Evolutionary creationism Archives

On the (Divine) Origin of Our Species. Darrel R. Falk. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2023.

Summary: Accepting the evidence for our evolutionary origins, considers God’s providential activity through his hovering Spirit and how that shaped our evolution.

It may be helpful at the outset to say what this book is not, due to the title. It is not a polemic defending some form of young (or old) earth creationism. Darrel R. Falk spent his career as a biology professor and accepts the evidence of our evolutionary rise from some common ancestor we share with the great apes. He also believes this does not conflict with belief in God as Creator who works in and through evolutionary processes. But how specifically does that operate? Is it possible to move beyond vague claims of providence. Falk believes that is possible, based both on findings of how our species evolved, and basic Christian theological convictions about the nature of God and God’s working in creation.

Before proceeding to make his case, Falk clears some ground, distinguishing what science can and cannot know and the difference between science and scientism. This is important to discern when scientists have crossed a line, often in the denial of God, claiming science as a basis. It may have been equally helpful to discuss when Christians cross the line between good and bad science in their attempts to uphold their beliefs or show some concordance.

Chapters 2 and 3 chart the rise of our genus and species, focusing on anatomical changes, especially changes in the brain, arguing that a critical feature that distinguishes our species is our “social” brain, our capacity for cooperation, which better explains our rise than a superior fighting capacity. This is related to another significant development, that of a “theory of mind,” that we understand that others have minds and to understand the thinking and intentions of others.

This, for Falk, represents a key turning point, where it may also be possible for humans to perceive another mind, that of God, and perhaps to perceive the loving intentions of the Triune God who lives in a communally as Three in One. Particularly, Falk believes our ancestors were able to perceive the Spirit’s prompting toward loving, cooperative behavior, which had a selective advantage that may also have selected genetic variants that further enhanced cooperation. He also explores an intriguing idea that our imaginative capacities developed despite awareness of death because we could imagine, through the Spirit’s loving promptings, a reality beyond death.

Falk shows that Darwin himself identified this how cooperation, enhanced further by our language capabilities, was critical in our evolutionary development. What Falk is proposing is an explanation for this cooperative character grounded in and reflective of God’s character. Darwin, while never becoming an atheist, denied providence in creation, both disbelieving in the idea of God as a master designer and struggling with the reality of animal as well as human suffering. Falk raises the question of whether the problem is with providence, or with an inadequate understanding of the interaction of providence and evolution.

Falk’s final chapter considers the biblical story from beginning to end, from the garden-temple, to the fall and sin’s violation of cooperative relationships through the reconciling work of Christ, making one new, global body that images and extends these cooperative capacities on a greater scale than ever, anticipating the consummation of all things.

Falk offers an intriguing integration of theology and evolutionary science. In particular, Falk “makes sense” of our human cooperative character and suggests how the Spirit’s “hovering” may have contributed to the further evolution of this quality, connected to brain capacity and theory of mind, that so enabled us to flourish. Of course, none of this is scientifically provable. What Falk offers is something at once more modest and more provocative, a plausible explanation of God’s involvement in the origin of our species that is consistent both with evolutionary science and Christian belief.

This is not “evidence” that “demands” belief but something just as valuable, an account showing a seamless relationship between the science of human origins and theistic belief. Such proposals are crucial in bringing an end to the “warfare” between science and faith, a conflict that has spilled so much needless ink, and absorbed so much creative energy at the very moment our creation is groaning from the burdens we’ve placed on it, jeopardizing the very existence of so many of God’s beloved creatures.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Evolving Certainties: Resolving Conflict at the Intersection of Faith and Science, Terry Defoe. Self-published, 2018.

Summary: A well-written, comprehensive survey of virtually all of the current popular literature on the creation-evolution dialogue.

Pastor Terry Defoe’s goal for this book is to inform, not to persuade, and inform he does. In his introduction he points out that scientific discoveries have resulted in significant challenges for the Christian church, specifically, (1) How old is the cosmos and the earth? (2) Do species evolve? and (3) How was creation accomplished?

The author focuses his attention on the dialogue between science and Christianity, both historically and currently. He begins by discussing the scientific revolution, the cosmological revolution, the geological revolution, and the biological revolution.

He then devotes a chapter each to possible belief systems in response to the scientific advances: [1] Atheistic evolution, [2] Old Earth Creationism (including the gap theory, the day-age theory, and progressive creationism), [3] Evolutionary Creationism (aka theistic evolution), [4] Young Earth Creationism, and [5] Intelligent Design Creationism. Evolutionary creationism is clearly the author’s preference.

For him, it comes down to “the critical importance of hermeneutics – an accurate interpretation of the Holy Scriptures” (p. xviii). He includes very brief discussions of the theological issues impacted by adoption of an evolutionary perspective, including original sin, death before the fall, theodicy, the image of God, and the historicity of Adam and Eve. Pastor Defoe refreshingly admits several times that these issues have not yet been settled.

In his concluding chapter, Terry Defoe suggests that “The truth of evolution cannot and should not be decided by those who are not scientifically literate. It is important that Christian leaders possess a basic scientific literacy if they are to evaluate science and scientists. We have seen that it is not helpful to the church or to its integrity when church leaders make statements about science that are clearly ill-informed.” (p. 195) He is not advocating a scientific takeover of theology but is asking that science be given a fair hearing. He further suggests that “Scientific discoveries remind Christians that the science in the scriptures is simply the common-sense understanding of an ancient people living in a prescientific world. Rather than inappropriately reading modern notions back into the scriptures, evangelical Christians are learning to let the scriptures speak for themselves, uncovering the message intended by the original authors.” (p. 147)

His conclusion is followed by a 23-page Appendix in which he presents and discusses the results of a number of polls on the topic of evolution, including Gallup, Religion Among Academic Scientists, the Pew Research Center, the National Study of Religion and Human Origins, and a Barna pastors’ survey.

The book is written for the popular audience and in a somewhat unusual style. It reads very smoothly, but almost every other sentence is footnoted, resulting in 1,704 endnotes, most of which are from the popular literature and many are references to readily accessible websites.

Except for numerous typos (a hazard of self-publishing), this book is a well-written, comprehensive survey of virtually all of the current popular literature on the creation-evolution dialogue.

This would be an excellent book to recommend or give to a young earth creationist who is amenable to examining the compatibility of the Bible and modern science since the author shows “why it is possible to leave young earth creationism for biblical reasons.” (p. 11)

[This guest review was submitted by Paul Bruggink, a retired technical specialist whose review interest is in the area of science and faith.]