Category Archives: Philosophy

Monotheism and automata

Posted on 13/03/2016 by Jon Garvey

In my last post I suggested that failure to deal adequately with the implications of monotheism itself leads directly to many erroneous ideas in both theology as such and in understanding the relationship of God to creation, including evolution.

Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Science, Theology | 65 Comments

A metaphor for an abstraction

Posted on 26/02/2016 by Jon Garvey

Mike Flynn (aka The O’Floinn) links to a short piece from last year by James Chastek pointing out how even Richard Dawkins, championing materialism in the “selfish gene” concept, cannot avoid the hated idea of final causation. Food for thought, indeed.

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God would not violate his own laws

Posted on 04/02/2016 by Jon Garvey

It is still a remarkably common objection to miracles, or to other than excessively-rare miracles, that God would not violate the laws of nature that he himself commanded. Not uncommonly, to allow for miracles arguments are made that show that God need not actually break the laws to do them.

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A short history of air

Posted on 16/01/2016 by Jon Garvey

Another BioLogos thread on the relationship of Genesis 1 to “modern science” got me thinking more about the phenomenology of that, and other ANE accounts like Enuma Elish. By this I mean to bypass, for now, the (more important) questions of “meaning” and “genre”, simply to try and get a better picture of what kind of world the ancients saw when they looked out of the window. It becomes quite interesting.

Posted in Creation, History, Philosophy, Science | 4 Comments

On the resurrection…

Posted on 14/01/2016 by Jon Garvey

… and on a good number of other matters too, from Creation to Scriptural Inspiration…

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The rate- (or purpose-) limiting step of Creation

Posted on 07/01/2016 by Jon Garvey

I was struck by a succinct observation by poster StephenB on an Uncommon Descent thread about theistic evolution: For guided evolution, the design precedes the process. For Darwinian evolution, the process precedes the design (appearance of).

Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Science, Theology | 7 Comments

Resurrection, continuity and forms

Posted on 16/12/2015 by Jon Garvey

One of the questions that exercised the rabbis in the discussion of the general resurrection of the dead, even before the Christian era, was the question of continuity. The school of Shammai, working from Ezekiel, believed that God must clothe the dead bones (hence the need for careful burial, and even careful execution of criminals). The school of Hillel, working from Job, believed God would work inwards, filling the skin with new life.

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An alternative choice for “We must have been able to choose differently…”

Posted on 15/12/2015 by Jon Garvey

This is picking up some themes from a post in October. I always remember a conversation I had with my friend Tim on “A” staircase of Pembroke College, Cambridge, back in 1971. We were discussing some current issue over coffee, and I screwed up one eye sagely and said, “Ah, things would be different…”, expecting him to fill in the gap mentally with “…if it weren’t for the Lefties,” or “…if my parents had loved me” or some other amusing platitude.

Posted in Philosophy, Theology | 2 Comments

Humanity, evolution and concurrence.

Posted on 11/12/2015 by Jon Garvey

Nearly two years ago I wrote on the difficulties evolution presents to philosophical realism – the existence of universals like “human nature” – and what it would take for us as Christians to be able to hold the first without losing the latter. It’s a real philosophical problem, and involves who we are. Another recent conversation with Timothy Hicks relates to that issue.

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“God of the gaps” – an accusation from ignorance

Posted on 07/12/2015 by Jon Garvey

Every couple of days, it appears, the “God of the gaps” argument is mentioned in comments at BioLogos, usually with reference to its alleged use by Intelligent Design proponents, but often in an attempt to steer round it whilst still acknowledging a truly theistic understanding of creation and evolution. It seems to function in a kind of negative capacity, in the same manner as discussions of immigration or terrorism that begin, “Of course, I’m not a racist, but…”

Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Science, Theology | 5 Comments