IS EVOLUTION GOD?

PREFACE

Evolution can be seen as a god in the sense that it makes things keep improving, or as the same as god though it is not really. A guiding principle might do the work you expect from a god without being one or being in any way a person. Some think a Christian style God outside the universe but who is still very close to it works within nature to make things grow and develop. Others think God and nature are the same thing so evolution is God.

THE EVOLUTIONARY GOD?

Religion gravitates towards the idea that there is a power that is not matter or energy as we know it. We call it spirit. It is non-physical. But is it real?

What properties would such a being need to give us the universe and our bodies?

Some see it as an evolutionary force, a godlike principle slowly but surely progressing us.

Make no mistake. Evolution is not a plan but a pattern that might be easily taken for a plan. Our brains "discern" patterns that are not there.

The evolution force would need to be an intelligence it seems, as evolution has got very complicated. But a few simple rules can allow complexities to just happen. You can get endless patterns with a pile of red squares and a pile of blue ones just by throwing them up in the air.

Some may want to say it is mere evolution and doesn’t have any other powers. That is fine.

I would not call it God for God should mean an infinitely loving and infinitely powerful being. This thing is only about what it is about and not about love.

Is the spirit evolution, the power to make things improve? No for things frequently devolve. So where you have development you also have development reversed and ruined. No matter what view of evolution you have you have to admit evolution is a generalisation not a specific term. It is a mix of evolution, nothing-happening and de-evolution.

At the present time, as wonderful as we are, we are NOT AN EVOLUTION. We destroy. We make creatures extinct. We are ruining the planet. All who want to link evolution and God presume that it is mainly or ultimately about us. It is not. If evolution were really doing a job and doing it right it would have us eliminated.

Back to the spirit power we discussed. It would seem that it will have two attributes slowness/tardiness and the power to design. This would make suffering a stepping-stone to something better but not necessarily for the sufferers. And we must remember that the power to design is the power to design and slowness or fastness does not come into it as another attribute. It is how the design works and it is not another property. It is no good as a god for it is not very capable. People who want help from a higher power don't want the help to be centuries away and they don't want the help to be given on Friday and removed on Saturday. It is only valuable as an idea but nothing else. It is not of "spiritual" value.

Those who link evolution and faith are basing it on the feeling that it gave us free will. We deny free will. Thus we dare not say that suffering has value because it would be allowing all possible harms and evils. If we are programmed to do evil when it is beneficial then it is evil to stop evil. We are reacting creatures so seeing evil as it is, useless, will help us be better people.

They cannot explain exactly how free will can be provided for by nature or come about. Their view is not science. You cannot send somebody back in time 2 minutes to see if they could choose lemon cake this time instead of chocolate. Free will may be untestable yes. But there is nothing in science to even show it is possible.

A lot of the thinking we have refuted here is down to poor analogies. The evolution as religious power idea treats it like electricity. Electricity is not a spirit or anything like it and therefore it cannot prove that a spirit can do much of importance. Electricity has lots of attributes. It can flash, it can make things move etc. It is ghostly and mysterious but it is not like some kind of being that has no parts.

Do not be gaslit. The god or spirit or whatever of the evolutionist religion sympathisers is not scientific. Many religious liars steal the language of science to make their religious superstitions sound smarter.

APPENDIX

Some might say, "There is a spiritual force that facilitates evolution. It is the power to evolve things. The power need not know anything. The law that 1=1 is impersonal. In a similar way, an impersonal law of evolution could be a framework that allows things to develop."

It is careful to point out how a reality can help another thing to develop but it is not doing it consciously or of its own choice. It is not the cause of the way things are. It is the framework in which things can happen. The difference can be hard to see. 1 and 1 being 2 may make it possible to be a double murderer but 1 and 1 being 2 is not causing your double slaying.

1=1 is so simple but yet it is a framework. All maths comes from it. It is wrong to say that this or any single principle is the DIRECT or INDIRECT cause or basis of every other rule and principle. It is the framework where things can happen in. Even if nobody discovers mathematical truth it is still there. Electricity is the same. It does many wonderful things and it is only an impersonal force. It is a framework itself. You can conclude, "Therefore a single uncreated and unmade spiritual infinite principle has made what exists possible." If so why are you calling it a God and falling into idolatry by adoring it? You don't even need the cause talk. Framework would suffice.

