The historic _doctrine_ of creation articulates the belief that the entire
universe was given its "being" (its existence, character, resources,
capabilities, potentialities,...) by a Creator. This doctrine says nothing
about the particulars of the formational history of the created world.
So, if Darwin says "I had two distinct objects in view; *firstly*, to shew
that species had not been SEPARATELY created ..."
And if Darwin says that he has "...done good service in aiding to overthrow
the dogma of SEPARATE creations..."
...then Darwin has said nothing contrary to the _doctrine_ of creation, but
has made a contribution only to the matter of the particulars of the
universe's formational history. In his judgment, the dogma of SEPARATE
creations (pictured as a succession of episodes of form-imposing divine
intervention) was contradicted by the empirical evidence.
For Mr. Jones to confuse the dogma of SEPARATE form-imposing interventions
(a matter of formational history) with the DOCTRINE of creation (a matter of
the source of the universe's being) is seriously to
misunderstand/misrepresent the issue.
Howard Van Till
PS: If anyone is interested in my response to Dembski's "Intelligent Design
Coming Clean" see Metaviews #100
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