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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
Ever since Charles Darwin first published his revolutionary book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, there has been considerable disagreement among Christians concerning both the truth of evolutionary theory and its possible reconciliation with the Bible. Some Christians have taken the so-called ‘fundamentalist creationist’ position believing in a literal interpretation of the first few chapters of Genesis. Others have adopted so-called ‘theistic evolutionist’ views accepting to various different degrees Darwinian ideas about origins. One point however on which most Christians (and indeed non-Christians) are agreed, is that an evolutionary process based on blind chance must necessarily conflict with all possible theistic world views and stands irreconcilable with the biblical text. It is this assertion which in this essay I hope to refute, as based on misunderstanding of the meaning of blind chance, of the mechanism of evolution and of the involvement of God in the universe.
page 341 note 1 Darwin, C. (1859) On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Murray, London.Google Scholar
page 342 note 2 Mendel, G. (1866) Versuche über Pflanzen-Hybriden; Verhandlungen des naturforschenden Vereins (Brunn), 4, pp. 3–47Google Scholar. For an English translation see: Stern, C. and Sherwood, E. R. (1966) The Origins of Genetics. A Mendel Source-Book, American Philosophical Society, New York.Google Scholar
page 343 note 3 Some of the principal early works combining Mendelian Genetics with Darwin's theory of Natural Selection: Fisher, R. A. (1930) The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, Clarendon Press, OxfordCrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dobzhansky, Th. (1937) Genetics and the Origin of Species, Columbia University PressGoogle Scholar; Huxley, J. S. (1942) Evolution: The Modern Synthesis, Harper, New York.Google Scholar
page 343 note 4 Monod, J. (1972) Chance and Necessity, Collins, London.Google Scholar
page 343 note 5 MacKay, D. M. (1978) Science, Chance and Providence, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
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page 345 note 7 Morris, H. M. (1974) Scientific Creationism, Creation-Life Publishers, San Diego.Google Scholar
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page 350 note 11 MacKay, D. M. (1974) The Clockwork Image, Inter-Varsity Press, London.Google Scholar
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page 352 note 13 For example: Col. 1.17, Psalm 104.
page 352 note 14 H See Prov. 16.33.
page 354 note 15 For example: Eccl. 1.1–11, Rom. 8.22.
page 354 note 16 Rom. 8.20, 21.
page 354 note 17 Cameron, N. M. S. (1983) Evolution and the Authority of the Bible, Paternoster Press, Exeter.Google Scholar
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