WORKS CONSULTED
A HISTORY OF GOD, Karen Armstrong, Mandarin, London, 1994
A HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY, VOL 6, PART II, KANT, Frederick Copleston SJ, Doubleday/Image, New York, 1964
A PATH FROM ROME, Anthony Kenny Sidgwick & Jackson, London, 1985
A SHATTERED VISAGE THE REAL FACE OF ATHEISM, Ravi Zacharias, Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Tennessee, 1990
A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE, Louis Berkhof, The Banner of Truth Trust, London, 1971
AN INTELLIGENT PERSONS GUIDE TO CATHOLICISM, Alban McCoy, Continuum, London and New York, 1997 AN INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS, John Hospers, Routledge, London, 1992
APOLOGETICS AND CATHOLIC DOCTRINE, Part 1, Most Rev M Sheehan DD, MH Gill, & Son, Dublin, 1954
APOLOGETICS FOR THE PULPIT, Aloysius Roche, Burns Oates & Washbourne LTD, London, 1950
AQUINAS, FC Copleston, Penguin Books, London, 1991
ARGUING WITH GOD, Hugh Sylvester, IVP, London, 1971
ASKING THEM QUESTIONS, Various, Oxford University Press, London, 1936
BELIEVING IN GOD, PJ McGrath, Wolfhound Press, Dublin, 1995
BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL, Friedrich Nietzsche, Penguin, London, 1990
CITY OF GOD, St Augustine, Penguin Books, Middlesex, 1986
CONTROVERSY: THE HUMANIST CHRISTIAN ENCOUNTER, Hector Hawton, Pemberton Books, London, 1971
CRITIQUES OF GOD, Edited by Peter A Angeles, Prometheus Books, New York, 1995
DIALOGUES CONCERNING NATURAL RELIGION, David Hume, William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London, 1907
DOES GOD EXIST? Brian Davies OP, Catholic Truth Society, London, 1982
DOES GOD EXIST? Herbert W Armstrong, Worldwide Church of God, Pasadena, California, 1972
DOING AWAY WITH GOD? Russell Stannard, Marshall Pickering, London, 1993
EVIL AND THE GOD OF LOVE, John Hicks, Fontana, 1977
GOD A GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED Keith Ward, OneWorld, Oxford, 2003
GOD AND EVIL, Brian Davies OP, Catholic Truth Society, London, 1984
GOD AND PHILOSOPHY, Antony Flew, Hutchinson, London, 1966
GOD AND THE HUMAN CONDITION, F J Sheed, Sheed & Ward, London 1967
GOD AND THE NEW PHYSICS, Paul Davies, Penguin Books, London, 1990
GOD AND THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING, Philip St Romain, Liguori Publications, Illinois, 1986
GOD THE PROBLEM, Gordon D Kaufman, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1973
HANDBOOK OF CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS, Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli, Monarch, East Sussex, 1995
HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY, VOL 2, Frederick Copleston SJ Westminster, Maryland, Newman, 1962
HONEST TO GOD, John AT Robinson, SCM Press, London, 1963
HUMAN NATURE DID GOD CREATE IT? Herbert W Armstrong, Worldwide Church of God, Pasadena, California, 1976
IN DEFENCE OF THE FAITH, Dave Hunt, Harvest House, Eugene Oregon, 1996
IN SEARCH OF CERTAINTY, John Guest Regal Books, Ventura, California, 1983
JESUS HYPOTHESES, V. Messori, St Paul Publications, Slough, 1977
NEW CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA, The Catholic University of America and the McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., Washington, District of Columbia, 1967
ON THE TRUTH OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH, BOOK ONE, GOD, St Thomas Aquinas, Image Doubleday and Co, New York, 1961
OXFORD DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY, Simon Blackburn, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996
PHILOSOPHY AND THE CHRISTIAN FAITH, Colin Brown, IVP, London, 1973
Philosophy of Religion for A Level, Anne Jordan, Neil Lockyer and Edwin Tate, Nelson Throne Ltd, Cheltenham, 2004
RADIO REPLIES, Vol 1, Frs Rumble and Carty, Radio Replies Press, St Paul, Minnesota, 1938
RADIO REPLIES, Vol 2, Frs Rumble and Carty, Radio Replies Press, St Paul, Minnesota, 1940
RADIO REPLIES, Vol 3, Frs Rumble and Carty, Radio Replies Press, St Paul, Minnesota, 1942
REASON AND RELIGION, Anthony Kenny, Basil Blackwell Ltd, Oxford, 1987
SALVIFICI DOLORIS, Pope John Paul II, Catholic Truth Society, London, 1984
SEX AND MARRIAGE – A CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVE, John M Hamrogue CSSR, Liguori, Illinois, 1987
TAKING LEAVE OF GOD, Don Cupitt, SCM Press, London, 1980
THE CASE AGAINST GOD, Gerald Priestland, Collins, Fount Paperbacks, London, 1984
THE CONCEPT OF GOD, Ronald H Nash, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1983
THE HONEST TO GOD DEBATE Edited by David L Edwards, Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1963
THE KINDNESS OF GOD, EJ Cuskelly MSC, Mercier Press, Cork, 1965
THE PROBLEM OF PAIN, CS Lewis, Fontana, London, 1972
THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING, Alan Hayward, Christadelphian ALS, Birmingham, undated
THE PUZZLE OF GOD, Peter Vardy, Collins, London, 1990
THE REALITY OF GOD AND THE PROBLEM OF EVIL, Brian Davies, Continuum, London-New York, 2006
THE RECONSTRUCTION OF BELIEF, Charles Gore DD, John Murray, London, 1930
THE TRUTH OF CHRISTIANITY, WH Turton, Wells Gardner, Darton & Co Ltd, London, 1905
UNBLIND FAITH, Michael J Langford, SCM, London, 1982
WHAT IS FAITH? Anthony Kenny, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1992
WHY DOES GOD ALLOW SUFFERING? LG Sargent, Christadelphian Publishing Office, Birmingham, undated
WHY DOES GOD ALLOW SUFFERING? Misc, Worldwide Church of God, Pasadena, California, 1985
WHY DOES GOD? Domenico Grasso, St Paul, Bucks, 1970
WHY WOULD A GOOD GOD ALLOW SUFFERING? Radio Bible Class, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1990