Bill Hamilton responded:
> What also amazes me is that when one of us says the above, there is seldom
> a response. Does that mean all you PC's ID advocates and YEC's agree with
> Terry?
OK - I'll respond! I have to admit to a measure of confusion in my
understanding of what Terry is saying.
INTERVENTION: normally, intervention is treated as a form of "God-of-
the-gaps" thinking. What does a TE mean by intervention? According
to my understanding of TE, there is no break in the chain of natural
causality - so I can find very little scope for any form of
intervention within TE. At the quantum mechanical level, a case has
been made for God intervening without apparently deviating from the
pattern of natural law - but I have suggested earlier that this is
not TE but PC. It is not TE because evolutionary theory would not
recognise it. According to this view, no quantum mechanical
manipulation is necessary for life to evolve.
[I have also suggested that "intervention" is not a very helpful term
anyway in the Christian vocabulary - it has all sorts of semi-Deistic
overtones. My own view is that there is total continuity of Divine
government, wherein God has complete sovereignty about the way he
governs his creation].
OVERSIGHT: This is a word which is often used - but it is capable of
being interpreted in more than one way. Oversight can have
connutations of "correction" when things do not go according to plan.
If oversight implies any form of "intervention" - see comments above.
The non-controversial understanding of this word relates to God's
upholding and sustaining power, continuously imparted to the
creation. God has not created a Cosmos that is autonomous.
Please send some clarifying comments if this response is inadequate.
Best wishes,
*** From David J. Tyler, CDT Department, Hollings Faculty,
Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.
Telephone: 0161-247-2636 ***