Re: More fusillades in the ID wars

On Feb 4, 2005, at 4:57 AM, jack syme wrote:

> If one takes the position that you cant have a creator that tweeks
> creation from time to time, then I dont see how you can accept
> Christianity.
>  
> There are many 'miracles' and prophecies documented in the Bible, that
> cannot ocurr through natural processes alone. 

Sorry to have to say this, but this is "God of the gaps" thinking.

God does not "tweak" his creation "from time to time." He operates it
continually; in fact, it only continues to exist on a moment-to-moment
basis because He wills it to be so. As Galileo wrote (no doubt thinking
  Romans 1), we have 2 books in which He has revealed Himself: the Bible
and the Cosmos.

People seem to think that since we have some understanding about some
natural processes and can often predict their outcome, that God is
somehow not involved. There is the implicit belief that unless there is
a "miracle," then God was just letting things take their course.

The Bible does not teach that the Universe is autonomous. We are not
Deists. Yes, God usually causes the Cosmos to behave in a predictable,
orderly fashion. What would it tell us about Him if this were not so?
Yes, God has acted, "from time to time," when it suits his purpose, in
a way that deviates from this pattern (i.e., "miracles"). What would it
tell us about Him if this were not so?

To believe that life evolved on Earth does not require one to take
either of the common positions that I observe in this debate (that
evolution is an autonomous, inevitable result or that evolution is so
unlikely that it required miracles for it to occur). Wherever the truth
lies on that spectrum is OK with me.

Bill Dozier
Minister of Silly Guitar Sounds

---
"How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and 
Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-communist? It's someone who 
understands Marx and Lenin." -- Ronald Reagan