Your posts are always very challenging and I use them to sharpen my own
sword. I do agree that God's creative activity is delegated to part of His
creation. But can't God "change His mind" and cease that from being the
case? I believe that He can and so to say that the creation will go on
regardless is a basic assumption. I do not know if immaterial angels can
make bicycles, but my point is that the creative aspect of man is very
peculiar to man, which is distinct from that of any other part of creation
and is akin to God's. The ability to reason and thus to create is what I
understand to being created in the image of God. No animal can claim that
and the transition can never be continuous as claimed by a pure
evolutionist.
Take care,
Moorad
-----Original Message-----
From: George Murphy <"gmurphy@raex.com"@raex.com>
To: Moorad Alexanian <alexanian@uncwil.edu>
Cc: Adam Crowl <qraal@hotmail.com>; asa@calvin.edu <asa@calvin.edu>
Date: Tuesday, November 30, 1999 2:28 PM
Subject: Re: A neat syllogism
>Moorad Alexanian wrote:
>>
>> I must be missing something George. Your yes is inscrutable. Moorad
>>
>> -----Original Message----- .............
>> >> Does matter create a bicycle or does man do that?
>> >
>> >Yes.
>
> Both your original post &, _a fortiori_, my reply need some unpacking.
Only
>God can create _anything_ in the ultimate sense, as biblically only God can
be the
>subject of the verb br'. But God's creative activity can be mediated
through his
>own creatures, as in Genesis 1 - where, e.g., the "bringing forth" of
living things by
>the waters - in accord with God's command - in v.20 is described in v.21 by
"God
>created..." (wayibera' 'elohim).
> Often of course we use "create" in a penultimate sense, which may be OK as
long
>as we know what we're doing. It would be better to use some other word
like "make" or a
>neologism like "sub-create" (cf. Tolkien) to keep the distinction clear.
> A traditional way of speaking about this is in terms of primary &
secondary
>causation. The hand writes & the pen writes - the difference between this
& God's
>concurrence with second causes being that God is ultimately the creator of
those causal
>agents whereas the writer doesn't create the pen ex nihilo.
> With those distinctions in mind, asking whether life was created by God or
by
>natural processes is a little like asking "Was Lincoln killed by Booth or a
bullet?"
>A succinct answer, of course, is "Yes."
> & to get finally to my original reply, human beings are matter, & the
bicycle is
>made by a material agent. We are, of course, intelligent & spiritual
material agents
>but we wouldn't make bicycles if we weren't material.
> Shalom,
> George
>George L. Murphy
>gmurphy@raex.com
>http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
>