The editors of the recent volume Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique were in the Los Angeles area, on the campus of Biola University, to celebrate the book’s publication. They discussed the scientific and philosophical challenges to views that seek to marry Darwinism with theism.
Stephen Meyer was on hand and gave an excellent overview. He noted the surprising commercial success of this 1,000+ page book (which, by the way, you can currently purchase at a generous 36 percent discount on Amazon). At first, this “doorstop” was conceived as a mere reference work, but it emerged as much more than that. The initial print run quickly sold out, and, Steve reports, it’s currently in its third printing. Clearly, the subject touched a very sensitive nerve.
In his comments, Dr. Meyer outlines four major challenges to neo-Darwinian theory and asks, then, by what intellectual right do theistic evolutionists (like our friends at BioLogos) insist on an “epistemic obligation” to embrace Darwinism? The issue comes down to the creative power of the unguided evolutionary mechanism, or the lack of it.
It isn’t just ID scientists who have acknowledged the striking “explanatory deficits of neo-Darwinism.” Steve asks, “But if the mechanism isn’t creative, why attribute God’s creativity to it? See the puzzle?” Yes, we do. Watch and enjoy.