Category Archives: Science

Genre again – is Biblical higher criticism scientific?

Posted on 04/02/2012 by Jon Garvey

Cal’s reponse to my last post set me thinking again about both the documentary hypothesis of the Pentateuch, and the redaction theories of the New Testament. I guess I had in mind the idea that one can’t regard the Pentateuch as “history” because that genre didn’t really exist until Herodotus in 450BC, well after even the latest dates given for the Bible text. So, according to the received wisdom, one has to look back to the original “sources” in the category of “myth”, “heroic epic”, “court chronicle” etc. But this way of thinking leaves a massive assumption unchallenged.

Posted in Science, Theology | 3 Comments

John H Walton and the undermining of Darwinian metaphysics

Posted on 01/02/2012 by Jon Garvey

I’ve mentioned John H Walton’s contribution to the interpretation of Genesis several times before on this blog. I won’t explain his thesis again in any detail, but in essence it’s the understanding than the creation account of Genesis is intended to be literal, but literal concerning principally the function of creation rather than its material existence. It is about how God organised the Universe as his temple, with man as his image (in the sense of temple-image) and priest. This privileged calling for man is reflected in the fact that creation’s function is described in relationship to humanity’s needs – the heavens as his calendar for planting, the vegetation as … Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, Science, Theology | 11 Comments

Things that evolve – (2) Natural Selection

Posted on 31/01/2012 by Jon Garvey

There’s a new review of James Shapiro’s book here. The author, Adam Wilkins, is critical of Shapiro’s main thesis, but accepts there’s a growing body of opinion in certain evolutionary disciplines against classic Neodarwinism.

Posted in Creation, Politics and sociology, Science, Theology | 7 Comments

Things that evolve – (1) Evolution

Posted on 30/01/2012 by Jon Garvey

Gregory, who often posts here, is a sociologist interested in showing how the concept of evolution is misleading when applied to human sciences. Watch out for his forthcoming book on “Human Extension”. Nevertheless, the fact that evolution ought to be restricted to the field of biology doesn’t mean that it hasn’t, in reality, been applied to everything under the sun, and over it, as a global philosophy of existence. I want to look today at the interesting way in which that generalising principle has shifted since Darwin.

Posted in Politics and sociology, Science | 1 Comment

Don’t talk to me about life

Posted on 26/01/2012 by Jon Garvey

Prof Steve Jones’s recent column in the Daily Telegraph has a dig at Stephen Hawking’s belief that life, statistically, must exist elsewhere in the Universe. He cites Nick Lane’s biochemical case for the improbability of life arising – indeed, he says it’s unlikely that eukaryotic life exists anywhere else.

Posted in Creation, Science | 1 Comment

Prof Terry Hamblin

Posted on 25/01/2012 by Jon Garvey

 I was saddened to see the obituary of Prof Terry Hamblin in the paper today, his death occurring at the early age of 68. His name as a haematologist was still in the air at Poole Hospital when I started my medical career there, whence he had recentlydeparted to become the consultant at Bournemouth. Incidentally the Poole haematology department itself was run by Jeremy Lee-Potter, husband of Lynda Lee-Potter the journalist, and the long-haired technician with whom I dealt most, “Rog”, had not only played bass in a band with Robert Fripp of King Crimson fame, but had discovered no less than two rare varieties of haemoglobin.

Posted in Medicine, Science, Theology | 1 Comment

Did Sidney Poitier play Dembski?

Posted on 20/01/2012 by Jon Garvey

I found this post  on a blog by someone who’s apparently an academic somewhere up in Canada. In case you’ve missed the background, William Dembski recently published a challenge to James Shapiro, saying that since they seemed to share many of the same criticisms of Neodarwinism, maybe they should work together. Shapiro issued a counter-challenge on Evolution News and Views to the effect that maybe if ID dropped its commitment to the supernatural and stuck to science, it might be possible. Both Ann Gauger and Doug Axe have posted replies – Dembski not so far. I think the atmosphere could be described as “cordial, but still far apart.”

Posted in Politics and sociology, Science | 6 Comments

British schools to teach only Truth (says Ministry of Truth)

Posted on 18/01/2012 by Jon Garvey

It seems that the efforts of Richard Dawkins and national treasure David Attenborough to slay the dragon of creationism in British schools has born fruit, according to the Guardian . The actual deal, it seems, is as follows: The Department for Education has revised its model funding agreement, allowing the education secretary to withdraw cash from schools that fail to meet strict criteria relating to what they teach. Under the new agreement, funding will be withdrawn for any free school that teaches what it claims are “evidence-based views or theories” that run “contrary to established scientific and/or historical evidence and explanations”.

Posted in Politics and sociology, Science, Theology | 1 Comment

Paradigms and thinking the unthinkable

Posted on 16/01/2012 by Jon Garvey

When Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the church in Wittenburg it heralded a paradigm shift in the Church (and at that time therefore the culture) of Western Europe. Once there was widespread rejection of the assumption that the ultimate arbiter both of salvation and state power was the Roman Church, everything changed.

Posted in Politics and sociology, Science, Theology | 13 Comments

William Dembski interview

Posted on 16/01/2012 by Jon Garvey

A very interesting, and extensive, interview with Dembski  here. Isn’t it interesting how little relationship what his many detractors say has to do with the man himself?

Posted in Creation, Science, Theology | 1 Comment