Easter and the revised laws of nature

Posted on 15/04/2017 by Jon Garvey

Even within the “semi-deist” version of Evolutionary Creation, the Resurrection of our Lord holds a special place as an example (in some cases the only example) of a true miracle within an otherwise “natural” creation. But the Resurrection isn’t actually a miracle at all. Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, Science, Theology | 6 Comments

A brief theological history of secondary causes

Posted on 13/04/2017 by Jon Garvey

BioLogos comments, as Eddie’s last piece details, are all over the theological shop at the moment. That’s brought into almost comic relief by a few threads in which outsiders suggest there are theological problems in Evolutionary Creation, only to be contradicted by a host of BioLogians closing ranks in defence of orthodoxy by disputing any of these these problems exist, whilst simultaneously contradicting each other’s theology. I’m not sure how productive it is priding oneself on being a broad church and then defending the soundness of ones theology. It makes for a lively, if ultimately frustrating, talking shop I suppose.

The ensuing thoughts are prompted by at least a couple of instances of claims there that the Genesis 1 creation story implies God’s creation of a quasi-autonomous earth “bringing forth” forms of life whose precise details, it appears, are not determined by God, but by the earth. Continue reading →

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

Molinism can’t salvage randomness

Posted on 10/04/2017 by Jon Garvey

A couple of times recently I’ve heard the suggestion, seriously made, that the way to resolve true randomness in aspects of creation, and God’s ability to bring his plans to fruition, is through Molinism. It’s four years since I addressed that idea, and it still seems to be around at the highest levels of theistic evolution and ID, so let’s give it another turn in the spotlight. Because Molinism works even less for “chance” than it does for the “libertarian free will” for which it was first designed. Continue reading →

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

Some Not Truly Random Observations on a Current BioLogos Discussion: Stuff They Get Away With When Eddie’s Not There

Posted on 08/04/2017 by Edward Robinson

An interesting new BioLogos discussion is based upon a post by one “Dpiiius” who sports the alternate name of “Darius Beckham”.

The assertion is:

“I’m starting to think intelligent design theories are more plausible than the ones advocated by BioLogos researchers. The science is more sound, philosophically honest, and makes more sense of Scripture.”

It’s quite enjoyable for me, as an exile from BioLogos, to observe the ensuing discussion. Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, Edward Robinson, Science, Theology | 4 Comments

Genetic determinism, emergence, eggs and baskets

Posted on 07/04/2017 by Jon Garvey

One product (literally) of genetic determinism (and incidentally another that was, like molecular biology and eugenics, massively funded by the Rockefeller Foundation) is genetically modified seed. Twenty years ago, my son was at college studying aquaculture, and I used to argue with him about GM, which to him was simply a targeted improvement on selective breeding, but to me a potential ecological disaster because of our ignorance of how the genome actually works. He was evidently taught the hubristic reductionist version of genetics I discussed in my recent post. Continue reading →

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RIP Trevor Sandford

Posted on 05/04/2017 by Jon Garvey

I’ve just heard of the death of my old university friend, Trevor Sandford, who in those days was part of the best Christian acoustic group around, Water into Wine Band. He first introduced himself by finding his way into my room when I was out, and leaving a cryptic note signed “Rover T”, but before long I met him and found he wanted me to play support to WIWB, or as it was then called the even more unwieldy Bill Thorp’s Water into Wine Band, on a tour of the Cambridge college common rooms and bars.

And so I ended up being Jon Garvey’s Water into Newcastle Brown Ale Band not only for that outing, but on many other occasions whilst our undergraduate days lasted. After that, I went on to medical school and playing round the country as part of an acoustic duo, and “the Band” went professional – which really meant slow starvation – playing amongst other things at the first Greenbelt Festival. We even met up for a joint gig at Oxford University in 1975 before both outfits went their adult ways and our contacts became few and far between.

Trevor was a gentle and quietly spoken guy with a soft Cookstown brogue, a steady faith and a self-deprecating on-stage manner that included telling Irish jokes (“Did you hear about the Irish parachutist who missed the world?”). In a band of contrasting personalities and gifts he was, perhaps, the steady foundation.

He went on to do important things in the field of education and, of course, in family life. But I remember him as a great songwriter, an excellent musician and, most of all, a good friend. Here’s one of his songs.

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Craig vs. Ayala: When Theologians Urge Science and Biologists Urge Theology

Posted on 03/04/2017 by Edward Robinson

This one won’t be a long column. I simply wanted to share something with the readers here. It’s an old taped debate (from 2013 or earlier) featuring William Lane Craig and Francisco Ayala (with Bradley Monton on hand as moderator):

Continue reading →

Posted in Edward Robinson, Science, Theology | 9 Comments

Divine compositionalism, faithfulness and free choice

Posted on 02/04/2017 by Jon Garvey

When I wrote my recent piece on the new theory of divine action called “divine compositionalism” I decided to restrict it to a general defence of the viability of occasionalism, of which it is a variant. I was answering the charge that occasionalism renders causation, and therefore nature, a “sham”, by attempting to show that reality is just as multilayered and “deceptive” without occasionalism as with it. Furthermore, I pointed out that our sense of being deceived if God is the active cause of events is highly enculturated, ancient man (and pre-scientific cultures even now) being happy to attribute even their own deepest actions, ultimately, to God whilst retaining effortlessly their sense of true human personhood. Continue reading →

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Some thoughts on genetic reductionism and determinism

Posted on 30/03/2017 by Jon Garvey

The Human Genome Project promised enormous practical advances, took fifteen years and cost $2.7 billion, though under Francis Collins it came in ahead of schedule and under budget. Though there are those who would disagree (which fact is really the main burden of this post), many feel that it failed – or rather, than in succeeding spectacularly, it destroyed its main raisons d’être, as this conclusion from a paper by the Dutch Professor Hub Zwart well describes: Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Science | 4 Comments

Metaphysics, creatio continua, etc, again

Posted on 27/03/2017 by Jon Garvey

I’ve just come across an interesting new version of the metaphysical position on divine action called occasionalism, that has been termed “Divine Compositionalism” by its proposers, philosopher Walter J Schultz and biologist Lisanne Winslow, both of Northeastern University. It seems to me to have a number of strengths. For background, check out my 2014 piece on the three main metaphysical contenders in Christianity for understanding divine action. In the end, exactly how God acts is beyond our ken, but how we conceive things makes a great deal of difference to how we understand the world. Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Theology | 2 Comments