Hi Terry, you wrote:
Dick,
As you must know, the "problem of evil" question is a broader
question, and, indeed, a vexing question. It becomes personal for all of
us in varying degrees as we experience "natural" or
"moral" evil.
And there is a problem when we mix our metaphors and combine science and
religion by linking up words from the realms of each. I consider
"evil" satanically inspired. So "natural evil"
is a contradiction in terms. We have natural catastrophes such as
the recent tsunami and moral evil such as the Nazi holocaust. If we
are talking about the progression of life, then we are in the natural
realm. If Satan is flipping the switches in our DNA then we really
do have a "problem of evil."
You seem to choose, as many do on
this list and elsewhere, to opt for a universe that operates autonomously
of God's control as your explanation for such evil--God had more
important things to do--and wasn't attending to the details that lead to
bad things. (I really don't think that you can consistently argue that
"God just screwed up".)
The implications of ID, which I don't subscribe to, are that if the
Designer takes divine action to cause change in organisms when such
changes are positive then either his oversights or his mistakes are
manifested when changes are negative. If evolution is impersonal,
as I believe it to be, then changes occur due simply to natural causes
and natural selection sorts it out. God establishes the rules,
nature obeys the rules, life progresses.
You claim that ID, YEC, PC all have
this problem because they put God in the designer/creator seat. Well, as
hard as it is to understand in light of the goodness of God, I really
don't think that scripture is unclear on this--"Shall we accept good
from God, and not trouble?" (Job 2:10) and many other similar
passages.
The KJV says: "What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and
shall we not receive evil?"
Good is received from God's hand, evil is not, according to Job.
However, we don't get our theology from a bewildered Job who is clearly
wrestling with calamitous events, now do we?
Whatever we think about
Satan's activity or the wickedness of free agents, I don't think that
scripture lets us think that these things operate outside of God's care
and design.
Let's avoid the word "design" for a moment. Nothing
operates outside of God's knowledge or without His ultimate permission,
and He created all things. No argument from me. But YEC, PC,
and ID all require divine intervention in the progression of physical
life not simply at the beginning of life. All give God the credit
when living organisms progress nicely and keep mum about the foul
ups. This is not reality, it is simply loyalty.
I prefer to give God the glory in all things and not worry about sorting
out the good from the bad since even what may seem bad at the time can
work for good.
In the progression of life just as in all physical processes such as when
lightning strikes, or when the earth quakes, or stars explode, or
what-have-you, natural explanations are preferable to supernatural
ones. When Christ was resurrected from the dead, I believe it
happened through the personal action of God. It was an unnatural,
miraculous act.
What ID proponents seek to do is invoke divine intervention in the
natural realm. And then do it without owning up to the consequences
when life's experiments fail, or when the deleterious effects of gene
mutations are passed from generation to generation without divine
impediment.
So you can add my version of TE/EC
to those viewpoints for which you have a grievance. I think you speak
quite prematurely to say that no one has thought about the dark
implications of ID.
Who from the Christian community has been vocal about it? And these
reservations that I have raised, who else has raised them? And be
specific - who said what.
As I have stated many times here,
the reason that evolution is compatible with my Christian faith (and
others of Reformed persuasion--like those in Livingstone's *Darwin's
Forgotten Defenders*) is that it is an expression of His creative and
providential will--warts and all.
We don't disagree about that.
How can a good God allow or cause
some of the things that seem to happen in the course of
evolution?
"Allow" and "cause" are not interchangeable. He
allows evil. He allows natural catastrophes. And He allows
evolution to progress with sometimes deleterious effects. He
doesn't cause evil. He doesn't cause natural catastrophes.
And he doesn't cause evolution.
Darwin asked these sorts of
questions too and it led him (in dialogue and disagreement with Asa Gray)
to question the orthodoxy of the day. Of course, I'm not sure I have a
satisfactory answer other than trite-sounding phrases like "let God
be God" or "the mysterious counsels of God". However, I do
think that aspects of God's plans and purposes are beyond my
comprehension--after all, He's God and I'm not. So I rest and trust, not
necessarily with all my questions answered, but with the assurance that
God is in control and is accomplishing His purposes in the world and in
me--and He does this not only as the omnipotent, all-good, and all-wise
Deity, but as my Heavenly Father. Central to those purposes and His care
is Jesus Christ and His incarnation and suffering. All I can say is that
God's marvelous grace and mercy are made known in His salvation. He has
surely turned evil, that in me, in the world, and in those who wickedly
crucified our Lord, to good.
Agreed. Now why was it that I was supposed to add your version of
TE/EC to the methods requiring sporadic, intermittent divine intervention
in the progression of life forms to bring about adaptations?
Dick Fischer -
Genesis Proclaimed Association
Finding Harmony in Bible, Science, and History
www.genesisproclaimed.org
Received on Wed Feb 2 18:12:52 2005