IDvolution - God “breathed” the super language of DNA into the “kinds” in the creative act. This accounts for the diversity of life we see. The core makeup shared by all living things have the necessary complex information built in that facilitates rapid and responsive adaptation of features and variation while being able to preserve the “kind” that they began as. Life has been created with the creativity built in ready to respond to triggering events.
Since it has been demonstrated that all living organisms on Earth have the same core, it is virtually certain that living organisms have been thought of AT ONCE by the One and the same Creator endowed with the super language we know as DNA that switched on the formation of the various kinds, the cattle, the swimming creatures, the flying creatures, etc… in a pristine harmonious state and superb adaptability and responsiveness to their environment for the purpose of populating the earth that became subject to the ravages of corruption by the sin of one man (deleterious mutations).
Mutations occur as a result of quantum events, eg tautomeric shifts, wobble pairing. The wavefunctions that describe these contain multiple probable outcomes, only one of which is selected. This wavefunction collapse is discontinuous and some physicists (Wolfgang Smith, Robert John Russell) have argued that God is continuously creating in the present moment through these events: “[T]his quantum mechanical discontinuity does not arise from an underlying continuity by way of approximation, but proves to be irreducible in principle to any continuous temporal process. …] Continuity, one can say, is indicative of the material substrate, whereas discontinuity is indeed the hallmark of the creative act” (Smith, Quantum Enigma, page 106-7). Of this we read in John: "“My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.” (Jn 5:17)
Hence, God is the efficient cause of both beneficial and deleterious mutations. Of this we read in the book of Job: “We accept good things from God; and should we not accept evil?” (Job 2:10) Also in Isaiah, “I make well-being and create woe; I, the LORD, do all these things.” (Is 45:7)
Furthermore, in these good and bad mutations observed in the fossil record and living organisms, the goodness of God is still being made manifest, in His justice and His communication of being to creatures. As Aquinas taught: “Besides, every action and movement are seen to be ordered in some way toward being, either that it may be preserved in the species or in the individual, or that it may be newly acquired [in the species or individual]. Now, the very fact of being is a good, and so all things desire to be. Therefore, every action and movement are for the sake of a good.” (Summa Contra Gentiles, book 3, chapt 3).
Finally, if I may be so bold, I’m concerned that IDvolution will expose the Faith to the ridicule of nonbelievers. The word evolution is fine. From the Latin ex-volvere - to roll out, it implies that some Cause initiates and perpetuates the “rolling out”. The very word suggests an immanent Creator to me.
Hope this helps,
-Ryan Vilbig
ryan.vilbig@gmail.com
