RE: Kline article in PSCF
Thomas S. Jones (indqual@access.digex.net)
Wed, 3 Apr 96 10:40:46 PST>Jeff posted:
>
>>The position that I think is dangerous philosophically is just the
>>reverse: that God cannot interject into the natural order and that
>>natural law cannot be violated. I am uneasy about talk of a "seemless
>>web" of natural law in science that cannot involve God in any way other
>>than in secondary causation. I see no problem with having God have
>>providential oversight and secondary causation and also having the
>>ability to interject via primary causation whenever he wants to.
>
Keith Miller replied:
>I am uncomfortable with the distinction between primary and secondary
>causation. I personally see no distinction as it relates to the
>accomplishment of God's will in the physical universe. Many of the events
>described in scripture as the actions of God were accomplished through
>natural processes. Most answered prayer is accomplished through natural
>processes. I think we get in trouble by viewing certain of God's actions
>as more "direct' than others. For me "special creation" is not any more
>special than God's use of natural process.
>
I am rather fond here of Richard Bube's view from the Putting it all Together book that
the so-called natural laws are nothing more than our attempts to describe the normal
activities of God in the sustaining of His creation. They are descriptive and not
prescriptive of His working. Thus His supernatural or "miraculous" activities are
understood as being those times that, for whatever reason, God has chosen to work in a
manner that is different from the norm.
This view does put a different spin on the understanding of causation. God "becomes"
the primary force behind all "natural" activities and the natural laws become our
limited understanding of the way God generally works.
(My apologies to Dr. Bube if I mangled his argument too badly.)
Tom
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