Evolution and an Orthodox Patristic understanding of Genesis

[Pravoslavnik]

"evolution isnt science" ????

My Good Man,

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    If evolutionary theory isn't science, what is?  Is Newton's theory of gravitation science, in your view?  Is Einstein's theory of relativity science?  How do you define science and scientific theory?

    Science is knowledge that comes from empirical observation, integrated and understood by causal explanatory theories and "laws."  There is a tremendous amount of empirical data about the history of life on the planet earth, along with contemporary observations of life processes.  How do we, scientifically, account for the data--the gradually increasing complexity of life forms and ecosystems on earth during the past 3.5 billion years?  Are there a logical, causal mechanisms that explain the properties of living "matter"?  Of course there are.  We know that living organisms reproduce themselves through DNA, which has a self-replicating chemical composition based on base pairs in a double helix.  These base pairs can be altered accidentally or chemically, causing variations in proteins and organism phenotypes that may be differentially adapted to different environmental conditions.  That is the mechanism of evolutionary theory, in a nutshell.

 There is no inherent conflict between this scientific theory and Orthodox Christianity.  In Orthodox Christianity, God is outside of creation, but also capable of interacting with the material world, as He sees fit.  There was a time when some Christians insisted that the sun revolved around the earth, and that anyone who claimed otherwise, like Galileo, was a heretic.  Fundamentalist Christians today are, unfortunately, doing the same thing with regard to evolutionary theory and modern biology.

[jckstraw72]

Science is knowledge that comes from empirical observation, integrated and understood by causal explanatory theories and "laws."

there is no observation of evolution -- scientists take what they see now and cast it onto the past. thats a pretty big assumption to make -- that what we have observed in the past hundred years or so is normative for the supposed past several billions of years. thats a pretty unlikely assumption if you ask me.

[ChristosVoskrese]

Science is knowledge that comes from empirical observation, integrated and understood by causal explanatory theories and "laws."

No-one has ever seen one life form evolve into another. And most importantly of all, no-one has seen spontaneous generation of life from non-living matter. All evolutionists will teach that this happened, yet there is absolutely no proof for it. In fact, Louis Pasteur actually disproved this theory over 200 years ago. Life only comes from life.

So because evolution hasn't been witnessed, it's believed by faith. It's passed off as science because it is naturalistic - it doesn't require belief in God or a supernatural Creator.

[Pensees]

In Orthodox Christian theology, theosis is the path toward unification with the energies of God, toward a life of holiness. This is understood as a gradual process through which one becomes sanctified and resigned to the will of God.

Theosis, meaning deification or divinization, is the process of man becoming holy and being united with God, beginning in this life and later consummated in the resurrection. Theosis is the understanding that humans from the beginning are made to share in the life of the Trinity. Therefore, we are saved from sin for participation in the life of the Trinity, which is life-giving and therefore eternal.

Orthodox theology

The statement by St. Athanasius of Alexandria, "The Son of God became man, that we might become God", indicates the concept beautifully. II Peter 1:4 says that we have become " . . . partakers of divine nature." Athanasius amplifies the meaning of this verse when he says theosis is "becoming by grace what God is by nature" (De Incarnatione, I). What would otherwise seem absurd, that fallen, sinful man may become holy as God is holy, has been made possible through Jesus Christ, who is God incarnate. Naturally, the crucial Christian assertion, that God is One, sets an absolute limit on the meaning of theosis - it is not possible for any created being to become, ontologically, God or even another god.

Through theoria, the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ, human beings come to know and experience what it means to be fully human (the created image of God); through their communion with Jesus Christ God shares Himself with the human race, in order to conform them to all that God is in knowledge, righteousness and holiness. Theosis also asserts the complete restoration of all people (and of the entire creation), in principle. This is built upon the understanding of the atonement put forward by Irenaeus of Lyons, called "recapitulation."

...All of humanity is fully restored to the full potential of humanity because the Son of God took to Himself a human nature to be born of a woman, and takes to Himself also the sufferings due to sin (yet is not Himself a sinful man, and is God unchanged in His being). In Christ, the two natures of God and human are not two persons but one; thus, a union is effected in Christ, between all of humanity and God. So, the holy God and sinful humanity are reconciled in principle, in the one sinless man, Jesus Christ. (See Jesus's prayer as recorded in John 17.)

This reconciliation is made actual through the struggle (podvig in Russian) to conform to the image of Christ. Without the struggle, the praxis, there is no real faith; faith leads to action, without which it is dead. One must unite will, thought and action to God's will, His thoughts and His actions. A person must fashion his life to be a mirror, a true likeness of God. More than that, since God and humanity are more than a similarity in Christ but rather a true union, Christians' lives are more than mere imitation and are rather a union with the life of God Himself: so that, the one who is working out salvation, is united with God working within the penitent both to will and to do that which pleases God. Gregory Palamas affirmed the possibility of humanity's union with God in His energies, while also affirming that because of God's transcendence and utter otherness, it is impossible for any person or other creature to know or to be united with God's essence. Yet through faith we can attain phronema, an understanding of the faith of the Church.

