Evolution versus creation: a false dilemma

Abstract

Cosmic and biological evolution is universally accepted by the scientific community today. Many people, however, believe that this scientific position is irreconcilable with the idea of a world-creator God; they either deny creation in virtue of evolution or reject evolution in virtue of their faith. This paper does not intend to prove God’s existence. Its purpose is to show the fallacy of the evolution/creation dilemma and to explain by means of philosophical reflection that this dilemma arises from a false understanding of the respective methods and purviews of the positive sciences and theology. Moreover, the paper maintains that it falls to scientific research to establish whether the neo-darwinian theory of evolution provides a satisfactory explanation of the phenomena or not. It claims nevertheless that such a theory, should it be definitively confirmed, could also be compatible with an appropriate understanding of creation, even if its explanation of evolution does not appeal to the intervention of an efficient trans-empirical cause nor to a higher intelligence which would guide the evolutionary process towards its goals. In fact, if God exists, then God’s creative action, which gives being and act to the whole natural reality and guides it towards its ultimate ends, has a transcendent character and by no means can it be detected by scientific research, but only by philosophical thinking.