From: Joel Cannon (jcannon@jcannon.washjeff.edu)
Date: Thu May 15 2003 - 15:11:35 EDT
Forwarded message:
> From asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu Thu May 15 12:54:40 2003
> From: "Debbie Mann" <deborahjmann@insightbb.com>
>
> And herein is the logical gap, the gulf, the enormous chasm that is an
> obstacle in the way of so many. Why can we JUDGE certain 'miracles' to be
> small enough and physicsally (pertaining to physics - if there is a real
> word, please tell me) unchallenging enough to accept while rejecting others?
In this statement, Debbie has inadvertantly raised the real issue
between the phrase "God of the gaps" which was first coined by
C.A. Coulson. She is talking about miracles or "might works" reported
in scripture; Coulson was discussing Creation and science as is
relevant to intelligent design and Howard's fully gifted creation.
Many people see the problem with a God of the gaps view of the world
as the problem arising from science constantly shrinking gaps. Coulson
felt the bigger problem was the problem of what the gaps exclude even
if the gaps do not continue to close. The issue is the negative
consequences of identifying God with those things that cannot be
understood by science. To do so almost inevitably (if not inevitably)
carries with it the implication, that God cannot be seen in and is not
responsible for the things science cannot explain.
Said Coulson:
...if God's action in nature is limited to "deft touches here and
there" I can barely distinguish Him from the engineer who made the
mechanism, and who leaves it to work its own passage, interfering only
to put it right when something is going to far wrong. Either God is in
the whole of Nature, with not gaps, or He's not there at all.
(C.A. Coulson, Science and Christian Belief, London: Fontana Books,
1958, p. 35)
This quote is taken from a very nice short essay by Regent College
Professor Loren Wilkinson, titled "Does Methodological Naturalism lead
to Metaphysical Naturalism?" in "Darwinism Defeated: The
Johnson-Lamoureux Debates on Biological Origins," Regent College
Press, 1999 (p. 167), a very useful book available from Amazon or
online through the Regent College Bookstore at
www.regentbookstore.com.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joel W. Cannon | (724)223-6146
Physics Department | jcannon@washjeff.edu
Washington and Jefferson College |
Washington, PA 15301 |
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