Transformational Philosophy and Living Nature
In recent years Klapwijk has applied his view of Christian philosophy in terms of transformation to the field of living nature and evolutionary theory. He feels unhappy with the strictly antithetical attitude of Creationism towards the current naturalistic theories of evolution. But he likewise rejects the uncritical acceptance of these views in so-called Theistic evolution, as if God created the world in all its diversity through evolution. Even the theory of Intelligent Design is in his opinion too much based on a compromise. How do we overcome the present-day divide between religious and so-called secular views of the origin of life? In his book Purpose in the Living World? Creation and Emergent Evolution (2008) Klapwijk offers a philosophical analysis of the relation of evolutionary biology to religion, and addresses the question of whether the evolution of life is exclusively a matter of chance and blind fortune or is better understood as including the notion of purpose. He proposes to bridge the gap via the idea of ‘emergent evolution.’ In this theory the process of evolution has an emergent or innovative character resulting in a living world of ingenious, multifaceted complexity.
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