Monthly Archives: August 2018

The Crossway Theistic Evolution Book: A Response to Joshua Swamidass

Posted on 07/08/2018 by Edward Robinson

Joshua Swamidass has recently reviewed the massive book, Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, and Philosophical Critique (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2017). I want to respond to his review, and hopefully will do so in the same peaceful tone that he employs. As just stated, this is a response to Joshua’s review, not an independent review of my own, so I won’t be summarizing the chapters of the book. Those who want to properly assess the book will need read the book for themselves.

Posted in Creation, Edward Robinson, Science, Theology | 34 Comments

Formal causation

Posted on 06/08/2018 by Jon Garvey

According to Aristotelian ideas of causation, a “substantial form” is a holistic entity with its own nature and “ends”, and that distinguishes it from an artifact, which is only a collection of parts given some “end” by an outside manufacturer.

Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Science, Theology | 3 Comments

Science’s metaphysical blinkers (again)

Posted on 04/08/2018 by Jon Garvey

I’ve done a bit on Aristotelian-Thomist metaphysics in the past, and it underlies some of the discussions I have here and at places like Peaceful Science – for example, on why the evolution of life is almost certain to involve far more than current theory can see, even at the natural level. I suppose many readers will still not have a handle on it, though respected Thomist philosopher Ed Feser comes up quite a lot in discussions, more often in the mouths of ID supporters that ECs, who don’t seem to like philosophy for the most part. Here is a quote from Ed, replying to those who say those important … Continue reading →

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Models of evolution

Posted on 01/08/2018 by Jon Garvey

I remember at BioLogos a few years ago Dennis Venema doing a ballpark calculation that, given known mutation rates, he considered there was plenty of time for evolution, understood in Neodarwinian terms, to have produced all the mutations necessary for the differences between the chimp and human genomes since the time they are believed to have diverged.

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