Are there difficulties with evolution? ...

Thursday, November 24, 2011. Are there difficulties with the theory of evolution from a theological viewpoint? We indicated in our last session that there might be sincere problems. It it so?

Where is the Problem? …

One key point of New Testament theology is the role of death for mankind. Death has been introduced into creation by the Lord as a reaction of the human choice to live without him. Death in the New Testament is a consequence of “sin” - the big separation between mankind and God.

What death are we speaking about? The bible talks both about “spiritual death” and about “physical death”. Spiritual death means that men and women are not living in unity with the Lord. Physical death points to the death of our body.

So here we are at the key difficulty. If the evolutionary mechanism is correct for the development of mankind, then death is a key stepstone for this development. Death would be needed to create. But can it be that death is a key element of creation, and at the same time a consequence of sin? Or is only the spiritual death a consequence of the separation, but physical death has always been a part of life?

Theology Contributions? …

There are various ideas to resolve the above difficulty. Some declare the biblical stories in their literal form to be history and deny evolution. Other scholars distinguish between spiritual and physical death. Others again read the stories in a more parabolic way, they do not expect to find truth in literal application. And of course, we need to understand, not just to blindly apply some story in the wrong way!

Perhaps a historical example can help. In the past Christians had difficulties with the biblical descriptions of the world with its geocentric view, with the earth understood as a flat disc in an ancient sea, with sun and moon circling it. Today, of course we know that the understanding of the biblical words was strongly influenced by the geocentric world view. But the creation story of Genesis 1 can well be read with a modern knowledge about our solar system, and still completely keeps its meaning: the earth with all in it is a creation of the Lord, carried out with care and intention. The conflict about the functioning of the planetary laws is completely resolved.

I expect a comparable resolution of our modern conflict about the role of death in evolution. We need to realize that evolutionary theory is not complete at all and it is still moving forward. The mechanism which led to the shaping of higher animals and mankind is still not understood, even if preliminary theories exist and are sometimes sold as truth by their enthusiastic protagonists. But time will help us to gain a better understanding! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts