Category Archives: Theology

Monotheism 101

Posted on 10/03/2016 by Jon Garvey

Once again in a thread conversation at BioLogos, some Christian with a scientific background suggests that maybe God didn’t plan the details of biological forms below a certain level, such as (for example) quadrupeds, fish etc, “allowing” evolution to fill in the details. Interestingly this would be consistent with the Creationist concept of baramins derived from the “kinds” of Genesis, which are in fact pretty much as vague (animals being divided only into domestic, prey-animals and carnivores, for example). But that’s a conversation for another time. Eddie pointed out that such an open-ended picture of creation runs contrary to traditional ideas of sovereignty. But I want to go further to … Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, Theology | 7 Comments

Our 5th birthday – Happy Birthday

Posted on 27/02/2016 by Jon Garvey

It’s actually five years ago today that I started this blog, The Hump of the Camel. That’s quite a decent lifespan for a blog, and it’s time to reflect on what, if anything, we’ve achieved.

Posted in Creation, Science, Theology | 57 Comments

The right time isn’t always now

Posted on 23/02/2016 by Jon Garvey

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.” Romans 5.6. Doing a teaching series currently overviewing the narrative thrust of the whole Bible, one thing that struck me was the issue of God’s timing. It’s always slower than we might wish, though again Peter says “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.”

Posted in History, Science, Theology | 1 Comment

Denton’s Book and Biologos

Posted on 22/02/2016 by Sy Garte

Since Jon is busy with his new band, I thought I might sneak in here and fill a space. I haven’t asked him, so I hope he doesnt mind. Jon has already mentioned and linked to my book review of Michael Denton’s new book Evolution: Still a Theory in Crisis. I wanted to post here some of my observations, not about the book, that is what the review is for, but about the reception of the review.

Posted in Politics and sociology, Science, Sy Garte, Theology | 11 Comments

Paradigm shifts and long spoons

Posted on 11/02/2016 by Jon Garvey

I’ve nearly finished Suzan Mazur’s book, The Paradigm Shifters, which consists of a number of interviews with new thinkers in evolutionary science, mainly members of the Third Way group, about which I’ve written here and here.

Posted in Creation, Science, Theology | 12 Comments

God would not violate his own laws

Posted on 04/02/2016 by Jon Garvey

It is still a remarkably common objection to miracles, or to other than excessively-rare miracles, that God would not violate the laws of nature that he himself commanded. Not uncommonly, to allow for miracles arguments are made that show that God need not actually break the laws to do them.

Posted in Philosophy, Science, Theology | Leave a comment

Sufficient means

Posted on 02/02/2016 by Jon Garvey

A while ago biologist Francisco Ayala, in discussion with William Lane Craig, made a rather fatuous argument against ID proponent William Dembski’s “Universal Probability Bound.”

Posted in Creation, Science, Theology | 6 Comments

Denton, Falk and theodicy

Posted on 30/01/2016 by Jon Garvey

  Eddie Robinson drew attention, on BioLogos, to ex-BioLogian Darrel Falk’s favourable review of Michael Denton’s new book Evolution: Still a Theory in Crisis. Eddie praises Darrel’s generosity, and I’d add that he shows considerable courage, given the flak he took for his previous generally favourable review of another Intelligent Design text, Stephen Meyer’s Darwin’s Doubt, a year or two ago even from his own Theistic Evolution constituency. I see even the first reply to his Amazon review is warning him off supping with the devil, and on past form expect some of the same response at BioLogos (or at least claims that Falk didn’t write what he wrote!)

Posted in Creation, Science, Theology | 4 Comments

Soft scientism in western Christianity…

Posted on 28/01/2016 by Jon Garvey

…or “at least you can rely on science.” Materialism is the belief that only material entities and processes exist, and virtually all Evangelicals reject it, in principle. Nevertheless it’s now pretty well recognised, if only by readers of The Hump, that living in a materialist society makes it easy to take on board materialism’s assumptions even when opposing it.

Posted in Politics and sociology, Science, Theology | 9 Comments

Location, location, non-location

Posted on 21/01/2016 by Jon Garvey

The last two blogs, on Genesis cosmology, were partly written in interaction with a discussion on BioLogos on that subject, to which I contributed just a couple of posts. One thing Eddie questioned in my presentation there was the perception that I might be elevating “the heavens” as a special, more holy part of creation.

Posted in Science, Theology | Leave a comment