Joel Kontinen
Some Christians believe that God used evolution. In a recent article in Christianity Today, Andrew J. Wılson attempts to show that William Paley, John Milton and Charles Darwin basically agreed on human origins.
This is not the first time Christianity Today doubts the traditional understanding of Genesis.
Wilson’s thesis is fraught with problems, most of which are insurmountable. Milton clearly believed in a literal creation and a literal Eden. Paley saw design in nature. In contrast, Darwin thought that God and design were not needed at all but natural processes could account for our existence and evolution.
Wilson has an unorthodox view of creation:
“Genesis doesn't actually say that all human beings are biologically descended from Adam and Eve alone. The people Cain was scared of, and the woman he married, don't seem to be related to him. And if they weren't, then we don't actually know if they were created out of the dust of the earth, created out of creatures that already existed, or created in some other way.”
However, the Bible is not silent on this issue. The apostle Paul describes Adam as the first human being. Genesis 3:20 says that Eve was the mother of all the living, and Acts 17:26 states that all people are the descendents of one man (i.e., Adam).
But Wılson goes on to say: “So, I don't think Milton and Darwin are impossible to reconcile. In fact, I can't think of anything Milton (or Genesis) says about Adam and Eve that is contradicted by Darwinian evolution, as strange as that sounds.”
I can. Jesus, for instance, taught that God created man (and a woman) at the beginning of creation (Mark. 10:6) and not billions of years after the beginning. Moreover, Jesus and the apostles clearly believed that Genesis is history.
Source:
Wılson, Andrew J. 2013. Where Did We Come From? How Milton, Paley, and Darwin help us answer the question. Christianity Today (1 October)
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