On Wed, 23 May 2001 18:02:51 -0500 Lucy Masters
<masters@cox-internet.com> writes:
> Lucy replies:
>
> You asked for a suggestion. I guess I might start by posing the
> question: Is there any such thing as a creaturely process?
>
> For example, let's suppose I start working in the chemical lab at
> our
> local research hospital. In my spare time, I figure out the exact
> percentages of different chemicals which make up a fine glass of
> Cabernet. Further, I fuss around until I figure out how to condense
> all
> of the ingredients EXCEPT the H2O so that I'm left with tiny
> microdots
> of highly concentrated chemicals. I go to a cocktail party and
> tell
> everyone that I can "turn water into wine" just like Jesus. I fill
> everyone's wine glass with water, tell them to close their eyes, and
> pop
> one tiny microdot into each glass. Seconds later, they open their
> eyes
> to find Cabernet. Because I'm not Jesus, they wouldn't call this a
> miracle. They'd call it magic.
>
First, if you can put everything except the water into a microdot, I'd
have to rate it a miracle. I don't know the percentage of solids in a
wine, but the alcohol runs something like 14%. Since I don't think there
is an ethanol anhydride, there would have to be something outside of the
natural.
> But more to the point, was God involved in this process? Well, to
> my
> way of thinking, God is involved in all processes. He provided me
> with
> the intelligence and energy to figure this thing out. He provided
> all
> of the chemical ingredients needed to make water into wine.
>
Here the answer depends on what you mean by God being involved--assuming
that we have a natural process. He is the sustainer of all that exists. I
like Luther's thought, that natural laws are the masks of God, that the
natural order is God's sustaining handiwork. Somebody remarked that
sufficiently advanced technology cannot be distinguished from magic. This
ties in with the notion that what we don't understand must be attributed
to the Almighty's direct involvement. This is a popular delusion.
> Should the folks at the table think God was not involved? Was
> Jesus
> MORE involved in his miracle than I in mine simply because we don't
> know
> **how** Jesus turned water into wine? Further, if we DID know how
> Jesus
> did it, would it no longer be a miracle?
>
Did Jesus use advanced technology? I think the answer has to be "NO!" He
acted by divine power, not within providential care. Had it been
technological, I think it would have produced a high level of
radioactivity to change hydrogen and oxygen, with a small admixture of
salts, into enough nitrogen and carbon to produce good wine.
> So...I would like to entertain the idea that there is no such thing
> as a
> "creaturely process."
>
> Is my thinking skewed?
>
> Lucy
>
Is there are creaturely process? I think the obvious answer is "yes."
Note the young child learning to speak, constructing sentences that he or
she has never heard. This is a kind of creativity.It is not ex nihilo, of
course, for that is the prerogative of the Creator. But God himself
creates by using what exists.
Dave
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