>I think I can be most clear if I stick with one point and see what folks
>think. Let's take the bird. Assuming that birds came from dinos through an
>unbroken chain of mothers and it was fairly smooth and gradual and very
>naturaly selecty in general. In light of that where are we forced to stand
>as to design. By that I mean no tie to any particular persons camp. I mean
>was there a bird in God's mind before one flew in the sky? Is a bird a goal
>that was meant to be reached? Does not our faith demand that maybe we can't
>rewind and repeat the tape but that the tape had some parameters as to
>where it would run to? Why can't an adaption be heading some where? Like
>feathers; maybe they had some thermal use but so what? When I am welding
>something I might weld one arm on first and use that arm as a stand to
>raise the project up to finish. The arm was first for a reason. It had use
>in the coming together of the project but in the end I still meant it to be
>an arm not a stand. By comparing to welding I am not trying to move
>intervention in or miracle. Either way is fine. I suspect all is
>intervention anyway. So what is a bird and what is creation?
These are philosophical/religious questions related to the nature of God's
creative action. There are several related issues here. One is, to what
extent has creation been granted "freedom" by God. This is analogous to
the concept of human free will. Our actions can be seen as free
expressions of our will on one hand, or as predetermined by God on the
other. Another issue is how God interacts with or directs the creation to
His desired ends? Some see God as manipulating energy and matter as though
He were part of the physical creation. some see God as working within
fundamental indeterminancies at the level of quantum phenomena and/or at
the level of large chaotic systems. Others see God working continually in
all processes but in a way that is completely transparent to scientific
observation.
I personally do not see how God's action in creation could possibly be
empirically discerned. Seeing God in creation is an act of faith. In
other words, the answers to your questions lay outside of science.
Thanks for your always insightful questions.
Keith
Keith B. Miller
Department of Geology
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66506
kbmill@ksu.ksu.edu
http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~kbmill/