The Bible says God created humans directly and uniquely. We are not products of an evolutionary process that began with lower life forms.
But Scripture suggests that God used intelligent evolution to propagate species within the plant and animal kinds. DNA supports this assertion.
Kind Creations
The Bible says God created the plant and animal kinds—e.g., conifer, fern, feline, equine—by commanding them to exist. It does not address the creation of species.
Before the Big Flood, Noah loaded two of every air-breathing animal kind into the ark, not two of each species.
These kinds proliferated into a vast array of species after their initial creation and after the Big Flood.
The Bible does not explain how this propagation occurred, but we can speculate based on what we know about genetics and knowledge transfer.
These things indicate God generated plant and animal species within their kinds using an intelligent version of evolution that employed mutations.
Not the mindlessly random variations Darwin theorized but thoughtfully prescribed modifications.
Knowledge Transfer
Species evolve when cells successfully mutate. Cells mutate in response to instructions embedded in DNA.
DNA tells cells how to behave through a coherent message written in a prescribed language that utilizes a unique alphabet.
Nature does not construct standardized alphabets or craft intelligent messages. It does not write action plans. Instead, it creates random patterns like cloud formations, sand dunes, and zebra stripes.
Alphabets and messages originate in the mind of a rational composer who wants to deliver specific information to designated recipients for an express purpose.
It follows that the instructions in DNA were conceived by an author who intended to convey essential information to individual cells to effectuate desired results.
God is the logical author of these directives. He is the only being who could have conceptualized, transcribed, and embedded the messages in DNA.
We can surmise, therefore, that evolution was an element of God’s plan for creation. He scripted the vast array of successful DNA mutations that propagated plant and animal species from their kinds.
Natural Selection
The Bible is unclear about when natural selection, i.e., the survival of the fittest, became part of the evolutionary process.
God created humans to live forever. However, we became subject to death when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit.
We do not know if God designed other organisms with the same longevity in mind. We do not know if anything died before Adam and Eve’s original sin.
If nothing died, then the plant and animal kinds that God initially commanded to exist could have propagated new species without any failures until Adam and Eve sinned.
And individual organisms would have procreated continuously from their inception until death appeared on the scene.
This generative productivity would have expedited the proliferation and dispersion of new species and breeds worldwide, whether the earth is old or young.
But even if plants and animals have always been subject to death, intelligent evolution still accounts for their countless permutations, past and present.
Big Unknowns
Scientists are still deciphering DNA, so we have much to learn about the evolutionary capabilities that God built into it.
We do not know if God originally hard-coded DNA with specific instructions to produce the mutations he envisioned at scheduled times.
Or if he actively edited after the initial creation events to generate new species when the physical world was ready to support them.
Or if he encoded it at creation with general mutation instructions that were sufficiently comprehensive and dynamic to allow organisms to adapt to environmental changes and evolve without his subsequent input.
The Bible indicates that the scourge of evil damaged DNA.
God programmed it to produce perfect results. He never scripted it to generate congenital disorders and malformations.
We do not know if this evil impaired the evolutionary capabilities God designed into DNA and thereby slowed or prevented the introduction of new species.
We do not know if it limited the adaptability of DNA, which may have led to the demise of certain species in times past.
However, we know enough about DNA to recognize that God’s intelligent version of evolution is an incredibly elegant explanation for the diversity and sophistication of plant and animal life on earth.
Our Uniqueness
The Bible says Adam and Eve, the first humans, were the pinnacle of God’s creation.
He formed them, male and female, as adults, not infants, through two discrete acts after commanding the animal kinds to exist.
God made Adam and Eve in his image on a soulful level and gave them dominion over the earth, so they could manage it as they saw fit.
He intended for them to recognize the order, discover the science, harness the resources, and find inspiration in the majesty he had designed into nature.
He planned for them to capitalize on this knowledge, to be enlightened by his ingenuity, and to use their imaginations to produce their own handiwork.
He also wanted them to build a blissful community of offspring who would similarly be inspired by the grandeur of the world and the creativity of those born before them.
Accordingly, God equipped Adam and Eve with enhanced versions of the features he bestowed on the animal kinds, plus a few they were not given.
- The ability to communicate with him, individually and jointly
- A will, so they could love him and each other and make autonomous choices in the exercise of the authority he delegated to them
- A conscience, so they could recognize his sovereignty, discern right from wrong, and be fair, gracious, and merciful to others
- Social awareness, so they could subordinate their native instincts to the greater good and build civil, just, and free societies
- Curiosity, so they would explore the earth and discover new worlds
- Intelligence, so they could comprehend the magnificence of nature at every level and understand how it functions
- Imagination, so they could use their knowledge to conceptualize and invent new things
- A desire to self-actualize, so they would create such things as art, architecture, literature, music, and humor and thereby establish cultures
Adam and Eve’s unique inception, divine resemblance, esteemed position, exceptional attributes, and managerial responsibilities distinguished them from the other kinds of animal life that God made.
These distinctions indicate that Adam and Eve were singular creations, not products of an evolutionary process that began with lower life forms.
Several Bible verses implicitly support this idea.
Read How God Relates To Other Scientific Creation Theories
God’s active participation is implicit in the Big Bang. The Bible indicates that the earth could be very old or relatively young. DNA affirms that God is the source of life. The Bible and science are harmonious.