"I caught a lizard without legs today."
"Do you mean a snake?"
"No, it had ear holes, eyelids, and its tail ripped off for self defense."
"......."
"Evolution!"
"Hey, aren't you an Asatruar?"
"Yes."
"Then aren't you a creationist?"
"Yes."
"But you agree with the theory of evolution."
"Yes."
"Then you aren't a creationist."
"Ok."
I always believed in creation and evolution existing alongside each other. I am obviously a firm supporter of the theory of evolution, but I think that science and religion in most cases should not mix. However, evolution gets in the way of theology for many. I do not yet know if Heathenism as a whole has reached the issue on creationism yet, but for me, the proposed "conflict" has already arisen. Even if you do not agree with evolution, the lore allows it from a certain viewpoint. You are entitled to believe it your own way. The belief that creation happens once is what I hold to Norse Polytheism and lore. If you do not take the texts seriously word for word it is fine. The concept of time present in Voluspo is not clear, and beneficial to the coexistence of evolution and the concept of creation by divine beings. In addition to this, the death of Ymir, the birth of the gods and goddesses and their development into greater and more powerful deities could be considered metaphorically-speaking an evolution in itself. But the supernatural deities do not need evolution. The gods created the dwarves, elves, and wights; this creation could coincide with the creation of our own little universe, Earth. Because we hold so much in fate as Asatruar, we could view fate itself as the concept of evolution. The idea that fate is a power so great even gods succumb to it is very important to this concept. Fate is life and death, fate is change, and on an even grander scale the fate of species can be seen.
It also goes against Earth-based religions to ignore the path of the natural world and shun the theory of evolution completely. By understanding this principle, we have more wisdom of the Earth and its inner workings. You must remember that no religion on Earth mentions evolution word-for-word, it only mentions creation. The absence of one does not mean the other is impossible.
As for the creation of human beings my belief that creation only happens once applies again. The creation of humans is symbolically more so the awakening of humans, from unintelligence and savageness. Life was already created by the gods long before us, and before life, the universe- in our case, the nine worlds. The spark of life that was given to us by the gods is what separates us from the animals and what ties us to the gods.
All of this being said, you can believe in creation by the gods, and support the theory of evolution, but in that aspect you are not considered a creationist by creationists, who believe in creation and have a disbelief of evolution.
On the other hand, you could call yourself a creationist and take every single last word of the lore to be true. This is not the way Norse Polytheism works though. The religion's lore is steeped in oral tradition and there would have been many discrepancies between the different sects in ancient times.
I believe that Norse Polytheism is perfectly compatible with science, and more specifically and controversially, evolution. In this ever changing world we need the balance of the two. Since science is knowledge, who are we to shun it?
Science is knowledge and in our following we are encouraged by our gods to pursue knowledge. I, personally, take the creation story as an almost allegory. I don't take that part quite word for word, it's hard for me to explain exactly what I believe because it is so personal and difficult to word. It's somewhere between literal and metaphorical.
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