>YES, I do agree with you in regards to the way the ID movement is
>understood and applied in various Christian circles. But, with all due
>respect, that a pastor believes Christianity is ok because Johnson and
>Behe have disproved evolution (something which they do indeed confess to
>be doing) is not B&J's problem "only", it is also the responsibility of
>theistic evolutionists who have failed to give an reasonable
>explanation, it is a problem also caused by atheistic evolutionists who
>think that to explain nature away means that God (yes that GOG that
>deists put together long ago) has all of the sudden less to do, and it
>is a problem those tenacious YEC too.
I find myself mostly in agreement with TdL here. The level to which
God-of-the-gaps (GOG) theology is held in the church is not only or even
primarily the fault of Phil Johnson and the ID movement, and I didn't
mean to suggest that. It certainly predates this movement, and is
encouraged probably even more strongly (though perhaps with less effect,
depending on what corner of the church you look at) by atheists and
YEC's. I am even a little sympathetic to Plantinga's view that the
"functional integrity" view of some theistic evolutionists comes close to
some aspects of GOG theology. Though beyond that, I don't think TE's,
whatever their other failings might be, are promoting any GOG theology.
But "everybody else does it" does not provide an excuse for Johnson et
al. One expects bad theology from atheists, and many of us have written
off YEC theology as beyond repair. I think we focus attention on the ID
movement because first we see that it is having a large impact in broad
Christian circles (has Christianity Today has ever given an award to a
YEC book?), and second because we see enough intellectual content that we
have hope that, with some prodding, they might get their theological
message straight.
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| Dr. Allan H. Harvey | aharvey@boulder.nist.gov |
| Physical and Chemical Properties Division | "Don't blame the |
| National Institute of Standards & Technology | government for what I |
| 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80303 | say, or vice versa." |
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