I also think we need to maintain distinctions - the doctrine of creation is different from a scientific cosmology and we should resist the temptation which sometimes scientists give in to to try to assimilate the concepts of theology to the concepts of science.
The idea is that there is a kind of memory in nature. Each kind of thing has a collective memory. So take a squirrel living in New York now. That squirrel is being influenced by all past squirrels.
