Keith Ward

Philosophical theologian Keith Ward, like Rolston, accepts the general framework of evolution with natural selection as a central mechanism, but argues this is not a sufficient explanation for the current state of biological affairs. Instead, he believes “mutations must be coherent and co-ordinated” and a “continuing causal activity of God is the best explanation of progress towards consciousness.”Once again using the terminology of chance rather than intervention, he suggests that without this continual causal activity the evolution of humans would be improbable. Unlike Rolston he justifies this claim in explicitly theological and metaphysical terms. Ward argues persuasively against naturalism and determinism, and suggests that the ‘laws of nature’ are not fixed. With this different context established he is free to claim that God steers evolutionary development “towards more complex and sentient life-forms. There is no physical mechanism that produces such a bias. Yet it is not entirely left to chance.”

Ward’s view is self-consistent and theologically satisfying, but it comes at a high price. By asserting the natural order is malleable, he can explain much more than evolutionary history. Such an assertion follows from his theological starting point, but is it consistent with observations of the natural world? At some scales of observation it does seem reasonable to say there are fixed laws of nature.

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