What theistic evolution means by freedom

Posted on 18/04/2013 by Jon Garvey

Well, I’ve been asking that question on BioLogos for nearly 2 years now, and did so again on this recent thread. For the very first time I actually got a reply – even a serious one – from beaglelady, who quoted me a parish newsletter of John Polkinghorne’s in which he cited a sort of free will defence regarding tsunamis: they are the necessary result of regular natural laws, and such interacting laws are (in a manner not explained) necessary for human freedom. Continue reading →

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Equal temperament and the goodness of creation

Posted on 17/04/2013 by Jon Garvey

When skeptics point out apparent imperfections in creation as evidence either against God, or against his goodness, a standard response is that such “evils” are necessary for God’s greater purposes. One modern example of this is the free will defence best expressed by Alvin Plantinga (but probably much older). John Polkinghorne, for example, talks about tsunamis as the price we must pay for a universe governed by regular laws in which alone human freedom can operate. Continue reading →

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

The preservation of favoured nations in the struggle of history

Posted on 08/04/2013 by Jon Garvey

History has long been relegated to the humanities, on the basis that it is a narrative of fortuitous events rather than a natural process amenable to scientific laws. Granted, scientific tools like methodological naturalism have been applied, but inconsistently, to exclude divine miracles but not the equally unscientific attribution of human teleology to history. Similarly, teleology has sometimes been disguised as science, for example under the banner of “Social Darwinism” where human ambition was miscategorised as historical inevitability – its failure now being obvious to all. Only now has the unfolding of history  been recognised as the obvious result of a simple and self-evidently real scientific process, which I summarise as “historical selection,” though it might be more accurately described as “survival of the serviceable.” At last history can stand on the same solid foundation as the natural and biological sciences. Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, Politics and sociology, Science, Theology | 2 Comments

What goes around … gets usefully altered

Posted on 06/04/2013 by Jon Garvey

One thing that’s surprising in reading nineteenth century history is that the dominant Christian position when Darwin came along wasn’t Young Earth Creationism. In fact most of the thinking Christians had accepted the findings of geology which, though the likes of Sedgwick and Lyell were opposed on many things, had presented a strong case for a much older earth than Archbishop Ussher’s celebrated biblical chronology. Continue reading →

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Information, fine-tuning and theistic evolution

Posted on 05/04/2013 by Jon Garvey

This is by way of bringing together some thoughts related to “information” and its place in the Universe. Theistic evolutionists of the BioLogos persuasion typically support the idea of cosmic fine tuning, but reject Intelligent Design arguments. This distinction is largely based on the idea, as in John Polkinghorne, that the first relates to the stage of ex nihilo creation, whereas the latter implies God’s “interference” in the natural processes he has set up. Bear that distinction in mind as we proceed. Continue reading →

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Thomas Huxley and natural morality

Posted on 03/04/2013 by Jon Garvey

My final nod to Gertrude Himmelfarb’s enlightening biography of Charles Darwin is another reference to his “bulldog”, Thomas Huxley. As I mentioned before his attraction to natural selection, more than perhaps any other of Darwin’s immediate circle, was primarily because of its ability to “make atheism respectable.” Like Thomas Nagel in our time, he didn’t want there to be a God. Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, Politics and sociology, Science, Theology | 2 Comments

How the new biology furthers theism

Posted on 29/03/2013 by Jon Garvey

Atheist Lou Jost asks Eddie on a Biologos:

I am unsure why religious people in particular are so excited by Shapiro’s book. It mostly discusses new sources of genetic variation. These only serve to make naturalistic evolution even easier than we had previously thought. More variation means faster evolution. And as far as I can recall, Shapiro’s book does not really offer any other explanation for adaptation, apart from natural selection. Continue reading →

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Theistic personalism and the heart of God

Posted on 28/03/2013 by Jon Garvey

A post on Victor Reppert’s Dangerous Idea raises the question of God’s “accountability” to creation, quoting the reply of Romans 9.20 about pots questioning their maker as, in some way, problematic. What is interesting is the series of excellent replies from (definitely!) Catholic Ben Yachov (who used to post on BioLogos a year or two ago). In effect, he suggests that Reppert’s soul-searching is yet another unnecessary complication from accepting theistic personalism, which I have written about here before. Ben Yachov, being a Thomist very sympathetic to Ed Feser, largely reflects the latter’s thought in this.  Continue reading →

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What is man?

Posted on 28/03/2013 by Jon Garvey

As mentioned in my last post my foolish decision to respond to Melanogaster on BioLogos was a mistake. If you look at that thread (or any other in which he has participated) every response he makes is a long list of sins one has supposedly committed, with a demand for lengthy and abject penance. Any further reply just gets added to the list of sins. It’s a bit like being in a confession meeting in Mao’s Cultural Revolution, or at least on National Service, where answering a charge just earns you another. An interesting discussion style, that – if  communication is low on your priorities. Continue reading →

Posted in Adam, Creation, Genealogical Adam, Science, Theology | 2 Comments

Huxley on the laws of God

Posted on 27/03/2013 by Jon Garvey

Dodging more irrelevant attacks from melanogaster (who will no doubt open his artillery again later) I contributed to this thread on BioLogos, which is part of a re-run of the series by Kathryn Applegate on randomness. Like last time round, people raised the only really significant issue about it – how does it fit with God’s sovereignty – and like last time round, and like similar questions raised with others like Darrel Falk, Dennis Venema etc the author’s response has been a deathly silence.

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m reading Gertrude Himmelfarb’s biography of Darwin, and am struck once again how all the important issues regarding the evolution-creation interface were raised 150 years ago, and are still as relevant now despite the changed battle-lines and intellectual climate. Continue reading →

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