If these are his actual words and not a bad translation than this is very disturbing.
One should always be wary of the possibility of bad translations. And one suspects negating the term “divine” while affirming the word “Creator” doesn’t work as well in English as perhaps it might in some other language, because English usage generally equates the two.
But I personally have never seen a theological problem with the notion of evolution, though I do think many of its proponents sometimes stretch very limited findings beyond their breaking point. But if we believe God created the universe and ourselves, is there some truly good reason why we would limit Him in the manner of His doing it? If He could raise a man from a lump of clay in the way we (and artists) picture it, why should we preclude the possibility that the creative act could have taken eons? On what basis do we preclude that possibility?
Are we on a firm footing to conclude that, for example, God’s act in creating man and in his making man a rational being with a soul, had to all happen at once? I am aware of those who point to complexity as being evidence of a sudden creation. But are we really justified in thinking God could not create complexity over a huge span of time? Why do we suppose that God might not have enjoyed doing it by means perhaps even more marvelous than a sudden and singular act. After all, what’s a billion years to God?
Many theologians believe it philosophically necessary to believe that all the universe and everything (and being) in it was in the Mind of God from all eternity. Now, we really can’t quite grasp such a thing, but if, indeed, God had the notion of man for all eternity, what is the basis for our declaring that He suddenly had to decide “well, I’ll make him now”.
We’re told by some physicists that, while we might never know what existed prior to the Big Bang (if there was one) something likely did, even if it was simply principles. If, for instance, the Big Bang was truly caused by the intersection of two “membranes”, what is our reason for thinking God did not delight in creating the membranes and plan, from all eternity, for two to intersect and create the universe we know? How do we know He didn’t simply invent the principles that were then capable of moving things themselves, the principles always existing in His Mind, which, in that manner, determined everything?
We don’t.
God might well be a lot bigger and a lot more complicated than we imagine. Personally, I’m thinking He is.
Rob
