For a long time I have believed in theistic evolution, the notion that evolution is the mechanism by which God brought life into being. One thing that has always bothered me about this is that evolution is a process that involves pain and suffering, which is difficult to square with the loving grace of God. I’ve just been reading The Language of Science and Faith by Karl Giberson and Francis Collins (IVP 2011) and found their insight very helpful.
Giberson is a physicist and Francis Collins a geneticist who led the human genome project from 1993-2008. Both are committed Christians. They argue that modern science has overturned the Newtonian view of the world. Newtonian science assumed that if we knew everything about the present we would be able to perfectly predict the future, that everything followed a simple pattern of cause and effect. Quantum physics and chaos theory have turned this on its head, so that even if we had perfect knowledge of everything in the present we would still not be able to predict the future.
The actual future is open and cannot be known simply as a predictable extension of present processes. On the other hand, nature’s freedom is constrained in ways that assure the world will be stable. Planet Earth will not suddenly plummet into the sun, and Mount Everest will not detach and float off into space.
That nature has freedom is highly provocative and theologically suggestive. God created the world with an inbuilt capacity to explore novelty and try new things, but within a framework of overall regularity. This is the way the world is.
The key point here is that the gift of creativity that God bestowed on creation is theologically analogous to the gift of freedom got bestowed on us
I’ve read this before in the writings of John Polkinghorne, but somehow it just seemed to come together for me reading Giberson and Collins.
Of course this does not resolve the problem of evil: why did God choose to create life by a process of evolution if he knew there was the possibility would throw up suffering? What it does do however is place the problem of suffering in evolution on the same plane as suffering caused by human beings. Both are the consequence of God granting freedom.
A similar perspective is in Tom McLeish, Faith and Wisdom in Science (Oxford University Press, 2014). McLeish is a Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Durham University and a prominent physicist who is at home in science, the Bible, history and philosphy and has a great writing style. He shows the interplay of order and chaos (“constrained freedom”) in the natural world and the Bible. Here are some of my notes:
Ch. 3 (pp. 55-74): Creation, Curiosity and Pain: Natural Wisdom in the Old Testament. Discusses Proverbs 8, Psalms 33, 104, Jeremiah 10 (creation and correction), later Isaiah [creation and care; ch 28, 40, 45], A distant hope and different cosmos; Early Isaiah and Hosea; The Formal Tradition: Genesis 1 and 2.
Chapter 4: Order and Chaos: the Comet, the Storm, and the Earthquake. Order out of chaos. “Nature, it seems , opeartes on a statistical foundation” (p. 101).
Chapter 5: At the Summit: the Book of Job (pp. 102-148). Creation/natural world images throughout the book. The Lord’s reply: (1) tackles head on the accusation that creation is out of control (revelation of a path of ‘constrained freedom’ (p. 146); (2) it achieves Job’s aim to be reconciled to his state of physical pain and mental outrage; (3) it is participative and relational,; (4) it speaks of the fundamental significance and importance of the physical structure of the workings of nature; (5) it is ‘eschatological’ – the possibility of a future in which the vital relationship with natural things, now broken, becomes healed, not just for Job but for the species from which he comes.
Chapter 6: Creation and Reconciliation: the New Testament Creation Narratives. Romans1:18; 8:18ff.; 1 Cor. 15; John 1; Revelation.
Thanks John. Very helpful.
Hi Scott, I met you at your Blackheath Baptist presentations and bought your book etc and we chatted. I am a member of our local Catalyst group, which I know was inspired by your initiating the Catalyst movement. I gave a brief talk to our Church on last Sunday on Jenny Bawden’s, our local Convenor’s request.
The following was inspired by that presentation.
Hope to see you soon and to keep in touch through writings,
God bless,
Andris
THE CATALYST 30.5.’16 Andris Heks, Blue Mountains NSW
Christianity is the biggest world religion with 2.2 billion adherents, constituting 31.50% of all religious people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religious_populations.
So what is Christ’s secret?
It is perhaps, that He is the most popular Catalyst who has ever walked on this Earth.
Catalyst is defined as :
‘An agent that stimulates or precipitates a reaction, development, or change’ that ‘takes part in the reaction but remains chemically unchanged by it.’
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/catalyst
The term derived from Greek καταλύειν, meaning “to annul,” or “to untie,” or “to pick up.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalysis
Because catalysts are not consumed in the catalyzed reaction, they can continue to catalyze the reaction of further quantities of reactant.
This is maybe how Christ has continued to gain ever more followers since his death some 2016 years ago. He died physically but remained alive eternally-this is how as a Catalyst agent, He remained unchanged. And he promised eternal life to his followers too. He told them that they will attain eternal life by loving God with all their heart, soul, strength and mind and their neighbors as themselves. Luke 10:25-28.
It is the act of such discipleship that has brought about fundamental, ‘chemical change’-like reactions in them. He made it clear that it was necessary for them to love their neighbors to love God fully. And he also made it clear through what kind of neighborly love they would love God.
Matthew 25:35-40 New International Version (NIV):
35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (My italics.)
Here is Christ saying this just before he was arrested and crucified. He was aware of the agony of his approaching crucifixion.
He knew he would be thrown to jail and no one could visit him.
He knew he would be starving as he carried his cross, his throat burning with thirst as he hung on it and that he would be given vinegar to finish him off. He knew that he would be made into a totally humiliated stranger in his own land whom no one could invite into his home and he knew that no one would help him as he was getting violently ill on the cross.
He was innocent but took on humanity’s crimes and had himself crucified in place of the rest in order to spare humanity from punishment for their crimes, such as hating, maiming, killing, enslaving or otherwise abusing one another. He cleaned the slate to give a chance for humanity to start again with a crime-free life. And what does he want us to do to repay him for this sacrifice? Not for us to show compassion for Him. Rather, for us to take care of the hungriest, the thirstiest, the freedom deprived, the most voiceless and the sickest of our fellow beings.
So Christ engages in the deepest of altruism: not only does He give his life on Earth for us, but also wanting us to express our gratitude to Him through taking care of the ‘least’ of our brothers and sisters.
Evolution, God and Suffering | https://t.co/6loqoINYbU https://t.co/OvIeUyavDS