The concept of evolution has a firm cultural grip on our population. Our personal worldviews are substantially impacted by personal beliefs on the to[pic. The subject of evolution is frequently addressed in our culture and especially in our science classes. In previous posts we quoted a well-known scientist whose statement has become a “given” in our modern times: “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” We link a previous post where we discussed this statement in more depth:
https://jasscience.blogspot.com/2008/08/nothingmakes-sense.html
The term worldview is an important personal issue for members of our society. We find many definitions and descriptions of worldview. Here is a definition offered by J. R. Miller in his 2024 book Set Apart—How Genesis stands alone. “Worldview is used to describe the lens used to interpret the world and focus our observations into a clear narrative that answers the questions of origin(s)…..” We believe Miller refers to the origin of life, especially human life. Author J. R. Miller further states worldview answers questions such as “How did I come into being?”
Two important worldview categories are theism and naturalism (or materialism). Believers in divine creation of life have a theistic worldview: God created living things, including humans, by an act of fiat creation. In Latin, fiat means “Let it be done.” This term indicates God spoke life into existence, as well as all physical things, and “it was done.”
The process of evolution, in contrast, is incorporated as part of the naturalism worldview. Evolution does not depend on action by the Creator. According to the theory life develops naturalistically by the process of natural selection and mutation, boosted by other natural mechanisms identified by evolutionary scientists.
We repeat the well known acronym in frequent use by evolutionists—LUCA—the last universal common ancestor. According to naturalistic evolutionists the LUCA of all modern humans is a single cell, perhaps billions of years in the past. The following passage is from a Wikipedia article titled “Last Universal Common Ancestor”: (LUCA appears to have been a small , single-celled organism. It likely had a ring-shaped coil of DNA floating freely within the cell. Morphologically, it would likely not have stood out within a mixed population of small modern-day bacteria.)
Our blog positions clearly identify with a theistic worldview. God, however, works through natural laws as well as fiat creation. He establishes natural processes to govern our daily human activities. For example, if a rapid physical healing occurs from a nearly fatal infection, this may or may not be due to a transcendent miracle. The healing may be a transformational miracle or a sustaining miracle. Both of the last two mentioned “miracles” occur frequently as part of the operating system God has created for humanity. Natural bodily healing frequently occurs as do many other wondrous natural events. For reference, see https://jasscience.blogspot.com/2017/11/our-miracle-immersed-planet.html
Our belief is clear regarding creation and evolution. We do not endorse evolution as described in relation to the hypothetical LUCA. Rather, we believe living things, especially humans, are the product of divine fiat creation. We believe evolutionists, even theistic evolutionists, gravitate to a naturalistic worldview, even though many claim to have a theistic worldview.
The discussions pitting evolution v. creation are unending in certain circles, even though many bio-scientists pronounce the theory of evolution “unequivocally true.” Speaking from my personal perspective, a friend challenged me in 2009 to record my beliefs concerning evolution. Here is a link to my article on evolution. We acknowledge the evolution/creation issue is multidimensional and exceedingly challenging:
https://jashow.org/articles/science-evolutions-missing-link/
