In the preceding chapter we explored the world of religion. We requested attention to the narrative of creation and to the practical function that this story has in the life of believers and in the liturgy of the church. We also paused to examine the intellectualistic interpretation that the creation message has received in creationist circles.

In this chapter we turn our sights to the world of science, particularly of evolutionary science. Can the belief that God created the world, including living organisms, be harmonized with the scientific idea that life on earth developed through natural selection, and as such represents an evolutionary continuum? First I recapitulate a number of key points in Darwin's theory (section 1). Then I refer to neo-Darwinism or the modern synthesis of evolutionary theory and genetics; at the same time I introduce a sharp distinction between the theory of evolution and the ideological claims of so-called evolutionism (section 2). This distinction will lead us into a discussion of the naturalistic implications of evolutionism (section 3). We conclude this chapter with a critical analysis of the continuity postulate and the reducibility postulate that are both presupposed in the evolutionistic ideology (section 4).

DARWIN'S THEORY OF EVOLUTION: THE CVST ALGORITHM

The theory of the origin of biological species by selective natural breeding and hereditary transmission is a monumental one. One could see it as one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of the nineteenth century.