Darwinism Supported by Religious Groups?

Brian McDonald

The section in the very beginning of chapter seven of Making Nature Sacred discusses the views taken following the publication of Darwin’s book The Origin of Species. Some religious leaders immediately rejected and refuted Darwin’s findings and attacked him for his theories on evolution. But a more interesting approach was taken by certain American idealist and theistic evolutionists.

Some simply questioned his approach on natural selection, and wanted to charge otherwise elusive variations to divine power. They held a wide spectrum of ideas about what kind of role God played in adaptation or evolution. Perhaps God worked miracles of special creation to aide a species in surviving. This is quite an interesting approach, and one I had never heard of. The theory basically suggested by some was to say that evolution was simply God’s preferred method of creation. This is quite an interesting theory and could be supported by many. Many evolutionists would just reject the idea of a greater power creating all of life because of evolution. But perhaps something overseen is the true power that God has. Perhaps evolution was his plan; after all we are talking about the accredited creator of heaven and earth, give him a little credit about planning out the world.

(Making Nature Sacred)