Philosophia Christi

Volume 20, Issue 2, 2018

Theistic Evolution, Intelligent Design, and the Charge of Deism

Christians who are theistic evolutionists and Christians who are proponents of intelligent design very frequently criticize one another on the basis that the other’s position is theologically suspect. Ironically, both camps have accused the other of being deistic and thus sub-Christian in their understanding of God’s relation to creation. In this paper, I consider the merit of these charges. I conclude that, although each position has both deistic and nondeistic forms, theistic evolution in its treatment of life’s history is typically deistic, whereas intelligent design typically is not.