God Creates World

So I was reading an article about "intelligent design" which is a sort of argument or theory intended to counteract Darwinism--a kind of new creationism. I have to say that evolution always made a lot of sense to me, but I was the kid who would fall asleep reading copies of Nature magazine, after all.

Here's what I think: Science has mostly got it right, as far as how the world has come together--the universe explodes into space, planets coalesce, little microbes develop out of primordial soup and, after millions of years evolve into teachers, lawyers, Christians, and evolutionary scientists. If the Bible were written today, some version of this story would go in the front where Genesis is now, because science has taken over some of the explanatory roles that religion used to play.

But I think there are some sketchy parts in the story that still need some help from God:
1. The Big Bang. No one know what the heck happened there.
2. The Earth forms in such a way as to support life. Life as we know it wouldn't be possible on a planet that was hotter or colder or didn't spin or didn't have so much oxygen. Maybe it could have developed in some other format, but maybe not, given the rules of physics, etc.
3. Life actually begins. I know Frankenstein's monster came to life when lightning struck, but is that how it really works? I find it easier to imagine God somehow stirring the primordial soup, gently, and with joy for what would be created out of it.

A lot of this relies on my own view of how God works. If you've got an idea of God as an interventionist--shaping people out of mud with bare hands, moving stars and sun, hammering out the sky from a big sheet of metal--then evolution is kind of unnecessary. But if God is a little more of an influencer--coming into situations, helping influence small changes, but ultimately giving people power over their own destinies--then evolution makes perfect sense. A gene here, a narrow miss there, producing a growing complexity of live and love.

(Here's the beginning of somebody else's take on it, if you're interested.)

Evolution, compared to creationism, really gives us a better basis for a doctrine of free will. God is with us and helping us in sometimes indiscernable ways, but the process is gradual and involves a lot of freedom and a lot of mistakes.