Category Archives: Theology

One more on universals

Posted on 28/02/2014 by Jon Garvey

I’d intended to leave the question of universals – of nominalism and realism – behind after two posts. But two things have prompted one more look at the subject. The first is a piece by Vincent Torley on Uncommon Descent about Early Darwinists and racism, which coincided with some remarks I made on my first thread. The second is an essay by Stephen J Gould on the historical contingency of human equality.

Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Theology | 10 Comments

More on nominalism v realism

Posted on 23/02/2014 by Jon Garvey

I foolishly allowed myself to sidetrack the discussion of my own recent post on these two major philosophical alternatives (nominalism and realism) into a conversation with Lou Jost on the TOE itself. I blame the fact that I was preparing the piece on neutralism and adaptationism, which nudged me out of philosophy mode. Not that the discussion hasn’t been interesting, even useful, in itself, but it has perhaps prevented the theists here from grappling with the important issues of the nominalist-realist question. So I want to spend just a few more words on it before moving on to another significant philosophical issue in a different post.

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Psalm from Science

Posted on 18/02/2014 by Merv Bitikofer

In church Sunday morning, Keith B. Miller, a geologist at Kansas State University (editor of “Perspectives on an Evolving Creation”), stood and read this modern scientific Psalm written by Walt Hearn.  Hearn holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry, University of Illinois, and has written several books on science/religion subjects and served as editor for the ASA from 1969 to 1993.  This piece was published originally under the title: “63 Thanksgiving” in a 1963 issue of HIS magazine. It is also on the ASA website here, where I found it to reprint below.

Posted in Creation, Merv Bitikofer, Theology | Tagged | 5 Comments

Caring for Creation as Mission – 3

Posted on 16/02/2014 by Jon Garvey

Peter Harris was a friend of Jon’s at Cambridge many years ago. He is President and Founder of A Rocha, an international environmental organization with a Christian ethos. This article is the third and final of three from a paper prepared for The Lausanne Movement’s Theology Working Party in Beirut, Lebanon in February 2010, under the chairmanship of Dr Christopher J H Wright. It also appeared in the July 2010 Evangelical Review of Theology (Vol 34 No 3), but is posted on The Hump as an introduction to yet another important aspect of the Christian doctrine of Creation. Whatever our conclusions about the possibilities for society and the earth which … Continue reading →

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Implications of the origin of non-species

Posted on 14/02/2014 by Jon Garvey

I’ve been reflecting a little more on some issues I raised in a reply to Merv on Eddie’s thread. It builds on the ongoing consideration of the Aristotelian idea of formal causation, but the involves more global implications of the philosophical divide between realism and nominalism – broadly, whether there are genuine universal “types” or just multitudes of individual things that we humans lump together for convenience. 

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Are models smart or dumb?

Posted on 13/02/2014 by Jon Garvey

May I point you to yet another mind-expanding blog by The OFloinn, looking at the limitations of scientific models and whence they arise. Note particularly how he categorises phenomena into organised simplicity which can be understood in detail (like Newton’s Law of Universal gravity – though that only describes what gravity does, leaving its nature as a magic force); disorganised complexity which can only be understood statistically (like the n-body problem, chaotic systems and so on) and which depend (note that word well) on the individual components being unknown and independent; and organised complexity, where there are multiple interrelated factors, which can be understood neither by simple individual laws nor simple statistical … Continue reading →

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Trade secrets

Posted on 12/02/2014 by Jon Garvey

The Biologos thread on the Ham-Nye debate has prompted good conversations there and in a few posts here – very few actually about creationism versus atheism, which is understandable enough as neither site is either creationist or atheist. One titbit was a very gentle dig at New Testament scholars by Ted Davis speaking as a historian, about the criteria they use to date the gospels: In the absence of hard evidence, I regard the date of the composition of the various gospels as highly conjectural, and if I were a biblical scholar (obviously I’m not), I would hesitate to be too dogmatic about such a theory-laden conclusion.

Posted in Politics and sociology, Theology | 2 Comments

The Dispute Is Not Primarily over the Text, but over Naturalism

Posted on 10/02/2014 by Edward Robinson

Over on BioLogos, in the context of discussing the Ham-Nye debate, several people have resumed a much earlier BioLogos discussion about the Resurrection, in which it was argued (apparently under the inspiration of N. T. Wright) that the Gospel reports concerning the women at the tomb of Jesus provide proof, or at least very strong evidence, for a physical resurrection. I don’t wish to take up the specific argument, but I do wish to point out the general form of the argument, and show why all arguments of this form will be of no avail until a greater problem – naturalism – is dealt with.

Posted in Creation, Edward Robinson, Theology | 27 Comments

Recognising cultural blinkers

Posted on 06/02/2014 by Jon Garvey

There is a current BioLogos thread on the recent debate between atheist Bill Nye and Young Earth Creationist Ken Ham. In it, our own Lou Jost continues to try and educate the benighted theists by responsing to John Walton’s affirmation of his shared belief (with Ham) in the inspiration of Genesis. Lou complains that Genesis “screams out ‘cultural document’”, and in a later post slips in the “nothing buttery” that C S Lewis noted as a hallmark of modern materialism by amending it to “just a cultural document.”

Posted in Philosophy, Politics and sociology, Science, Theology | 124 Comments

The creation theology of the psalms and its application

Posted on 03/02/2014 by Jon Garvey

I’ve just read an excellent recent paper  by J Richard Middleton, comparing the views of creation given in Psalms 8 and 104. If you don’t have access to Academia.edu you might not be able to access it, which is a shame as it has a lot to say on the view of creation theology I’ve been developing here over the last three years or so. That view differs from some of the common church teaching on “fallen creation”, but only because it recovers historical Christian doctrine. But it differs far more from the novel and quite incompatible theologies commonly presented in modern Evangelical theistic evolution and – as the last … Continue reading →

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