Re: Nature article on ID

On Mon, 02 May 2005 17:32:25 -0400 bivalve
<bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com> writes:
> > Would you accept my main point however, that God's interventions
> in nature
> > are more to do with revealing Himself to us, rather than helping
> nature over
> > the tricky bits? (I think Richard Dawkins used this phrase in an
> article in
> > the UK Daily Telegraph). God creates a universe in which
> inevitably
> > intelligent creatures are going to evolve - it seems fantastic
> that this
> > could ever happen knowing the amazing complexity of life, but
> God's a much
> > better designer than anyone else. And when these creatures
> evolve, they are
> > going to ask deep questions Who am I? Where do I come from? Is it
> all a huge
> > fluke? etc. And God intervenes, often "supernaturally" at this
> point,
> > inspiring men to write down scripture under the inspiration of
> the Holy
> > Spirit, by performing miracles of healing, showing his
> compassion, and
> > ultimately by his sacrificial death on the Cross. It seems to me
> that all
> > the points in scripture where God has intervened are so that we
> might know
> > that he is God (e.g. the healing of the man born blind - John
> 9:3).
>
> I'd agree with this (assuming that you are including all
> interventions, such as the Biblical miracles-I don't think you mean
> to imply that there must be interventions within the course of
> physical evolution). It also relates to a basic problem of ID/YEC
> science arguments. They don't reveal God to us. There's no way to
> tell whether the intelligent designer/recent creator is YHWH or Zeus
> or Allah or Ungabunga or hyperintelligent aliens or....
>
> The biblical terminology of "signs" relates to this function of
> miracles-as pointers to God.
>
> Dr. David Campbell

David's comment goes a ways, but I think I want to go further. ALL the
"natural" events and the miracles are equally divinely controlled. We
expect the events that follow the "natural" pattern. Those that are truly
unexpected usually validate the messenger and message, but sometimes
manifest God's mercy or supply a special need. The cruse of oil
represents the latter; raising the child the former. I say this because
I see no indication in these miracles that the prophet needed
attestation. Neither is like fire from heaven.

There are also interventions that produce new natural patterns. If God
introduced a soul or spirit into a hominid or hominoid to produce the
first human, I hold that the gift was passed to the descendants by
mating. (I hold to traducianism rather than creationism here.) Similarly,
through the crucifixion, faith causes a transformation that is natural,
but not physical. This means that science cannot study it, as it also has
problems with the psuche/pneuma. That's why neurologists do fine with the
brain, but tend to deny that there is a spirit. As the newborn develop
according to their inborn nature, so the born again grow. This is natural
in one sense, but on a different definition, divide into natural and
supernatural.
Dave
Received on Mon May 2 20:03:43 2005