4. Evolutionism is not an Orthodox faith

4.1. Creation or evolution?

The Orthodox worldview has a biblical foundation and consists in the recognition that the entire visible and invisible world has its beginning and end in God. "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, saith the Lord" (Rev. 1:8). The book of Genesis, like all the other books of the Bible, says nothing about evolution. The Holy Scriptures do not allow for the possibility of transformation from one species to another. On the contrary, it is quite definitely spoken of the creation of all living creatures "after their kind." Thus it was with plants: "And God said, Let the earth bring forth the former grass-sowing seed after its kind and after its likeness, and a fruitful tree that produces fruit, and its seed thereof in it, after its kind on the earth. And so it was" (Gen. 1:11). Thus did the Creator dispose of those who came out of the waters: "And God created great whales, and every living creature of creeping things, which brought forth the waters after their kind, and every bird of a feather after its kind" (Gen. 1:21). In the same way, "God created the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and all the creeping things of the earth after their kind" (Gen. 1:25). No species has evolved from another. Although life appeared first in water, and then on land, the fish did not mutate into either a frog or a beast.

Such biblical belief in Almighty God's creation of the world is contained in the creation of the Holy Fathers, both ancient and recent. Here is what St. Basil the Great wrote in his "Discourses on the Six Days." "The nature of beings, moved by a single command, evenly passes through both the creature that is born and is destroyed, preserving the sequence of generations by assimilation, until it reaches the very end; for it makes the horse the successor of the horse, the lion the lion, the eagle the eagle, and each animal that is preserved in successive successions continues until the end of the universe. No time damages or destroys the properties of animals" [15].

In the same vein, St. John of Kronstadt wrote about the stability of the species of the living world. "In the beginning, the Creator created only the firstfruits of fish and birds, their kinds, and left their multiplication to themselves, under His protection, just as the multiplication of the human race. And to this day all the genera of fish and birds, having multiplied indefinitely, preserve exactly the species, manners, and customs of their kinds, not in the least mixing with others. Every fish and bird and every creeping thing, as it was several thousand years ago, remains the same today with the properties that it received from the Creator in the beginning" [16]. It should be noted, by the way, that St. John of Kronstadt mentions not "millions" but "thousands" of years, not in the least embarrassed by the fact that the evolutionist ideas of Lyell and Darwin had already very much seduced the minds of his contemporaries.

The main idea of evolutionism lies in the complete opposition to church teaching. Evolutionists admit that some species, in succession, give rise to the emergence of other species. These opinions are mutually exclusive.

4.2. Did species appear instantly or were they formed gradually?

The Bible writes about the command of the Creator and the immediate fulfillment of each of his plans.

"As He spoke, and was; He commanded, and was created."

(Psalm 32:9)

Creations arose in an instant, and did not hatch like chicks in eggs. The instantaneous nature of each creative act of God is emphasized by St. Basil the Great.

"The Creator of all things, having spoken His word, instantly put the grace of light into the world. Let there be light. And the command became a deed." [17].