On Thu, 01 Jun 1995 17:29:37 +0930 you wrote:
>There seem to be six positions that could be held which would lie
>in the progressive creationism - theistic evolution spectrum:
>
>
>1. At various times during the (long) creation period, God
>performed a distinctive miraculous creation - eg took one animal
>and supernaturally created a new animal from it.
Progressive Creation
>2. As in 1. except the miracles occured with greater frequency
>and were less dramatic.
Progressive Creation
>3. Creation occured through evolution, but the success of evolution
>is "surprising", that is, one would not have expected the evolutionary
>process to be as successful as it has been. Thus God must have
>been "directing" the evolutionary process, perhaps arranging (or
>pre-arranging) for the process to travel along preordained paths,
>leading to much better than expected outcomes.
Theistic Evolution?
>4. Creation occured through evolution and there is nothing surprising
>about its success - we would expect evolution to produce something
>like what we see. Nevertheless, creation occurred at God's hand
>and evolution was the tool. However, the fact that evolution got
>started in the first place is surprising.
Deistic Evolution?
>5. As with 4. except the fact that evolution got started is not
>surprising either. What is surprising is that the laws of the
>universe and physical constants are just right for giving conditions
>conducive for the commencement of a successful evolutionary process.
Naturalistic Evolution
>6. As with 5. except that the fact that "the laws of the universe
>gave rise to a successful evolutionary process" is not really
>surprising. Nevertheless, creation occurred at God's hand.
>
Deistic Evolution?
>
>Could someone tell me what the correct label for each of these
>positions is?
>
>I would also be interested in critiques of the different positions.
I don't know whether my labelling is correct. To my mind they can be
represented on a decision tree:
NO <- GOD? -> YES
| |
NAT. E. DIRECT? -> YES -> SHORT? -> YES -> FIAT C.
| |
NO NO
| |
THEISTIC E. PROG. C.
It may be this is too simplistic (like all models). Direct means
supernatural.
I may have misrepresented Theistic Evolution, because on this tree
it could equally be labelled Deistic Evolution. Perhaps Terry or
Glenn can add another layer or redesign it to show their position?
God bless.
Stephen