Habit-forming methodological naturalism

Posted on 11/12/2017 by Jon Garvey

All the main participants in the “two person bottleneck” thread on BioLogos have, as I write, gone to lick their wounds in teaching or research. It’s going about as inconclusively as I predicted here. Continue reading →

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Mightily Hands On

Posted on 07/12/2017 by Jon Garvey

One of the several taboos that appears to separate theistic evolution (in its modern, “Evolutionary Creation”, form) from the “uncleanness” of Intelligent Design is the idea that God could not be “just another cause within the universe”. This precludes at a stroke allowing God to be involved in any chain of efficient causation amenable to observation (and particularly, of course, scientific observation). Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, Science, Theology | 7 Comments

Distinguishing the sources of teleology

Posted on 04/12/2017 by Jon Garvey

I mentioned briefly in my last post one of the things that struck me most from reading Perry Marshall’s Evolution 2.0. And that was the fact that intrinsic teleology and external teleology are not mutually exclusive, and yet might not be easy to distinguish. Continue reading →

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A Little Knowledge Is a Dangerous Thing: A Philological Note to a BioLogos Discussion

Posted on 01/12/2017 by Edward Robinson

One of the frustrations of web discussions about theology and science is that so many of the participants in the discussions choose to argue with a vigor all out of proportion to their knowledge of the subject at hand. It is easy enough to summon examples of individuals from all camps (YEC, OEC, atheist/materialist, TE/EC, and ID) and from all sites (such as Uncommon Descent, The Skeptical Zone, BioLogos, and Panda’s Thumb) who are guilty of forming opinions about authors they have not read, of taking strong positions in advance of learning the subject-matter, of affecting to more knowledge than they have, etc. Continue reading →

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How (exactly) science leaves no room for God

Posted on 30/11/2017 by Jon Garvey

On his blog Shadow of Oz, biologist Wayne Rossiter, a principled opponent of theistic evolution, notices a re-posted BioLogos article by, ironically, the editor of Rossiter’s own book critiquing TE, Robin Parry. Rossiter’s post points out the fatuousness of the following argument: Continue reading →

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Riddles wrapped in mysteries inside enigmas

Posted on 28/11/2017 by Jon Garvey

I’ve commented before on “reading serendipity” – how things one happens to read consecutively bring together disparate ideas one would not have associated otherwise. In this case it started with a C S Lewis essay to which I was pointed by reading a quotation in an article. The essay in question is Bluspels and Flalansferes, which like the excellent book Studies in Words arises from Lewis’s professional life as a philologist. Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Science, Theology | 8 Comments

Model soldiers

Posted on 24/11/2017 by Jon Garvey

There’s something of a clash of the titans going on over at BioLogos, where Dennis Venema is defending his claim in the book Adam and the Genome that science makes belief in a single original human couple untenable. In the blue corner is Richard Buggs, of Kew Gardens and Queen Mary College, London and, ruining the boxing metaphor somewhat, Steve Schaffner (“Glipsnort”) is doing expert computer simulations on the side within his sphere of undoubted expertise. Continue reading →

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Why randomness and free-will are not comparable

Posted on 21/11/2017 by Jon Garvey

For some reason, Bilbo started a thread on BioLogos directed at me, in which (as far as I can tell) he argues basically, “If God can create free wills that make decisons without reference to him, why could he not create random processes that similarly cause things without reference to him?” Many cans of worms open because of that, which you can read about on that thread. Here I just want to deal in more depth than is possible there on the question of whether the comparison between free-will and randomness is actually a valid one. I suspect it isn’t, except at the most superficial level. Continue reading →

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Dennis Venema on God and Intelligent Design

Posted on 19/11/2017 by Edward Robinson

In a current BioLogos discussion, Dennis Venema writes this:

“I see evolution as God’s design for creating life, plate tectonics as his design for making continents, gravity as his design for making solar systems, and so on. I just don’t think the place to look for design is where “natural” explanations have not yet been worked out. I think it’s all designed.”

This is most interesting. It is nearly exactly the view set forth in Michael Denton’s Nature’s Destiny (1998). This book has been known to Dennis, and to all BioLogos columnists and management, for nearly two decades, yet not one of them has had a good thing to say about it. In fact, they have mostly ignored it, and even when it has been brought up by commenters on the BioLogos site the BioLogos elite have not discussed its ideas. Yet now, out of the blue, Dennis is endorsing an identical or similar view. Continue reading →

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Genealogical Adam and Reformed theology

Posted on 17/11/2017 by Jon Garvey

It’s my impression (which admittedly may be mistaken) that the Reformed churches in America, at least, find it hard to avoid agnosticism on matters of creation and origins. Or when they don’t, they find it theologically necessary to cut across what they see as the current opinions of science, leading to a degree of cognitive dissonance. They’re not unique in that, of course – some Evangelical theology nowadays seem to be based on cognitive dissonance as a virtue. Continue reading →

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