Thomistic Evolution

God, who is outside of space and time, is the “primary cause” of everything: nature, matter, time, space, natural laws, randomly moving quarks and molecules, etc. Without Him, these would not have been created, nor continue to exist at any given moment. These created things within space-time can become causes of other things, and are considered “secondary causes,” and are still attributable to God, who often chooses to act through indirect, mediated, secondary causes in the Universe and in our lives.

This is why miracles seem marvelous to us, because they are literally extraordinary. Therefore, whether an effect is produced directly by God (e.g., creation of the Universe from nothing, or miracles, or direct actions by Jesus), or through secondary causes (e.g., laws of matter, natural causes, or the agency of angels and saints), God is still the ultimate cause of everything.

As St. Thomas Aquinas says, “Whether all things are immediately governed by God? I answer that, In government there are two things to be considered; the design of government, which is providence itself; and the execution of the design. As to the design of government, God governs all things immediately; whereas in its execution, He governs some things by means of others.” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I, q. 103, art. 6).

Those adhering to Thomistic Evolution accept modern Darwinian forms of evolution. They do, however, accept that God is the author, unlike the atheistic approach to Darwinian evolution, where only chance mutations are the cause.

Bismarck Science and Faith, similar to Intelligent Design, is an "umbrella" organization. In other words, we accept a number of different interpretations when it comes to what modern science has discovered. Unlike Intelligent Design, we do hold to an ancient Earth and Universe, but accept both evolutionary theory and special creation.