Let’s not turn this into a debate; I just want a simple 1-word answer with a simple factual definition.
I like evolution and stuff like the Big Bang and everything else in between. However, I like believing in God. So what would I call myself if my belief is: God set everything in motion. Meaning that God caused the Big Bang, he started life as single celled creatures and he allows for evolution, etc etc.
I hope there is a word or shall we make something up?
Depends on what other faiths you hold to. There are plenty of Chritians, Bhuddists, Jews and various other denominations that have those precise beliefs.
The thing is that belief in evolution doesn’t preclude religious faith any more than belief in gravity.
Then basically I’d just like to think that God set all nature into action. I guess i’m a bad Catholic.
I don’t think there’s a specific word for what you are, but it’s not a unique viewpoint; you have plenty of thoughtmates out there.
If you believe that God set nature in motion and then stepped back and enjoyed the show, not interfering from that point on, then you’re a deist, but that doesn’t really have anything to do with evolution.
I think possibly ‘Theistic evolutionist’, although this usually includes the belief that God gave evolution a nudge here and there, in order to achieve the desired end result.
Check out Natural Design Theory and new Teleology (distinct from Teleology of hundreds of years ago). A google search on these terms should get you started.
I’ve also heard it said that you believe in “intelligent design.” What you said in your OP is basically what I believe as well.
The term “intelligent design”, as far as I know, is usually used by strict creationists to describe their non-evolutionist view, and so it’s hardly a good choice in this case.
Didn’t the vatican say they agreed with the basics of evolution a while back?
You could just be called a Catholic.
I won’t tell you what I call people like you…
I sometimes refer to myself as a “Scientific Creationist” - which emphasises the creative aspect more than Mangetout’s suggestion, which (to me) implies an occasionally involved deity, not a view that I subscribe to. The problem is that that it tends to get confused with “Creation Science” which is a different beast altogether.
Grim
I have three terms to suggest:
or
or
Not sure I understand. I think you’re implying that other than setting things in motion God has no role. However, the Big Bang was much earlier than the first single-celled creatures. Do you believe God started things in motion, then came back 12 billion years later (not an exact figure) to start off single-celled creatures? What is in your etc.'s?
“Directed evolutionism” is another common term for those who believe evolution has an end goal (Catholic theologian Teilhard de Chardin is the most famous philosopher to take this perspective; he was nearly excommunicated for suggesting it in the mid-20th century, but it is now very inflential in Catholic theology).
“Deism” as already mentioned is the idea (popular following Newton’s time) that the universe operates according to strict natural laws, which are the creation of God, and the sum total of God’s role was to formulate those laws.
Another related belief is pantheism or dual-aspect theory, which may be combined with evolutionism. Dual-aspect theory holds that god/mind and physical properties are both attributes of the same thing. Spinoza’s type of pantheism holds that the universe is one aspect of a God who has infinite attributes: specifically the universe is that aspect which is governed by natural laws and has physical properties. Thus the universe is part of God, but proceeds according to cause and effect and scientific laws.
I can see this could slip into GD though.
Does it really matter? weather you think that man was once an ape or not doesn’t decide if you get into heaven.
Really? I’ve always thought that term was meant for those who believed that God guided evolution in a certain direction. That the random mutations were not quite so random. I could be wrong, though.
That’s a little unfair, don’t you think? That’s like calling someone who belongs to an independant party wrong because they don’t subscribe to either the Democrat or Republican philosophies. Surely there can be more than two schools of thought on this issue?
Lord Ashtar, cite.
More along the lines of your first statement that yes God set things in motion, but doesn’t that include the forming of the planets and their inhabitable environments (those planets which do support life–there’s gotta be tons more than just earth) which sprouted life?
What makes you think i’m concerned about getting into heaven or hell?
Depending on how much active participation you think God took, you could be a theistic evolutionist as mangetout said, or a Deist as mentioned, or even a Platonist, wherein the universe exists as emanations of God’s being, but he is totally unaware of its existence.
Ah, thank you Priceguy. I stand corrected.