by Mike Gray

Nearly all peoples have developed their own creation myth, and the Genesis story is just the one that happened to have been adopted by one particular tribe of Middle Eastern herders. It has no more special status than the belief of a particular West African tribe that the world was created from the excrement of ants. — Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, 1986

A danger? Danger to what? At CMI, a 1995 article by Werner Gitt says a belief in theistic evolution can threaten one’s Christian faith in 10 significant ways. He begins by defining the philosophy:

The atheistic formula for evolution is:

Evolution = matter + evolutionary factors (chance and necessity + mutation + selection + isolation + death) + very long time periods.

In the theistic evolutionary view, God is added:

Theistic evolution = matter + evolutionary factors (chance and necessity + mutation + selection + isolation + death) + very long time periods + God.

In this system God is not the omnipotent Lord of all things, whose Word has to be taken seriously by all men, but He is integrated into the evolutionary philosophy. This leads to 10 dangers for Christians.

The 10 dangers:

1 – Misrepresentation of the Nature of God
2 – God Becomes a God of the Gaps
3 – Denial of Central Biblical Teachings
4 – Loss of the Way for Finding God
5 – The Doctrine of God’s Incarnation Is Undermined
6 – The Biblical Basis of Jesus’ Work of Redemption Is Mythologized
7 – Loss of Biblical Chronology
8 – Loss of Creation Concepts
9 – Misrepresentation of Reality
10 – Missing the Purpose

In a sidebar, Gitt summarizes:

What Does Theistic Evolution Involve?*

The following evolutionary assumptions are generally applicable to theistic evolution:

The basic principle, evolution, is taken for granted.
It is believed that evolution is a universal principle.
As far as scientific laws are concerned, there is no difference between the origin of the earth and all life and their subsequent development (the principle of uniformity).
Evolution relies on processes that allow increases in organization from the simple to the complex, from non-life to life, and from lower to higher forms of life.
The driving forces of evolution are mutation, selection, isolation, and mixing. Chance and necessity, long time epochs, ecological changes, and death are additional indispensable factors.
The time line is so prolonged that anyone can have as much time as he/she likes for the process of evolution.
The present is the key to the past.
There was a smooth transition from non-life to life.
Evolution will persist into the distant future.

In addition to these evolutionary assumptions, three additional beliefs apply to theistic evolution:

1 – God used evolution as a means of creating.
2 – The Bible contains no usable or relevant ideas which can be applied in present-day origins science.
3 – Evolutionistic pronouncements have priority over Biblical statements. The Bible must be reinterpreted when and wherever it contradicts the present evolutionary worldview.

* Adapted from Werner Gitt’s, Did God Use Evolution?, pp. 13-16, 24.

Werner Gitt’s CMI article, “10 Dangers of Theistic Evolution,” is on-line. Dawkins’ book is available here and Gitt’s book is here. A previous post on this subject is here.