A synopsis of Evolutionary creationism: A reconciliation of Charles Darwin and Stephen

Mayer’s origin of man. Presented by Iwuala Emmanuel on the 30th of March, 2019.

Times without number, the battle for man’s origin and the beginning of life has revolved among
those who hold that man’s existence as it is with other forms of life on earth, evolved from a
single cell into the complex nature or form as we have it today, on the contrary, an opposing
view which is held by religious fundamentalists, wage a commanding argument against the
science of evolution, wherein, they claim that life as it is today was made by a supreme being in
this form, and that there never was a single parent cell connecting all living thing from which all
variant life forms developed.

This therefore is the motivation behind this academic paper which is to show the connection
between both parties and to draw out the connecting dot that can show how man is a creation of
God, but was made by God in the process of evolution.

The idea behind evolutionary creationism has been an intellectual tussle between the theist and
the atheist alike; they both have chosen to embrace a single point of view without looking at the
evidence presented by either party. The two theories inherent in themselves do not offer
sufficient proof for the design of man.

Although evolution as a theory helps explain the development of organisms and species through
the discovery of fossils, by companions of deoxyribonucleic acid, etc. it has failed to point out
the foundation of life.1 Also despite all this evidence creationists persist in their resolve that life
was made promptly and not progressively.

This essay thus hopes to present a comparative analysis of both the creationist and evolutionist
idea of man’s origin, by reaching out to all manner of people and to show within the bounds of
reason, in a logical and progressive manner, that the ideas of evolutionary creationism is a
balance and an answer to the long debate of man’s origin.

As old and as popular as evolution is, many people still have some misconceptions about what
evolution is. In an ordinary sense evolution can be understood as change. This change is not just
the development in growth but a complex quantitative change. This change is that kind that is

1
Ardea Skybreak, The Science of Evolution and the Myth of Creationism, (Chicago, insight press, 2006). p.1
charged with novelty and innovation (the development of a new organism). Evolution as
connected with this scientific research is not merely connected with how orgasm change but how
a whole new system develops over time and generation. 2 Evolution however is not restricted to
living organisms alone. The study at Darwinian evolution has made it known that evolution is a
way of the universe, and it is only made possible by the presence of other organisms with varied
features and characteristics, these different features and characters are then passed on into newer
organisms; this process is regarded “decent with modification”3

Creationism on the other hand rejects natural scientific explanations of the known universe in
favor of special creation by a supernatural entity. Creationism in its various forms is not the same
thing as belief in God because, as was discussed earlier, many believers as well as many
mainstream religious groups accept the findings of science, including evolution. 4

Although Darwin is mostly credited with the theory of evolution, the idea of evolution was
intended even long before Darwin came into the picture. The idea of evolution on record started
with Heraclitus who stated that everything is in a state of flux. 5 Heraclitus professed that change
is the law of nature and condition for all thing 6.This view goes with the theory of evolution that
argues that things are always in a state of change, from a primitive to a higher level.

Heraclitus was challenged by Parmenides on his notion of change. For Parmenides, though
everything has an appearance of change it is all comprised of a single entity which does not
change and he calls this thing the one.7

Aristotle also had a conception of evolution which he explained with his principle of four causes
and his ide of act and potency.

2
Ardea Skybreak, The Science of Evolution and the Myth of Creationism. p.11
3
Ibid p.12
4
Vine Deloria Jr, Evolution, Creationism and Other Modern Myths. (Colorado: fulcrum publishing). 2002. P.14
5
Joseph Omoregbe; A Simplified History of Western Philosophy, Vol. 1, Lagos JoJA Press, 2018. P.11
6
Ibid.
7
Ibid.p.15
Augustine in the medieval period believed that God created the world and all in it ex nihilo 8 he

was also convinced of the fact that God implemented seminal principals (rationes seminales)

into mater which gives them the potential power to become what they are not yet 9

Aquinas also accepted the view of Aristotle with the addition of god as that which made all in the
world including prime mater.

In the contemporary time, the likes of Erasmus Darwin, Jean Baptiste Lamarck, and Herbert
Spencer blazed the trail for the idea of evolution of Charles Darwin. Their ideas were also
refuted by the like of Baron Georges Cuvier who went against the view of evolution.

8
Site needed
9
Enoch stumpf, ibid, p.134