Category Archives: Science

Distinguishing the sources of teleology

Posted on 04/12/2017 by Jon Garvey

I mentioned briefly in my last post one of the things that struck me most from reading Perry Marshall’s Evolution 2.0. And that was the fact that intrinsic teleology and external teleology are not mutually exclusive, and yet might not be easy to distinguish.

Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Science, Theology | 3 Comments

How (exactly) science leaves no room for God

Posted on 30/11/2017 by Jon Garvey

On his blog Shadow of Oz, biologist Wayne Rossiter, a principled opponent of theistic evolution, notices a re-posted BioLogos article by, ironically, the editor of Rossiter’s own book critiquing TE, Robin Parry. Rossiter’s post points out the fatuousness of the following argument:

Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Science | 1 Comment

Riddles wrapped in mysteries inside enigmas

Posted on 28/11/2017 by Jon Garvey

I’ve commented before on “reading serendipity” – how things one happens to read consecutively bring together disparate ideas one would not have associated otherwise. In this case it started with a C S Lewis essay to which I was pointed by reading a quotation in an article. The essay in question is Bluspels and Flalansferes, which like the excellent book Studies in Words arises from Lewis’s professional life as a philologist.

Posted in Philosophy, Science, Theology | 8 Comments

Dennis Venema on God and Intelligent Design

Posted on 19/11/2017 by Edward Robinson

In a current BioLogos discussion, Dennis Venema writes this: “I see evolution as God’s design for creating life, plate tectonics as his design for making continents, gravity as his design for making solar systems, and so on. I just don’t think the place to look for design is where “natural” explanations have not yet been worked out. I think it’s all designed.” This is most interesting. It is nearly exactly the view set forth in Michael Denton’s Nature’s Destiny (1998). This book has been known to Dennis, and to all BioLogos columnists and management, for nearly two decades, yet not one of them has had a good thing to say … Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, Edward Robinson, Science, Theology | 18 Comments

Facts without theories are cars without engines

Posted on 14/11/2017 by Jon Garvey

… or how streptomycin proves, or disproves, God I’m still interested in showing how God appears to be hidden in the workings of the world more because the prevailing materialist worldview is blind to him than because he is intrinsically invisible. There was a long (and ongoing) discussion on BioLogos recently based on a case-study I gave of a healing in response to prayer. I could have perhaps sorted the materialists (believing as well as unbelieving) from the atheists better by choosing a less “religious” example, such as the kind of phenomena pretty familiar in everyday life, but absolutely verboten in serious discourse, such as premonitions, knowledge of being watched … Continue reading →

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What did those guys know?

Posted on 10/11/2017 by Jon Garvey

Since I considered “heaven and earth” in the recent series, in relation to the deliberate parallels between the Genesis 1 “cosmic temple” and Israel’s tabernacle and temple, it’s interesting to muse on how the ancient Hebrews thought about “heaven”.

Posted in Creation, Science, Theology | 3 Comments

Finding humans origins from biblical theology #4

Posted on 08/11/2017 by Jon Garvey

This is by way of being an appendix to the main conclusions I’ve drawn in previous posts about the possible implications for human origins of seeing Adam, in the context of Genesis, as proto-Israel, yet also as a real and historical (not fictional) archetype. I’ve suggested that we should distinguish the whole race of mankind, created in Genesis 1, from Adam as one member of that race, chosen to become the forerunner of a new kind of relationship with God as Yahweh, analogous to the calling from the generality of humanity of Abraham, or of Israel the nation, or of those born again into Christ. But someone may ask if … Continue reading →

Posted in Adam, Creation, Genealogical Adam, Philosophy, Science, Theology | 4 Comments

Finding humans origins from biblical theology #3

Posted on 06/11/2017 by Jon Garvey

At this point in the series, let’s move on to consider the world outside Eden, and perhaps before Eden, by summarising what I’ve already concluded from adopting the “compositional strategy” of the Pentateuch or Torah proposed by John Sailhamer, and applied to the beginning of Genesis by Seth Postell. I put this overview in list form in the previous post, so please refresh your memory there if you need to.

Posted in Adam, Creation, Genealogical Adam, History, Science, Theology | 18 Comments

Finding humans origins from biblical theology #2

Posted on 03/11/2017 by Jon Garvey

In the last post I tried to show the overall thematic “plot” inherent in the Pentateuch or Torah, which John Sailhamer calls its “compositional strategy”. This makes the foundation-document of Israel a narrative of linked themes, which I will list below the fold.

Posted in Adam, Creation, Genealogical Adam, Science, Theology | 13 Comments

The metaphysics of jazz drumming

Posted on 30/10/2017 by Jon Garvey

I want today to take another tilt at the question just how theory-laden our view of the world is, following a frustrating conversation with an atheist at BioLogos (whose posts were “liked” by a good number of non-atheists there). He just couldn’t see why his naturalist view of a “Nature” containing only the “material” governed by “laws” and “chance” (metaphysical concepts all) is not simply self-evident truth, into which one might somehow be able to fit a God if there were enough evidence. The “evidence”, of course, would have to be investigated using the methodological naturalism that excludes God a priori, and in the extraordinarily unlikely situation that it jumped … Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, Music, Philosophy, Science | 13 Comments