Category Archives: Theology

Methodological naturalism never knows when to stop

Posted on 22/08/2012 by Jon Garvey

There were a couple of recent references to Peter Enns on the usual blogs recently. Ted Davis cited him in his article on theistic evolution, and in reply to a comment added some background about his departure from Westminster Seminary, to which I’ll return. Uncommon Descent  linked to his reply to a review of his book The Evolution of Adam in Themelios, largely it would seem to discredit BioLogos by association with Enns’ views on Adam (though BioLogos‘ taking him on as their house-theologian after his removal from Westminster was surely making a statement too). That should be more than enough links for now. Neither reference was of much import … Continue reading →

Posted in Adam, Creation, Science, Theology | 1 Comment

Divine action and divine detectability

Posted on 17/08/2012 by Jon Garvey

I want to summarise some lines of argument showing how God might influence the process of evolution (and other natural events), and why that ought to leave visible marks in the world. This matters because, apart from divine action at some stage in the process, theistic evolution is indistinguishable from atheistic evolution and therefore has nothing particular to contribute apart from a fideistic claim that God exists irrelevantly somewhere. I hold that the proposition that God’s involvement is restricted to the creation of the Universe with its laws and initial conditions, and his general sustaining of all things, is inevitably Deistic rather than Theistic, and so falls short of any … Continue reading →

Posted in Science, Theology | 41 Comments

Francis Bacon and history

Posted on 15/08/2012 by Jon Garvey

The last chapter of Richard Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses moves away from making the case that the four gospels record genuine eyewitness testimony to Jesus, and takes a look at the nature of testimony itself.

Posted in Politics and sociology, Science, Theology | Leave a comment

Is the Bible optional?

Posted on 13/08/2012 by Jon Garvey

I’ve commented before on how mystifying it is to me that so many Christians, including Evangelicals, who are active in the science-faith discussion downplay the importance of the Bible to Christian faith. Probably it arises ultimately from the Liberal separation of the “Christ of Faith” from actual history, so that one is supposed to relate only to the risen Jesus. “The book” then becomes seen as an object of idolatry, the bare “letter” that quenches “the Spirit”. This attitude, in turn, originated in the doubts cast on the reliability of the biblical accounts by two centuries of critical scholarship – there’s really no point in taking the Bible seriously as … Continue reading →

Posted in Theology | 1 Comment

How the other half lives

Posted on 09/08/2012 by Jon Garvey

I have little interest in the New Atheists, since their sole function on the kind of blogs I visit is to throw in irrelevant references to Jebus and Pixies, say “cheers” and disappear, except when they carp on about being treated in an unchristian way. But every now and again it’s good to be reminded of why so many people, especially atheists, are embarrassed by the Gnus’ ability to win such support amongst the mindless and to damage the cause of atheism, if there is one.

Posted in Politics and sociology, Science, Theology | 20 Comments

Statistics and divine action

Posted on 07/08/2012 by Jon Garvey

In another context Gregory linked to an article by Steve Fuller. In this post the argument of the article itself is not important. But part of what it said was to point to the work of the physicist James Clerk Maxwell. Of Maxwell Wikipedia says: Maxwell is considered by many physicists to be the 19th-century scientist having the greatest influence on 20th-century physics. The Biographical Dictionary of Scientists says he is generally considered: …the greatest theoretical physicist of the 1800s, as his forbear Faraday was the greatest experimental physicist.

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

The right to death

Posted on 04/08/2012 by Jon Garvey

Alan Fox asked me for my thoughts, as an ex-GP, on the question of euthanasia, assisted suicide and whatever. I can probably do no better than to link to the submission I made to the relevant House of Lords Select Committee in 2004. For completeness here’s a link  to the 1982 article I quote there.

Posted in Medicine, Theology | 44 Comments

Human ancestry and the Synoptic Problem

Posted on 03/08/2012 by Jon Garvey

A recent report in the New York Times has been widely linked, including this summary at Evolution News. It deals with an inter-disciplinary squabble over recent claims by geneticists about human origins, which do not tally with the results in the rival field of palaeontology.

Posted in Creation, Science, Theology | 12 Comments

The new biology and its implications

Posted on 31/07/2012 by Jon Garvey

There’s an excellent series by James Barham providing a (mainly) layman-level overview of the way that biological science is likely to be headed, on The Best Schools. The link takes you to part VII, and you should scroll down to find links to the whole lot so far near the bottom. You’ll see that he encompasses James Shapiro’s work in one article, which should interest some of my usual readers.

Posted in Creation, Science, Theology | Leave a comment

Chance and providence

Posted on 29/07/2012 by Jon Garvey

Yahtze is an entertaining family dice game. The highest scoring throw is all five dice the same, for which you get 50 points, and 100 bonus points if you throw another in the same game. I think the odds of a Yahtze are 6^4, or 1:1296. The odds of throwing two Yahtzes are that number squared. Correct my maths if it’s wrong – but by any calculation it’s not a highly probable outcome. We used to play it when camping with the kids, since it used less skill than other games and so caused less tantrums. There’s nothing worse than mums and dads throwing tantrums. At times, though, It used … Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, Science, Theology | 4 Comments