Dear ASA Listers:
Seems to me that "Staged Creation" is more than hinted at, in the "days" of creation in
Genesis 1. What happened at later "Stages" can easily be described as imparting further
*structure*, i. e. *Information*. Note the *words* of God, "Let there be . . . ".
In this view, when life appears, it is because God miraculously imparts the required
structural information to the atoms,"Tinker-Toy" fashion. The atoms would thereafter be
obeying slavishly God's established laws of Nature, including the Second Law of
Thermodynamics, but now these new structures, complex living cells, would continue
reorganizing the old matter, still using the laws of Physics, as they duplicated their
informaion in cell fission.
And when it came time for new body plans (phyla?) to appear, I can see God again
injecting huge required amounts of new structural information. "And God said. . . "
Blessings, Larry Johnston
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Bob DeHaan said:
> > Perhaps I can clarify my position by adopting your terminology. Let me say
> > then that what divine action adds is *new formational capabilities* to
> > creation.
>
>
> > These are not random, haphazard additions. Rather, they are added
> > in a planned sequence. After a given stage has completed its purposes, NEW
> FORMATIONAL CAPABILITIES are added, and the transition is made to a new
> stage
> > of creational development. Each new stage builds on the accomplishments of
> > the previous one and adds increased complexity to creation.
> >
> > Stage one: Prebiotic stage. In this stage the universe as a whole, and plane
> > t earth in particular are made ready for the appearance of life (as seen in
> > the anthropic principle and the rare earth hypothesis). There is nothing,
> > however, in the prebiotic stage that would predict that single-cell life
> > would be formed in the next stage. NEW FORMATIONAL CAPABILITIES needed to be
> > added.
> >
> > Stage two: Cellular life. Divine action adds *NEW FORMATIONAL CAPABILITIES*
> > to creation at this time that initiates this second developmental stage. The
> > first cell is formed, and single cellular life takes off, using the abundant
> > physical and chemical resources prepared in stage one.
> >
> > Stage Three: Complex metazoan life. Divine action adds more NEW FORMATIONAL
> CAPABILITIES at this time. The result: is the formation of body plans of
> the
> > founders of the great animal families (phyla) that have inhabited the world
> > in the last half-billion years or so. These complex metazoans employ the
> > building blocks of individual cells from the previous stage, but in new and
> > unpredictable ways.
> >
> > Stage Four: Self-conscious sentient life. Again divine action adds NEW
> FORMATIONAL CAPABILITIES to complex metazoan life to form human beings.
> > (Here we are let in on the cosmic secret that these human being were created
> > in the image of the divine actor.)
> >
> > Some of these stages can undoubtedly be subdivided into finer sub-stages.
> >
> > How are divine action and creaturely action related? No one really knows. I
> > take a cue from Rom. 4:17 in describing the actions of God, "who calls into
> > existence things that do not exist." This sounds to me like continuing,
> > planned divine action, not a once-and-for-all call.
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set
eternity in the hearts of men" - - Ecclesiastes 3:11, NIV trans
================================================
Lawrence H. Johnston home:917 E. 8th st.
professor of physics, emeritus Moscow, Id 83843
University of Idaho (208) 882-2765
http://www.uidaho.edu/~johnston/ =====================
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