However I think we have missed the point. Epistemological issues still
hound all who are serious about truth, Jesus and the Bible. We can
develop ever more elaborate systems of exegesis that speak what we want
- and so become eisegesis - but there's no analogue of the scientific
method to provide some level of "reality comparison" [I was going to say
verification, but that's philosophically suspect.]
Our interpretations remain just that and there's no way of knowing...
Two methods -
a) Prediction generation and falsification... science, which is
Glenn's approach, but does it work? We have a fixed Scripture set and
malleable evidence from science. Shifting sand surely!
b) Gnosis, "special knowledge" via the witness of the Holy Spirit. But
again we face the ever plastic human imagination between the two domains
of Scripture and Nature. We may know, but can we express it? Can we
speak words that are true?
Hence my continuing doubts. I can not escape God for very long as I have
witnessed the Other World in ways that speak Truth to me, but can I
speak that Truth?
Perhaps my discussion is straying away from ASA's mandate - however
science is a way of knowing that as Christians we MUST believe is only
one way of knowing, NOT the only way. We must examine all aspects of
what we face. I am an evolutionist, even a Darwinist, and I don't see
any reason to doubt that research programme's validity - but I am
becoming increasingly aware of its incompleteness. And the willingness
of Darwinism's Apostles to cast an ever wider net of explanation over
phenomena. Take Edward Wilson's book "Consilience" which is an attempt
at, and apologetic for, a universal system of knowledge based on
Darwinism and physicalism. What's missing is any sense of encounter with
something truly Other. Something unexpected and alien.
The Other challenges any sense of completeness that I might feel about a
theory or theoretical system, and it's barely addressed. Any thoughts?
Adam
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