Category Archives: Creation

The limitations of (excluding) natural theology

Posted on 20/01/2015 by Jon Garvey

Much discussion recently amongst the usual suspects (including both BioLogos and Uncommon Descent) on a Wall Street Journal article by Eric Metaxas, suggesting an increasing support for theism from modern science. Unfortunately it’s behind a pay-wall, but seems to have majored on cosmic fine-tuning, together with support for the “rare earth” hypothesis.

Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Science, Theology | 25 Comments

Work

Posted on 13/01/2015 by Jon Garvey

Last week I was repainting our living room, work that invites having the radio on in the background. And even if it doesn’t, having paint on your hands prevents you switching the thing off. And so it was that I heard three programnmes back to back bearing on similar subjects.

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A New Heaven and a New Earth – J Richard Middleton

Posted on 09/01/2015 by Jon Garvey

I first became aware of the idea that the future hope of Christians is bodily resurrection on a renewed earth, rather than spiritual translation to heaven, back in 1971, through an unusual theological source: the British music newspaper The Melody Maker.

Posted in Creation, Theology | 22 Comments

In heaven the bells are ringing

Posted on 05/01/2015 by Jon Garvey

This one’s just for fun, to find joy in some mathematical aspects of the creation. I did a post in September about the principle of plenitude, a term coined by historian of ideas Arthur Lovejoy about a pervading concept of mediaeval and early modern thought in which it seemed that God must create everything possible or short change the world and himself. This was seldom stated overtly, being more part of the warp and weft of thought, comparable to the modern tendency to see absolutely everything in evolutionary (rather than, say, static or cyclical terms). The idea was probably at its peak in the late seventeenth century, summed up in … Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, Philosophy | 2 Comments

Livestock breeding as an evolutionary surrogate

Posted on 31/12/2014 by Jon Garvey

Amongst this year’s Christmas gifts was a new bird identification book from my daughter. It was timely as my previous one was printed in 1966, and European birds have evolved since then.

Posted in Creation, Science | 2 Comments

Life and death matters

Posted on 29/12/2014 by Jon Garvey

A recent critique of theistic evolution on a Creationist blog rapidly led to a debate on the old issue of the existence of death before the Fall. A commenter by the name of Reuben K wisely raised the key issue of ones definition of life (and therefore of death), and then equally wisely left the discussion. He raised an interesting theological point in presenting a typical scientific description of living things:

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The life was the light of men

Posted on 22/12/2014 by Jon Garvey

As so often, a paper pointed out to me by our commenter pngarrison fits nicely into the stream of Hump consciousness. This one is by leading archaeologist and palaeolinguist Professor Lord Colin Renfrew. It appears to summarise his 2008 book Prehistory: The Making of the Human Mind.

Posted in Creation, Genealogical Adam, Science, Theology | 5 Comments

In the Brownies

Posted on 20/12/2014 by Jon Garvey

I can’t say that Girl Guide affairs feature heavily in my list of concerns, which is probably why last year’s new Guide (and Brownie) Promise slipped under my radar until my granddaughter brought it to my attention. A little online research shows that the Boy Scouts here, and even in America, retain substantially Baden-Powell’s wording, duty to God and all, with alternative versions for conscientious objectors.

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We are so much more than ourselves

Posted on 18/12/2014 by Jon Garvey

OK, this post is to wind up the thoughts directly inspired by reading Owen Barfield’s Saving the Appearances. Overall it is, indeed, an important book, and perhaps not as difficult as I’d been led to believe, though that may partly be because some of his core ideas are shared across a great range of other thinkers with whom we’ve become familiar on The Hump this year.

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Exploring a metaphysics of mind

Posted on 16/12/2014 by Jon Garvey

Carrying on the trajectory of previous posts we’ve reached the idea that although there is a “physical reality out there” (what Owen Barfield calls “the particles” or “the unrepresented”) there is no way we can encounter it directly. All our perception comes through sense and mind representations, which to the extent that we share what we perceive with others are public representations. That applies as much, we found, to the application of mathematical symbolism, as to more analogical symbols like “atoms are particles” or “genes are units of heredity”. Both can tell truth, but are inevitably incomplete and distorted representations of total reality.

Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Science, Theology | 17 Comments