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Top 100 Atheist Challenges

Theistic Evolution

Theistic evolution (or "evolutionary creation") is the view that evolution occurred, but was planned and guided by God. Some theistic evolutionists believe there are problems with the secular theory of evolution and therefore atheistic evolution could not occur. Others believe the secular theory of evolution is viable and is also compatible with the Bible.

Creationists are often leery of theistic evolution because of fears that the opening chapters of Genesis will be interpreted too figuratively. While some theistic evolutionists are very liberal in their interpretation of Genesis, there are conservative interpretations within theistic evolution as well, which I have tried to represent here.

Theistic evolution sites:

Some of the questions for old-earth creationism also apply to theistic evolution.

How is Genesis 2 to be interpreted? Were Adam and Eve literal people?

Genesis 2:7-8 states that Adam was formed as a special act of creation from "the dust of the ground," and the rest of the chapter implies that Adam was created as an adult, not born to almost-but-not-quite-human parents.

If Adam and Eve were not literal people, then Cain, Abel and Seth were not literal either, and the history of Genesis 4 and the genealogy of Genesis 5 make no sense (particularly 5:3-5: if Adam wasn't real, why is his lifespan recorded and his descendants listed down to Noah?). One must also consider Romans 5:12-21, where Paul's argument assumes Adam was a real person and that we experience the ongoing consequences of his sin.

While some theistic evolutionists may interpret the story of Adam and Eve figuratively, a literal interpretation is not necessarily incompatible with theistic evolution. It could be that God guided the process of evolution to create all life forms except humans, and then specially created Adam and Eve in his own image as described in Genesis 2. The Catholic church offers as a possible explanation the notion that God could have specially created the human soul and/or spirit but not the body (Adam, Eve and Evolution). Carl Drews provides some other explanations (some conservative, some liberal) in Transitional Fossils of Hominid Skulls (see the Theological Commentary and Further Reading sections).

Didn't God create distinct "kinds" and consider his creation to be finished on the seventh day, as opposed to being an ongoing process?

This question comes from Faith Facts. A possible answer to the second half is that God considered his creation to be finished when he had created humans and all the genera or species of other creatures; the continuing of microevolution wouldn't mean that creation had not been completed, any more than the birth-and-death cycle means creation has not been completed.