The Intelligent Designer Likes to Experiment Over a Long Time

If "evolution is God's way of giving upgrades" as evangelical geneticist Francis Collins presumes, then it is no wonder that religions are resistant to the theory of evolution, even if they reconcile it by suggesting that it was guided by God.

What evolutionary creationism entails is that the Deity that created the universe and created life liked to experiment.

The Intelligent Designer would build upon His previous accomplishments, making gradual improvements over time. The Intelligent Designer would try different things randomly to see what works well. The Intelligent Designer takes His time and does not come up with ideas with the blink of the eye or "happen and it happens" (كن فيكون).

It took the Intelligent Designer billions of years of trial and error to come up with a masterpiece like the human species.

The Intelligent Designer often suffers setbacks and has to start all over again, such as cataclysmic events that lead to mass distinctions including the K–T extinction event that caused the extinction of the majority of species including the dinosaurs.

Is this congruent with the concept of an omniscient and omnipotent God?

On the other hand, the Intelligent Designer in the monolithic religions spent six days building the heavens and earth, with each day being equivalent to thousands of our days. A thousand in old Arabic means "a very large number" and does mean exactly a thousand.

So maybe there could be reconciliation from that angle.

What about man being created in "the best of molds"?

So how do we reconcile an Intelligent Designer Whose designs are not always perfect but improve over time with the ayah that says God created man in the best structure?

"لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الْإِنْسَانَ فِي أَحْسَنِ تَقْوِيمٍ" (التين: 4)

"We have indeed created man in the best of molds" (94:4)

I understanding it to be the best possible result that evolution can come up with. Humans are after all the most advanced among all creatures. They are indeed the best of molds among all other molds. Evolution can attest to that.

I also believe the phrasing of this ayah can actually support evolution in the choosing of the word "molding".

Molding indicates a process by which the Molder gradually reaches the final outcome. A sculpture or clay artist progresses little by little in a creative process that often involves inspirations during that process, unlike a magician who waves a wand and something pops up out of thin air (fictitiously). We perceive the natural world to have a process of change and development. This process is the work of God.

The following ayah also indicates a process:

"الَّذِي خَلَقَكَ فَسَوَّاكَ فَعَدَلَكَ" (الانفطار: 7)

Who created you, fashioned you in due proportion, and gave you a just bias; (82:7)

What about "Happen and it happens"?

The ayah that says that God says to something "Happen and it happens" should not be understood to mean that there is no process to the happening. I understand it to mean that God creates the mechanisms by which things happen. But there is no reason to infer that it happens suddenly in the blink of an eye and without a means or process, unless in the context of the ayah that says that a thousand years (probably meant to mean a great many years) to us is like one year to God (time is relative).

"وَإِنَّ يَوْمًا عِنْدَ رَبِّكَ كَأَلْفِ سَنَةٍ مِمَّا تَعُدُّونَ" (الحج: 47)

"Verily a Day in the sight of your Lord is like a thousand years of your reckoning." (22:47)

What about between the "kaf" and "noon"?

While we were growing up we used to hear that when God says to something "Happen and it happens", it happens before God finishes saying "happen" "بين الكاف والنون". This is meant to indicate that things happen suddenly, but even literal scholars, such as Muhammad ibn al Uthaymeen, one of the most prominent Saudi scholars, says that this is not true. Things don't happen before God finishes saying "happen" but after He says it.

قال الشيخ العثيمين رحمه الله تعالى في "شرح الأربعين النووية" (ص 65):
"أود أن أنبه على كلمة دارجة بين العوام: (يا من أمره بين الكاف والنون)، وهذا غلط عظيم، الصواب: (يا من أمره - مأموره - بعد الكاف والنون) ، لأن ما بين الكاف والنون ليس أمراً، الأمر لا يتم إلا إذا جاءت الكاف والنون، لأن الكاف المضمومة ليس أمراً، والنون كذلك، لكن باجتماعهما تكون أمراً.
فالصواب أن تقول: ( يا من أمره - مأموره - بعد الكاف والنون)" انتهى.

Then again, the problem with this debate is that it assumes that God is a man sitting on a throne up in the sky (perhaps with a white beard) and makes orders with his tongue like a man would do. When one contemplates God through the Universe, one finds that this image is belittling and dishonorable of God.

The Intelligent Designer lets human conduct play out on its own

It seems the Intelligent Designer, as intelligent as He is, allows things to play out on their own.

This also applies to human conduct, technology, religion, governance, etc. They evolve in efficiency over time.

They all go through evolutionary processes, by which they try things out and continually improve and build on them. If things don't work out in the long run because they fail to sustain life efficiently, they die off, and people try new things.

God in the Quran, says that He could make things perfect if He wanted to, but He lets things play out on their own. When things take their course naturally, the best emerges eventually. He advises believers to leave wrongdoers alone and have faith that bad conduct will die off on its own. If something is not good for people in the long run, it can only live temporarily, but it cannot be sustained.

"وَلَوْ شَاءَ رَبُّكَ لَآمَنَ مَنْ فِي الْأَرْضِ كُلُّهُمْ جَمِيعًا أَفَأَنْتَ تُكْرِهُ النَّاسَ حَتَّى يَكُونُوا مُؤْمِنِينَ" (يونس: 99)

If it had been your Lord's Will, they would all have believed, all who are on earth! Do you compel people, against their will, to believe! (of course not) (10:99)

"وَلَوْ شَاءَ رَبُّكَ لَجَعَلَ النَّاسَ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً وَلا يَزَالُونَ مُخْتَلِفِينَ" (هود، 118)

"If your Lord had so willed, He could have made mankind one People: but they will not cease to dispute" (11:118)

"وَكَذَلِكَ جَعَلْنَا لِكُلِّ نَبِيٍّ عَدُوًّا شَيَاطِينَ الإِنْسِ وَالْجِنِّ يُوحِي بَعْضُهُمْ إِلَى بَعْضٍ زُخْرُفَ الْقَوْلِ غُرُورًا وَلَوْ شَاءَ رَبُّكَ مَا فَعَلُوهُ فَذَرْهُمْ وَمَا يَفْتَرُونَ" (الأنعام: 112)

"Likewise We made for every Messenger an enemy, evil ones among men and Jinns, inspiring each other with flowery discourses by way of deception. If your Lord had so planned, they would not have done it: so leave them and their inventions alone." (6:112)