Ahmadiyya Views On Evolution - Views On Creationism and Intelligent Design

Views On Creationism and Intelligent Design

Ahmadis do not take all the Quranic and Biblical creation narratives literally, but understand some of the passages metaphorically. Intelligent design models are also rejected as are certain aspects of Islamic creationism that some modernist religious bodies have postulated. Instead they propound the concept of "Guided Evolution" (analogous, or identical, to the doctrine of theistic evolution or evolutionary creationism held by almost all liberal Christians, and some others) which is demonstrated as being supported both by scriptural and scientific evidence.

Ahmadis favor the perspective that the human race evolved out of the earth over a long period of time. The Qur'an teaches that man was created from the earth through a gradual evolutionary process in the following verses:

“And He has created you in different stages and different forms ... And Allah has caused you to develop as a good growth from the earth.

These verses illustrate that the creation of the human race was the culmination of a gradual evolutionary process and that it would be incorrect to say (as Creationism/Intelligent design suggests) that God formed the human being in an instant. Thus Ahmadis accept the concept of evolution in principle, but do not accept Darwinian evolution in all its details.

Read more about this topic:  Ahmadiyya Views On Evolution

Famous quotes containing the words views, intelligent and/or design:

    Views of women, on one side, as inwardly directed toward home and family and notions of men, on the other, as outwardly striving toward fame and fortune have resounded throughout literature and in the texts of history, biology, and psychology until they seem uncontestable. Such dichotomous views defy the complexities of individuals and stifle the potential for people to reveal different dimensions of themselves in various settings.
    Sara Lawrence Lightfoot (20th century)

    He is a strong man who can hold down his opinion. A man cannot utter two or three sentences, without disclosing to intelligent ears precisely where he stands in life and thought, namely, whether in the kingdom of the senses and the understanding, or, in that of ideas and imagination, in the realm of intuitions and duty.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    You can make as good a design out of an American turkey as a Japanese out of his native stork.
    —For the State of Illinois, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)