Evolution does not disprove creation

There are those who think that evolution has once for all disproved `creation'.

It may look as if the universe was organised by an outside Mind. We know now that all of it can be explained through evolution. Physical evolution produced galaxies and stars from the initial explosion, the Big Bang. Biological evolution produced complicated forms of life through chemical processes and the struggle for survival. There is no need of a Creator.
R.DAWKINS, The Blind Watchmaker, Harmondsworth 1988.

Dawkins has a point. In the past, the hand of God was seen in specific examples of plant or animal design which we now recognise to have been shaped by evolution. Birds do not fly because God sketched wings on an imaginary drawing board in heaven. It was aerodynamics that helped animals jump from trees, and this paved the way, very gradually, through a process of genetic mutation and elimination of the unfit, to all the marvellous features of flight: the shape of the wings, the superfine structure of strong, flexible feathers, the correct balancing of body weight.

I want to state this very clearly. Modern believers accept wholeheartedly all the physical, chemical and natural processes that moulded our galaxies and that drove the evolution of life. Our own emergence as human beings was part of those processes. But that does not diminish the necessity of postulating creation.

Everything inside the universe is subject to the laws of nature. However, these laws do not explain the existence of the universe itself, nor why it follows these laws and not other ones.

Formerly people imagined that God designed each plant and animal separately and that he created them one by one. We know better now. We understand now how the whole universe is interrelated, how new species of life are formed in response to pressures and opportunities.

But we still have no explanation for the existence of our marvelously integrated, steadily evolving universe. In fact, the mystery has deepened. Without a creative force present in the process, evolution could not happen.

CREDITS

The text in this lesson is from How to Make Sense of God by John Wijngaards, Sheed & Ward, Kansas City 1995. Tom Adcock designed the cartoons. The Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada awarded the book a prize on 25 May 1996.

The video clips are from Journey to the Centre of Love (scriptwriter & executive producer John Wijngaards) which was awarded the GRAND PRIX by the Tenth International Catholic Film Festival held in Warsaw (18-23 May 1995). It also received the prestigious Chris Award at the International Film Festival, Columbus Ohio, in 1997.