Being and Becoming: The Complementarity of Creation and Evolution

Abstract

Longstanding debates relating to biological evolution concern whether random events (mutations of DNA) are able to generate new functionality, and whether such proposed evolutionary mechanisms are compatible with belief in divine creation. The sequencing of genomes from multiple species has generated a flood of genomic data, so that genetic changes may be correlated with species’ phenotypes. Our genomes are modified by mutagenic agents such as retroviruses (ERVs) and transposable elements (TEs). Empirical data confirm that random accumulations of ERVs and TEs in the human genome have rewired regulatory networks in early embryos (ERV-like MaLR elements), embryonic stem cells (ERV-H), and primordial germ cells (ERV-K). Altered regulation of gene activity in neural cells has been evinced for a class of TEs called SVA elements. Random, stochastic events in the context of natural laws that are hospitable to life may indeed generate new genetic information. Christians may see such phenomena as aspects of a freely operating and fruitful creation. Acceptance of biological evolution and the role of randomness in an anthropic cosmos are indeed compatible with the biblical concept of creation—that the whole system is ordained, ordered, and sustained by a purposeful and self-revealing God.