Re: NABT statement (and TA)

Craig Rusbult (rusbult@vms2.macc.wisc.edu)
Mon, 20 Oct 1997 14:50:48 -0500

Allan says,
>I think it is counterproductive to only use the term "action" to apply to
>the last 2 of these 3. That implies that God is not "acting" in
>everything else, and leads to the Sagan/Johnson picture where things go
>on independently of God except in rare (Johnson) or probably nonexistent
>(Sagan) cases of "action" or "intervention". As an aside, I don't know
>that we have any way of distinguishing #1 and #2 anyway, making this a
>less useful distinction.
... snip ...
>I go back to the question of describing lightning and thunder ....snip...
>What is *fundamentally*
>different about the evolution of life that makes it _a priori_ atheistic
>to call it "a natural process" when it is OK to use such language about
>other processes in God's creation?

These are good comments, important enough to start a new thread (I'll
do this later today, "theistic/deistic evolution") devoted to them,
independent of questions about NABT policy.

***********************************

commenting on my use of "cannot",
>> <snip> But a claim that "evolution is a
>>natural process" -- which declares that TA *cannot* have occurred -- is
>>not compatible with a theistic view. }

Allan says,
>calling something a "natural process" doesn't equate to saying
>that TA *cannot* have occurred. It is at most a statement of belief that
>TA *did not* occur -- in other words that they believe that no
>supernatural intervention entered into the process.

You're right; thanks for the correction; a claim that TA "did not
occur" is more accurate,

because, as Allan correctly points out,
>saying that a
>specific process is not a result of supernatural intervention is not a
>statement that there is no supernatural whatsoever.

Craig R