Category Archives: Politics and sociology

Materialist metaphysics for the masses

Posted on 03/03/2017 by Jon Garvey

Science, we are often reassured, has absolutely nothing to say for or against the supernatural, and Christians therefore have nothing to fear from knowing more about science. That is absolutely true in principle, not least, as I have been exploring in detail here recently, because science’s methodology excludes the supernatural from its purview, “supernatural” being however defined according to arbitrary and culture-bound criteria. This is of course simply to limit science’s reach to a humanly-constrained part of reality.

Posted in Politics and sociology, Science, Theology | 8 Comments

Moral imperialism

Posted on 22/02/2017 by Jon Garvey

Carrying on the vaguely moral/ethical theme touched upon in the last post, I noticed another long and tedious thread on BioLogos about the New Atheist meme concerning the inexcusable immorality of the Bible in endorsing slavery and genocide. You can view all the old arguments there, but I want to take a slightly different approach.

Posted in Creation, Politics and sociology, Theology | 27 Comments

Ideological philology

Posted on 17/02/2017 by Jon Garvey

Avid Hump readers (if there are any!) may have noticed in my piece on C S Lewis my passing mention of Lewis’s own philological error, or at least oversimplification, in his book The Four Loves.

Posted in Politics and sociology, Theology | 5 Comments

The proteus of evolutionary consensus

Posted on 01/02/2017 by Jon Garvey

Larry Moran is a prolific blogger on evolution, and is respected enough to have big scientific names commenting in his threads. He’s also militantly anti-creationist and anti-ID, though he’s gained some respect from the latter group for being willing to engage in discussion with them, despite persisting in contemptuously labelling them “ID-creationists”.

Posted in Politics and sociology, Science | 4 Comments

Nature – the director’s cut

Posted on 24/11/2016 by Jon Garvey

The time has come round again to register ambivalence about the latest technically wonderful, and in many ways aesthetically stupendous, David Attenborough series, Planet Earth II. My criticism isn’t far removed from the fact that the title itself is in the style of a Hollywood Blockbuster franchise. I voiced a similar concern back in 2013, referencing criticisms of a similar series about the anthropomorphism, and perhaps emotional manipulation, of the stories, and mentioning the riposte that anything that makes people more aware of the plight of wildlife in such a visually stunning way has to be a good thing. That’s true, of course, and one might add to that the … Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, Politics and sociology, Science | 6 Comments

Time and chance

Posted on 10/10/2016 by Jon Garvey

The BioLogos comment of mine, to which I alluded in the last post, has generated a lot of discussion. I would (naturally!) say that those who disagreed with my basic position didn’t understand it, and I think a couple of possible reasons pertain to that.

Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Politics and sociology, Science, Theology | 2 Comments

Neuhaus’s Law

Posted on 28/09/2016 by Jon Garvey

A few events coinciding set ones mind on interesting tracks.

Posted in Politics and sociology, Theology | 4 Comments

How pseudoscience helped build the modern world

Posted on 06/09/2016 by Jon Garvey

Spending a sweltering summer bank-holiday Monday on an overcrowded Lyme Regis beach with my grand-daughter and her mother last week was a duty rather than a joy. The book on Lyme I’d brought along to read between building sandcastles and queuing for fish and chips told me that the town’s resident population of 3,000 expands to 15,000 on a hot summer’s day, and I could well believe it as they had all apparently encamped on the same small area of sand as us.

Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Science | 6 Comments

Joshua assaults the walls of Jericho…

Posted on 07/08/2016 by Jon Garvey

I’m sure Joshua Swamidass will hate that heading, but he’s asked me to draw our readers’ attention to his new initiative (funded and everything!) to seek common ground between all positions from Naturalist Evolutionism to Young Earth Creationism. And if that isn’t a supernatural attack on the culture-war walls of the US origins discussion, I’m not sure what is! The “manifesto” for the initiative may be found on his blog here. It’s great to see a relative newcomer to the table with the vision and initiative to makes such things happen. Please pray for it, because one thing that’s certain is that he’ll be accused of being  a Creationist by … Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, Politics and sociology, Science, Theology | 5 Comments

Science as she is spoke

Posted on 14/07/2016 by Jon Garvey

Well, I see The Hump of the Camel has had another thread of its very own on BioLogos, courtesy of Joshua Swamidass. The effect is spoiled a bit by the fact that it’s mainly our own contributors here who have posted there. Perhaps Potiphar should organise a kind of roadshow in which we all turn up on blogs around the world and have private conversations, to their great surprise. That would certainly increase our profile!

Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Science | 4 Comments