Re: Phillip Johnson interview

From: Bert Massie (bert@massie-labs.com)
Date: Fri Apr 27 2001 - 16:07:22 EDT

  • Next message: M.B.Roberts: "foot and mouth"

    Keith

    Can you point out to me specifically where he says that evolution must be
    "disproved."

    Bert Massie

    Keith B Miller wrote:

    > This is a rather clear statement by Johnson that evolution must be
    > disproved in order to be able to accept a creator God.
    >
    > Keith
    >
    > >Here's a quote from an interview at:
    > >http://www.arn.org/docs/johnson/commsp99.htm
    > >
    > >CJ: Let's shift the discussion just a bit. At the bare bones level, what
    > >essentials do you believe the Christian must maintain in the question of human
    > >origins in order to remain essentially Christian?
    > >
    > >Phil: Well, the first thing, I guess, is the role of God as our Creator. The
    > >evolutionary naturalists have been telling us that you don't need God in the
    > >system, you don't need a creator in the system because these purposeless forces
    > >can do it all. If they are right on that, then I would tend to think that
    > >probably Christianity should be given up as a bad show, considering most of the
    > >people that come to believe that that's what they conclude too. If God is an
    > >illusion and the Bible's just been wrong about everything, and religious belief
    > >is just believing what you want to believe and the facts show you that it
    > >didn't happen that way, well then the logical conclusion it seems to me would
    > >be not to try to save Christianity but to give it up as a mistake. Now, that's
    > >one reason I was so interested in this field. Because, now, on the other hand,
    > >if it turns out that the evolutionary theory is what's mistaken, and natural
    > >selection has no creative power, and you have this whole scientific culture
    > >that has been believing something dead against the evidence because that's
    > >something they want to believe, then even without knowing any more about it, I
    > >would say that the theistic and Biblical worldview has been tremendously
    > >validated. That is to say it's been validated in the sense that you do need a
    > >creator after all, but even more, what's been validated is the biblical view
    > >that it's a major part of the human project to get rid of the creator; because
    > >their deeds were evil, they did not want to honor god as God, and so instead
    > >they imagined various forms of idolatry and nature worship of which Darwinian
    > >evolution is just the most prevalent modern form. So, at this point, you say
    > >that not only has it been revealed that science points to the reality of a
    > >creator after all, but the enormously bad and self-deceptive thinking of the
    > >Darwinian evolutionist is something straight out of Romans 1. Without going any
    > >further than that, I'd say that the biblical worldview has been enormously
    > >affirmed. When it comes to questions like "Is it really important that the
    > >Genesis chronology be upheld?" or whatever, I'm more inclined to "hang loose"
    > >on that. For one thing, I'm very much opposed to restrictions on considering
    > >the evidence, and so it might be very convenient for us theologically if the
    > >Genesis chronology is true, and so, for that reason we might want to believe
    > >it, but that doesn't mean that the evidence necessarily supports it. If the
    > >evidence overwhelmingly says that that chronology is not true, then we can't
    > >make it true by wishful thinking. So, my basic inclination is to follow the
    > >evidence wherever it leads, and then live with the consequences of that. What
    > >has happened so far when we've done that is that the materialistic and
    > >naturalistic view that dominates our culture has been shown to be
    > >self-deceptive in every way. So I'm inclined to think we can afford to follow
    > >that program forward courageously without being afraid of what the facts will
    > >show.
    >
    > Keith B. Miller
    > Department of Geology
    > Kansas State University
    > Manhattan, KS 66506
    > kbmill@ksu.edu
    > http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~kbmill/



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Apr 27 2001 - 15:56:48 EDT