Author Archives: Jon Garvey

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About Jon Garvey

Training in medicine (which was my career), social psychology and theology. Interests in most things, but especially the science-faith interface. The rest of my time, though, is spent writing, playing and recording music.

Theistic Science and Bacon’s New Atlantis

Posted on 24/01/2019 by Jon Garvey

Francis Bacon produced what I suppose one would call a “Utopian Novelette,” unfinished at about 22 pages, just three years before he died. It seems to have been intended as a kind of manifesto for the new scientific project he had, to a great extent, initiated, and so it is worth looking at retrospectively in the light of that project’s enormous success. The Kindle edition is also free, which is another incentive.

Posted in Creation, History, Philosophy, Science, Theology of nature | 5 Comments

Toledot time

Posted on 21/01/2019 by Jon Garvey

If you’ve spent any time with a Genesis commentary, you’ll know that the book is divided up by statements which have come to be called “toledot” statements. The majority opinion is that these link the compositional sections by introducing the next one with the name of a person from the last, using the formula, “These are the generations of…”

Posted in Creation, Genealogical Adam, Theology | 6 Comments

The Rule of Three again (in ancient Babylon)

Posted on 17/01/2019 by Jon Garvey

Early last year I suggested that it was helpful to regard the Bible, narratively speaking, as being constructed like a folk tale in three movements, and moreover that this bears a classic resemblance to the “literary rule of three” in a host of folk stories, and even higher literature.

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God’s Good Earth update

Posted on 15/01/2019 by Jon Garvey

Well, I’m told that the author-copies of the new book are winging their way across the Atlantic from the publisher to me, which means that it should be published within the next few weeks. Thanks for being so patient.

Posted in Uncategorized | 11 Comments

Care to return to 1833? And 1970?

Posted on 10/01/2019 by Jon Garvey

Every now and again I like to regale you with some esoteric musical item, firstly in case you like the music, and secondly because there are all kinds of truths in music.After all, it’s my blog! For example here I discussed the phenomenon of  “swing” to show that human reality can’t be entirely captured by science.

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It’s always the naturalism that blinds.

Posted on 06/01/2019 by Jon Garvey

One reason I post decreasingly often at BioLogos (and also at Uncommon Descent) is that it seems that all origins sites (except this one, so far) eventually  become populated by a bevy of science-orientated positivists. These post on every vaguely physically-orientated subject, quite often picking on every sentence of a post and making criticisms grounded on the standard materialist line. They usually support each other whether claiming to be atheists or Christians (or ex-Christians – though seldom ex-atheists), and their main aim seems to be to drive home the message that “Science disproves that God acts in nature.” The net result is that anybody with the temerity to explore how … Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, Science, Theology, Theology of nature | 16 Comments

Happy 2019 – lots forward to which to look…

Posted on 31/12/2018 by Jon Garvey

I’m afraid things are still rather slack on the Hump post front, though not on the work front generally: I did a review of N.T. Wright’s fantastic chapter on Christ and the Cosmos  over at Peaceful Science; I got the indexing finished on God’s Good Earth, which means it’s now actually in press, and I’m simply awaiting news on availability (and price); and I’ve been beavering away on the new book, to accompany (one hopes) those on Genealogical Adam by Josh Swamidass (due out November) and Andrew Loke (due out I have no idea).

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Happy Christmas

Posted on 22/12/2018 by Jon Garvey

Another year has passed at the Camel’s Eyrie (and, I suppose, elsewhere!), and it’s been a good one. We’re now big in China and Turkey as well as Sweden.

Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments

What isn’t homologous converges

Posted on 18/12/2018 by Jon Garvey

I took part in a discussion over at Peaceful Science a week or two ago, in which the slam dunk evidence of nested hierarchies for evolution was (not for the first time) being disputed – by me, amongst others.

Posted in Creation, Science | 1 Comment

Come and join the celebration

Posted on 14/12/2018 by Jon Garvey

I’ve been thinking about the rarity in our lives, overall, of moments when we can really celebrate some triumph. I mean the champagne, flag-waving kind of celebration that you get from winning an Olympic Final, or that an old-fashioned army got returning from a victorious battle before war became politically complicated as well as efficiently bloody.

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