>,
>The point simply assumes that the deity understands as much about
>efficiency as human engineers.
This is not a very Christian way to start an article if you want to
convince Christians of certain points.
>If God is creating each species or genus /de novo/, then we assume that
>he would produce a finished form, not one that would die and have to be
>superseded time after time with new fiat creations.
"We assume" is a very strange way of a creature to talk about the
Creator. A sentence like that makes me think right away, that a proud
human is criticizing his Creator, which takes away any influence of what
follows might have had.
>We would not have
>found a half-dozen creatures on their way to becoming the efficient
>cetaceans of today's oceans. You can find this principle in Augustine,
>who claimed that the Almighty created everything instantaneously, though
>it had to unfold over time. But the unfolding was perfect, not
>Ambylocetus or Pachycetus on their way to becoming efficient. In
>contrast, if God is using secondary causes to produce developed creatures
>over billions of years, we expect the half-way entities. To be sure, God
>acts as he sees fit, but does he know what he is doing beforehand, or
>does he bumble along like his creatures, us?
I do think that this way of talking about God's works is sacrilegious. It
takes away any influence this writing might have had. Like as if we say:
"God is trying to fool us."
> We are as efficient as our
>understanding and finances allow us to be. Why should we expect God to be
>less efficient than omniscience and omnipotence allow him to be if he is
>acting directly rather than mediately? Indeed, I would further ask why
>God needed six days to fashion the heavens and the earth when he could
>have had everything up and functioning in less than an attosecond.
>Dave
Talking like this does not take into account what God gave in nature, and
just assumes, that the people in old times are as knowledgeable as we are
now, after millennia of studying. God did not speak modern-day English
. Arguing like this has the contrary result to what the writer means to
accomplish.
Jan de Koning
Received on Wed Mar 2 15:52:16 2005
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