the Place of Human Beings Within Creation; by Denis Edwards; CTNS Bulletin 14.2/Spring 1994.
©1999 Rev. John A. Mills, Pastor, First Congregational Church, Closter, NJ fcclostr@cwn.com

Genesis, Creationism, and Evolution: Does God Play At Dice? Session Notes

References

Genesis, Creationism, and Evolution: Does God Play At Dice?
Session Notes