The journey towards theosis includes many forms of praxis. Living in the community of the church and partaking regularly of the sacraments, and especially the Eucharist, is taken for granted. Also important is cultivating "prayer of the heart", and prayer that never ceases, as Paul exhorts the Thessalonians (1 and 2). This unceasing prayer of the heart is a dominant theme in the writings of the Fathers, especially in those collected in the Philokalia.

http://orthodoxwiki.org/Theosis

Theosis is analogous to biological evolution. While evolution is the progression from single-celled organisms to intelligent beings capable of having a relationship with God, theosis is the process by which the individual becomes closer and closer to the divine nature. One could say, then, that theosis is the fulfillment of the evolutionary process, found in one's personal evolution toward holiness. Furthermore, that the path towards sanctification is gradual can help us to better understand why God would create the species, including mankind, through a gradual process. Evolution is also consistent with the Orthodox doctrine of panentheism. Rather than creating all things ex nihilo and from afar, God is immanent in the evolutionary process, constantly fine-tuning the events toward His desired outcome.

Peace.

[Cyprian]

St. Maximus the Confessor:

Seek the reason why God created, for this is knowledge. But do not seek how and why he only recently created, for that question does not fall under your mind since while some divine things are comprehended by men others are not. As one of the saints has said, “Unbridled speculation can push you over the precipice.”

[Pravoslavnik]

"No-one has ever seen one life form evolve into another." ???

Dear C.V.,

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 This statement is simply untrue.  To clarify, what do you mean by "life form" here?  Do you mean variation within a species, or speciation, itself?  Let me give a contemporary example.  There is a current strain of mycobacterium tuberculosae that is resistant to iproniazid, seromycin, and other antibiotics.  This drug resistance is new, and has developed and proliferated partly as an adaptation to modern antibiotics.  Is this a different "life form" from other mycobacteria of its species?

      One of the reasons that the evolution of species is counter-intuitive from our limited modern perspective has to do with the vast time scale of earth history.  Three billion years of self-replicating DNA molecules is an unimaginably vast time scale for genetic variations and complexity to develop.  People have trouble with the idea of self-replicating, increasing complexity of ecosystems, but this is the unusual property of DNA and RNA.  Computer models have shown a progression of complexity using principles like genetic variation combined with natural selection.  Incidentally, I believe that a person can accept the theory and mechanism of Darwinian evolution without ruling out divine intervention at various stages of the process, just as we can accept the notion of gravitation without having to assume that angels bring every apple down to the ground, or that God cannot inscribe stone tablets on Mount Sinai.

       Cyprian, why is it not "speculation" for some modern Orthodox Christians to insist upon a Fundamentalist, Young Earth Creationist model of earth history which is blatantly unscientific?  Remember, it is you and the Fundamentalists who have insisted that your false, speculative view of paleobiology is the only, true Orthodox interpretation of [i]Genesis[/i].

[ChristosVoskrese]

This statement is simply untrue. To clarify, what do you mean by "life form" here? Do you mean variation within a species, or speciation, itself? Let me give a contemporary example. There is a current strain of mycobacterium tuberculosae that is resistant to iproniazid, seromycin, and other antibiotics. This drug resistance is new, and has developed and proliferated partly as an adaptation to modern antibiotics. Is this a different "life form" from other mycobacteria of its species?

It's a different species, but it's still a bacteria. It's not on the way to becoming a beetle.

I believe that a person can accept the theory and mechanism of Darwinian evolution without ruling out divine intervention at various stages of the process

This brings us back to the same old issue: The Bible said there was no death before Adam sinned. Evolution says that death was there from the beginning. To accept theistic evolution is to believe that God created death, which is blasphemy.

Cyprian, why is it not "speculation" for some modern Orthodox Christians to insist upon a Fundamentalist, Young Earth Creationist model of earth history which is blatantly unscientific?

So, according to you, the Church Fathers and Fr. Seraphim Rose were "Fundamentalist" and "unscientific"?

Remember, it is you and the Fundamentalists who have insisted that your false, speculative view of paleobiology is the only, true Orthodox interpretation of Genesis.

And you think that your view of theistic evolution is the true, Orthodox interpretation of Genesis? What blasphemy!!!

The bottom line is: God is not the author of death.

Pravo, for a scientific view of Creation, you should watchDr. Kent Hovind's videos. He gives a scientific explanation for Young Earth Creation.