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Author Topic:   The opponent of Creationism is Naturalism not Evolution
Richard L. Wang
Member (Idle past 1575 days)
Posts: 104
From: Ottawa, ON, Canada
Joined: 04-27-2020


Message 1 of 2 (875638)
05-01-2020 4:46 PM


I’m the newest member of this forum, and this is my first post. I’m a retired scientist, creationist and Christian.
If my understanding is correct, the name of EvC Forum or Evolution versus Creation Forum contains an assumption: evolution essentially belongs to Atheistic view, so a Creationist must reject evolution. This is not true.
Whether evolution is true or not is one thing; how to explain evolution is another matter: there can be an Atheistic explanation and a Theistic explanation.
Of course, Neo-Darwinism’s interpretation of evolution is an Atheistic theory. On the other hand, the Catholic Church recognizes the existence of evolution: in an address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on October 22, 1996, Pope John Paul II updated the Church's position to accept evolution of the human body: there is no conflict between evolution and the doctrine of the faith, , some new findings lead us toward the recognition of evolution as more than a hypothesis. does this mean Pope John Paul II recognizes an Atheistic theory? Absolutely not. In the same address, Pope John Paul II rejected any theory of evolution that provides a materialistic explanation for the human soul: Theories of evolution which, because of the philosophies which inspire them, regard the spirit either as emerging from the forces of living matter, or as a simple epiphenomenon of that matter, are incompatible with the truth about man. Pope Francis has stated on October 27, 2014: " The evolution of nature does not contrast with the notion of creation, as evolution presupposes the creation of beings that evolve. (See: Evolution and the Catholic Church - Wikipedia)
Therefore, evolution can be explained from a Theistic point of view, so evolution is NOT the opponent of Creationism.
What is the opponent of Creationism? Naturalism. According to the Oxford English Dictionary Online, in philosophy, naturalism is the "idea or belief that only natural (as opposed to supernatural or spiritual) laws and forces operate in the world." Therefore, Naturalism believes that all natural phenomena, including the origin and evolution of life, have or will have scientific explanation based on the natural laws, while God does not exist.
Jerry Coyne, the author of Why Evolution is True, believes that the battle with Creationists is a war: The battle for evolution seems never-ending. And the battle is part of a wider war, a war between rationality and superstition. In this war, if the Creationists don’t even know who the opponent is, how can Creationists win the battle?

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