Special Creation for Atheists

Something that is often said in discussions about evolution and creation amongst both Christians and atheists is that evolution disproves God and hence is associated solely with atheism by default. Conversely many Christians reject the evidence for evolution in favour of a ultra-literal six day special creation ('because the Bible tells me so...') by God. This reinforces the viewpoint in both groupings of people.

So we get evolution = atheism and special creation = Theism (the belief in God). Very neat and tidy, eh?

For myself I reject this as evolution has very little to say on the subject of the existence or non-existence of God. Evolution describes (very well) the diversification of life on our world but this can be seen as compatible with either atheism or theism. It can't ultimately prove one or the other either way.

Which got me thinking. Why do theists such as ourselves think that special (i.e. instantaneous) creation (rather than gradual creation such as in evolution) is solely compatible with theism and not atheism as well?

It is a bit odd when there are (conceptually at least) special creation avenues in the natural laws of physics that may or may not be capable of creating instantly. Modern physics entertains a number of these possibilities. Things like white holes may exist that spew out information as a counterpoint to black holes that absorb it or if you take some interpretations of quantum phenomena objects are described by wavefunctions that instantly 'collapse' into familiar objects when observed.

I think the only reason we do ascribe special creation solely to theistic beliefs is because we associate special creation with a directed intelligent causation in our heads much more so than we do with a longer term gradual creation. Part of this I guess is the human mind trying to rationalise some possible but very unfamiliar observations of the universe by layering human creation methods onto them in an attempt to understand the universe better. A case maybe not so much of the human mind creating God, but the human mind creating the methods of action that God can be permitted to use.

This dichotomy is probably also why so many of the people in our churches struggle with God working through the gradual mechanism of evolution to bring about His purposes - because it is not how we would do it which makes it an initially difficult idea to ground ourselves in.

Neither viewpoint deals a knock out blow to either worldview. Whether or not we personally find it difficult we do have to make the effort to better understand evolution and appreciate it more. And also perhaps to stop being so arrogant and protective, so high and mighty, of instantaneous creation.