10
theology over the steady-state theory, which essentially supposed the universe to have been
everlasting. . . The doctrine of creation is a doctrine of ontological origin. Just as we have learnt to
understand Genesis 3 as a statement of mans ever-contemporary experience of alienation from the
ground of being, rather than an aetiological explanation of that experience as the consequence of a
catastrophic past event, so we must understand from Genesis 1 and 2 that the world and its process
are a continual expression of the creative will of God.
39
In other words, Polkinghorne reaffirms his belief that the starting point of dialogue between the sciences
and theology is cosmological in nature--not ontological or teleological (or from design).
However, Polkinghorne is, from a scientific perspective, chiefly a physical scientist. Therefore, due to his
use of complementarity (i.e., the idea that "contrasting accounts, each in principle complete in itself, can be given of
the same set of phenomena,"
40
an idea invoked by the physicist Niels Bohr), is able to attribute to God the various
subjective elements of reality that relate to aesthetics, morality, and religious experience. In other words, these
elements of reality are not included in the evolutionary process but are evidence of Gods presence in the world.
41
In addition, Polkinghorne proposes an open universe based upon his understanding of quantum
indeterminancy. He believes that "active information might prove to be the scientific equivalent of the immanent
working of the Spirit on the ,,inside of creation. The spiritual character of divine influence would correspond to pure
input of information. . . , with the absence of energetic input delivering the concept from the theologically
unacceptable character of making God just an invisible cause among physical causes."
42
However, he warns that
any account of Gods agency that locates the causal joint within the cloudiness of unpredictable
physical process has the consequence that acts of special providence cannot be isolated and
itemized. It is not possible to disentangle the causal web, asserting that God did this, a human
person did that, and nature did the other thing. Faith may be able to discern but inspection cannot
demonstrate divine action of this kind. There are also realms of physical process that are free from
unpredictable ambiguity, such as the rotation of the Earth and the succession of the seasons.
Phenomena of this kind will be undisturbed in their regularity, serving as signs of the faithfulness
of the Creator.
43
39
John Polkinghorne, Science and Creation (Boston: Shambhala, 1989).
40
Ibid., 31.
41
Science and Theology, 82.
42
Ibid., 89.
43
Ibid., 90.