Category Archives: Theology

Separating Genesis 1 and 2

Posted on 17/12/2017 by Jon Garvey

At the beginning of last month I did a brief series exploring how, expanding an existing modern account of biblical theology, there is really no conflict with the general outline of human history uncovered by the sciences. I particularly suggested how the writer of Genesis might have fully intended 1:1-2:4 to speak of creation, and Genesis 2:5ff to move the subject on to a new initiative of God towards man.

Posted in Adam, Genealogical Adam, Theology | 6 Comments

Science’s mediaeval assumption

Posted on 14/12/2017 by Jon Garvey

One interesting aspect of Dante’s Divine Comedy (around which to reading I’ve finally got…) is to see the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas being applied just a few decades after his death, when it was still new and controversial. Thomas actually makes an appearance in heaven, but spends the majority of his speech eulogising St Francis of Assisi, which is not improbable given the priority he put on faith over philosophyat the close of his life. One thing that Dante deals with is the Great Chain of Being, a key mediaeval idea which I wrote about here.

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

Habit-forming methodological naturalism

Posted on 11/12/2017 by Jon Garvey

All the main participants in the “two person bottleneck” thread on BioLogos have, as I write, gone to lick their wounds in teaching or research. It’s going about as inconclusively as I predicted here.

Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Science, Theology | 2 Comments

Mightily Hands On

Posted on 07/12/2017 by Jon Garvey

One of the several taboos that appears to separate theistic evolution (in its modern, “Evolutionary Creation”, form) from the “uncleanness” of Intelligent Design is the idea that God could not be “just another cause within the universe”. This precludes at a stroke allowing God to be involved in any chain of efficient causation amenable to observation (and particularly, of course, scientific observation).

Posted in Creation, Science, Theology, Theology of nature | 7 Comments

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

A Little Knowledge Is a Dangerous Thing: A Philological Note to a BioLogos Discussion

Posted on 01/12/2017 by Edward Robinson

One of the frustrations of web discussions about theology and science is that so many of the participants in the discussions choose to argue with a vigor all out of proportion to their knowledge of the subject at hand. It is easy enough to summon examples of individuals from all camps (YEC, OEC, atheist/materialist, TE/EC, and ID) and from all sites (such as Uncommon Descent, The Skeptical Zone, BioLogos, and Panda’s Thumb) who are guilty of forming opinions about authors they have not read, of taking strong positions in advance of learning the subject-matter, of affecting to more knowledge than they have, etc.

Posted in Edward Robinson, Politics and sociology, Theology, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

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

Why randomness and free-will are not comparable

Posted on 21/11/2017 by Jon Garvey

For some reason, Bilbo started a thread on BioLogos directed at me, in which (as far as I can tell) he argues basically, “If God can create free wills that make decisons without reference to him, why could he not create random processes that similarly cause things without reference to him?” Many cans of worms open because of that, which you can read about on that thread. Here I just want to deal in more depth than is possible there on the question of whether the comparison between free-will and randomness is actually a valid one. I suspect it isn’t, except at the most superficial level.

Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Theology | 2 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

Genealogical Adam and Reformed theology

Posted on 17/11/2017 by Jon Garvey

It’s my impression (which admittedly may be mistaken) that the Reformed churches in America, at least, find it hard to avoid agnosticism on matters of creation and origins. Or when they don’t, they find it theologically necessary to cut across what they see as the current opinions of science, leading to a degree of cognitive dissonance. They’re not unique in that, of course – some Evangelical theology nowadays seem to be based on cognitive dissonance as a virtue.

Posted in Adam, Creation, Genealogical Adam, History, Theology | Leave a comment