« Return to the Newsletter Page

On a daily basis, info@biologos.org receives a plethora of questions from people all over the world. We try our best to answer as many emails as possible. Check out this example of a question we recently received. You may have had a similar question yourself.
Question:
Dear Editor,
It seems on the one hand that BioLogos states that God didn’t intervene in evolutionary processes such as the first DNA, while on the other hand you support the idea that God did intervene in events described in the Bible, such as the resurrection of Jesus and the virgin birth of Jesus. Can you please clarify whether or not God did intervene in evolutionary processes?
Best regards,
L.
Answer:
Hi, L.,
Thanks for your question about God’s intervention in nature. It’s a critically important topic. There is a lot of confusion related to the word intervention. A lot of people think nature runs along all by itself and if God is going to act, He has to suspend the laws of nature and do something supernaturally.
BioLogos advisor and Oxford physicist Ard Louis has this to say about God’s intervention pertaining to both creation and miracles:
Fundamentally, the question of whether God did or did not use miracles in natural history is only accessible to us through revelation. Most commentators would say that the creation passages, rich though they are, are simply not concerned with this question.
He offers a more thorough explanation in his paper How Does the BioLogos Model Need to Address Concerns Christians Have about the Implications of Its Science? which I encourage you to read. I also recommend that you read the series The God Who Acts by Robert John Russell for a slightly different take on your question.
We at BioLogos believe it is unfortunate to understand God’s activity merely as individual episodes of supernatural intervention. That view implies that the laws of nature are somehow independent of God, and that when God is not actively “intervening” then he is absent (or at least uninvolved). Instead, we believe God is involved all the time in His creation, both in natural and supernatural ways.
Clearly, supernatural events such as the virgin birth and the physical resurrection of Jesus are powerful, unique acts of God. But the birth of a galaxy, the diversity of life on our planet, and even a single spectacular sunset are all results of God’s action as well. Scientists describe evolution through physical processes, but that doesn’t make life any less dependent on God than supernatural events are. We have God to thank for all of it!
Blessings,
The BioLogos Editorial Team

