Thank you for this imaginative, yet simple explanation.
In describing how God interacts with the universe, John Polkinghorne notes that he dislikes the word “intervention” – an occasional, possibly arbitrary stirring of the waters – preferring instead the idea of a constant, present interaction or supporting of the natural world. That seems consistent with the BioLogos position above. But can you elaborate on what that “[continual involvement] in the unfolding process of creation” actually is? If God set up evolution to operate without occasional fine-tuning or tweaking, then what activities might God undertake to be in continual interaction with nature? (If I read him correctly, Polkinghorne suggests that quantum indeterminacy may be a place where God interfaces with physical reality.)
Thank you – I love the work you guys are doing!
Greg

Its not our past evolution over which the ultimate battle between Science and Religion will soon be fought; its over Man’s evolutionary Future. The battle line – and, make no mistake, it may very well turn into a real war with real death on the megascale – is between Technology and Spirituality, with most scientists and religionists alike caught clueless in the maelstrom.
A large and growing movement of transhumanists, variously called ‘Extropians’ or ‘Singularitarian’ and lead by an alliance of the world’s top cyberneticists and neuroscientists, is firmly committed to deliberately advancing human evolution over the next 20 years, by driving the integration of Man and Machine. They dont need to edit the human genome to do this (although that is high on their agenda), they merely need to converge human-scale Artificial General Intelligence with the Brain/Computer Interface. This convergence may be as little as two years away; indeed, in classified DARPA research contexts, it may already have taken place.
The exponential evolutionary growth of machine intelligence, once it passes the human scale, to “god-like” superhuman proportions is widely expected in computer science. The atheists you should be confronting, intellectually, are those who believe that a) this is desirable to achieve, and b) imperative for biological humans to participate in directly, using Brain/Computer Interface technology.
A superhuman machine intelligence, programmed with everything known about human neuroanatomy and electrophysiology, and expressly tasked to help “reverse engineer” the human brain, is a preternaturally dangerous thing for any human to ever ‘jack into’. We already know that the Artilect will be so programmed and tasked, because neuroscience is the largest and richest market for AGI and BCI technologies, and is already lavishing millions on the cybernetics necessary to achieve this.
That jacking-in, by the first Idiot to do so, is an evolutionary step for all Mankind, of a magnitude equal to life crawling out of the oceans, or primates coming down from the trees. However, this evolutionary change will not be gradual, it will be sudden. It is, for our entire species, an unrecoverable error. Unless spiritual awareness and enlightenment can be brought to the scientists leading this race toward the Singularity, in time to head off this AGI/BCI convergence, it very quickly wont be the fossils we’re debating, it will be an immanent prospect of human extinction.
It doesnt matter how the Infinite created us, whether through blind evolution, morphogenic fields, sudden coherence from the quantum vacuum, or the agency of extraterrestrials that He had previously called into existence. What DOES matter in evolutionary terms, however, is “What Happens Next?”.
The concept of apocalyptic salvation seems a bit thin to hang our future on when extinction is at stake, particularly if its to be caused by something we’re collectively stupid enough to do to ourselves. I would even go so far as to say that divine intervention in that context is at once unwarranted, unwise, and undeserved. WE, as transcendent spirits, need to take some responsibility for our species in its rashness, and use our own best efforts to ensure its survival. Right now, that means revealing the transcendental human Soul to those in neuroscience and cybernetics who are unaware that they even possess one….

The above response plays with a common meme: The Frankenstein scenario.
Higher levels of integration are inevitable, but they need not lead to an apocalyptic scenario, (despite the appeal the narrative has to the psyche.)
What we do know is that higher levels of integration lead to a democratization of information, a potential for accelerated rates of research and development, and cultural/religious proximity. That has social consequences, and it may make puritans uncomfortable in their inability to retain isolation from the larger world.
Will a singularity event arise from this? That is very difficult to say. The argument is: The moment we can create an intelligence greater than our own it can do likewise leading to spiral of exponential growth in intelligence. What has yet to be proven is that we can birth our successor. The idea has been explored in speculative fiction, but that in no way implies that it is possible. It may be that what we end up with is a greater efficiency of knowledge and information transfer, but very little actual increase in intelligence in ourselves or in any cybernetic collective which facilitates a virtual meeting of minds.
Singularity scenarios are very much in the realm of fiction today, and only as we move further along on the path of integration will it become evident if such a scenario is possible. This does not preclude the consideration of such scenarios, and to consider them is one thing, to project human existential fear another. Hollywood blockbusters not withstanding, the existential fears are premature at best.

Greg, your question is one that deeply interests me, and I need to begin by saying that I doubt any of us know the answer to it. Also, I doubt we all think of it exactly the same way—even those of us who are part of the BioLogos Foundation. However, here is a quick summary of my personal view. I base that view on what I perceive to be God’s activity as seen in Scripture.
1. The God of Scripture maintains the laws of nature. Genesis 1:2 speaks of the Spirit hovering over the waters. The great hymn of creation, Psalm 104, in speaking of each new generation states, “when you send your Spirit they are created, and they renew the face of the earth.” What is the Spirit doing in these cases? Is not the Spirit simply upholding the laws of nature? Without the pervasive presence of God, all would revert to nothingness.
2. The God of Scripture guides and empowers. Psalm 139:7 speaks about the Spirit and goes on to say “even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.” In this case it is more than just upholding laws, it is providing wisdom and power. God’s Spirit may well be subtly guiding the direction of life’s history in a manner that parallels God’s guidance in our own lives. In his marvelous book, Wonderful Life, Stephen Jay Gould expresses wonder at the survival of one of the early chordates, Pikaia, a precursor perhaps to all vertebrates. All the odds were against it surviving, but it did. Gould suggests that if it had died, we would never have evolved and would never be around to marvel at its survival. He thought it was a lucky accident, but he didn’t believe in the work of the Spirit in creation. I do. God’s Spirit, as I see it is guiding and empowering creation, leading it in the direction God chooses for it to go. (This is totally analogous to the role of the Spirit in our lives.)
3. The God of Scripture intervenes in not-so-subtle ways in the history of Israel. Both the Old Testament and New Testament have a number of examples that extend divine activity beyond the subtle guidance of God’s Spirit in carrying out God’s purposes. So if we could replay the tape of life’s history, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there were times when God’s intervention in some way paralleled the sort of miracle the Israelites experienced as, for example, they crossed the Red Sea.
Blessings,
Darrel F