Evolving out of Eden: Christian responses to evolution PDF
Preview Evolving out of Eden: Christian responses to evolution
Evolving out of Eden Christian Responses to Evolution Robert M. Price Edwin A. Suominen Tellectual Press tellectual.com TELLECTUAL PRESS tellectual.com Valley, WA Copyright © 2013 by Robert M. Price and Edwin A. Suominen All rights reserved. Please do not make or keep unauthorized copies of this book. E-book ISBN 978-0-9851362-3-9 Tellectual Press is an imprint of Tellectual LLC. Scripture quotations are from the King James Version unless otherwise indicated. Those cited with “NASB” are taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation (www.Lockman.org). Used by permission. Cover image: Charles Darwin expels Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, holding a tablet inscribed not with the Law, but On the Origin of Species (highly abridged), which accuses the First Couple of never existing. Thanks to Carol Selby Price for this fine reinterpretation of Adam and Eve Driven out of Eden by Gustav Doré (1865). Thanks to Edward Babinski, Samantha Bishop-Strand, Jerry Coyne, Jaco Gericke, Russell Kolts, John Loftus, Dave Mack (an excellent proofreader who happens to be blind!), Justin Powell, Charles Shingledecker, and Victor Stenger for their review of part or all of the manuscript, and their encouragement, corrections, and suggestions. They of course bear no responsibility for any errors that remain. Also thanks to Brian Suominen for his assistance with the index. To the fossil hunters—scientists and assistants alike—who have dedicated so many patient hours to finding the evidence that so many choose to ignore. Table of Contents Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Introductions In the Beginning Branches of the Tree Branch I: The Word Branch II: The Creature Branch III: The Creator Damage Control Conclusions Cast of Characters Your Escorts Out of Eden A Bit of Biography A Fundamentalist Bumps into Darwin An Engineering Perspective A Great Cloud of Witnesses Fiat Creationists Progressive Creationists Intelligent Designers Biologians Deism in Denial Let There Be Replicators Ancestral Awakening Rise of the Mutants Replication Relics Plagues from Denial A Grand View of Life Branch I: The Word The World the Biblical Writers Thought They Lived In Planet of the Bible The Strange Old World of the Bible For the World Is Hollow, and I Have Touched the Sky Features of the Firmament Geocentrism Is Egocentrism Writ Large Supporting the Sky, and Earth God Most High Moving On Eden Disorder Adams by the Sackful The Evolution of Genesis Creation by Combat Yahweh versus Nehushtan Deity Deception In the Image of the Gods Ancient Nomads’ Intents In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida Everybody’s Working for the Weekend Days and Confused Playing in the Creationist Sandbox The Time Telescope Not so Fast! The Gap Theory Last Thursdayism Priestly Postulations Let’s be Kind The Sliding Scale of Inerrancy Deny Me Three Times Something New Has Been Added! The Bible as Ventriloquist Dummy Limited Inerrancy Scripture’s “Mega-purpose” The Island of Doctor Lamoureux Are We Not Bultmenn? Backtracking Branch II: The Creature Apex or Ex-Ape? Aren’t We Special? Monkey Business Do Unto Others Gloating in Genesis Catholic Confusion Gimme that Old Time Anthropocentrism! Prehistoric Propitiation Justifying Jesus Is Jesus Safe from Adam’s Fate? Jesus Christ Superchimp? The Soggy Foundation of Original Sin Visiting the Iniquity Paul and Adam Natural Election Gardener’s Guilt The Only Expiation I Can See Sinful Selection Adam Made Me Do It The Man of Sin Lustful Angels Branch III: The Creator Peekaboo Deity Designus Absconditus Dithering Design A Two-Edged Standard Omphalos Again Quantum Apologetics Deconstructing Divine Action Ways Past Finding Out For My Mutation They Cast Lots Elohist Evolution Intelligent DeSade A Creator Red in Tooth and Claw Pilgrim’s Progress Justification by Faith Damage Control Let Not Your Left Brain Know What Your Right Brain Is Doing Desperate Dissonance Rammifications of Science Reductionism or Mystification? The Experiential “Evidence” Demonic Delusion and Noetic Dysfunction Shoveling After the Parade Groping for Gaps Gasp! Gaps! A First Cause to Believe? Who’s on First? God of the Quantum Gaps The Invisible Gardener of Eden Giving God a Place to Hide Peaceful Coexistence? Back to Bultmann and Bonhoeffer Passive-Aggressive Creationism Creationism’s Last Stand Whiteheaded or Wrong-headed? Haught Culture Refined versus Piecemeal Supernaturalism Conclusions The Memes Shall Inherit the Earth Doctrinal Darwinism Revival value Origins Go Ye Therefore, and Replicate in All Nations Memes The Meme’s Eye View Defending the Faith Taming the Beast Paradise Lost No Turning Back Magnanimous Materialism Walking Upright References Illustration Credits Index Introductions Conservative Christianity is caught between the embarrassments of simple fiat creationism which is indigestible to modern science, and evolutionism which is indigestible to much of hyper-orthodoxy. —Bernard Ramm, The Christian View of Science and Scripture In the Beginning Can theology after Darwin, instead of retreating from or only reluctantly accommodating Darwinian ideas, actually embrace them with enthusiasm? —John F. Haught, God after Darwin The now-indisputable reality of life’s evolutionary origins—especially human life—challenges some foundational doctrines of the Christian faith. The issues range from the nature of God as a creator and guiding hand in the lives of mankind to the Fall of Man as the impetus for the sending of a Savior. With the evidence for evolution continuing to pile up in the fields of paleontology, biology, and genetics, the responses of Christian leaders have themselves evolved into different forms. The biblical literalists remain a loud and stubborn voice of denial, yet they have found themselves in a strange and unwitting alliance with the New Atheists by denying that evolution is in any way compatible with Christian doctrine. Many concerned believers are left walking a troubled middle path between Genesis and genetics, wary of the perils of losing their cherished faith on the one hand or their intellectual integrity on the other. Numerous science-savvy theologians have emerged to help them on their way. Evolving out of Eden is a survey of the resulting theological attempts to grapple with the significance of the theory of evolution for Christian belief. There is now a cottage industry of guides working to establish their own different trails through the hostile territory outside the comforting faith-fairyland of Eden. Some remain so close to biblical literalism that we wonder if they really understand the realities of evolution, despite their often impressive scientific credentials. Others eloquently and accurately expound on the science and their acceptance of it, but seem to have hollowed out their scriptural and credal commitments in the process, to the point where we wonder what they mean by the claim of being “Christian” at all. Between the two extremes, there are now many paths on this well-trod ground. We’ll try to map out the lay of the land as we see it. What we don’t seek to do is
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