This is a table of quotes on what causes evolution, particularly whether a supernatural cause like God is invoked or denied.
Writer | Range of causes | Quotation | Source |
Ernst Mayr | material, no supernatural | “Darwinism rejects all supernatural phenomena and causations. The theory of evolution by natural selection explains the adaptedness and diversity of the world solely materialistically.” | (“Darwin’s Influence on Modern Thought” E. Mayr [evolutionary biologist and zoologist], Scientific American, pg. 82-83, (July 2000), emphasis added) |
Richard E. Dickerson | physical and material, no supernatural | "Science, fundamentally, is a game. It is a game with one overriding and defining rule. Rule No. 1: Let us see how far and to what extent we can explain the behavior of the universe in terms of purely physical and material causes, without invoking the supernatural." | (Richard E. Dickerson [evolutionist scientist]: "The Game of Science." Perspectives on Science and Faith, (Volume 44, June 1992), p. 137, emphasis added) [1] |
Francisco Ayala | natural, no Creator or other external agent | It was Darwin’s greatest accomplishment to show that the directive organization of living beings can be explained as the result of a natural process, natural selection, without any need to resort to a Creator or other external agent...[Darwin’s] mechanism, natural selection, excluded God as the explanation... | Francisco Ayala [evolutionist scientist], “Darwin’s Revolution,” in Creative Evolution?!, eds. J. Campbell and J. Schopf (Boston, Mass.: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 1994), pp. 4–5, emphasis added [2] |
Categories: [Evolution]