RE: Defense of Theism pt 1

> -----Original Message-----
> From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On
> Behalf Of George Murphy
> Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2005 6:41 AM

>
> I don't want to distract you from developing your "Defense" & am going to
> be
> away next week (teaching a science-theology course) so don't feel required
> to respond to this point now. But I think there's a VAST difference. You
> seem to be saying that reality is what science can tell us (even if you
> make
> the "is widely viewed" qualification), & that the reality of religion is
> to
> be judged solely in scientific terms. This comes unpleasantly close to
> Tipler's notion that theology should become a branch of physics. In
> reality
> (!), science & theology deal with different aspects of reality. They
> overlap in some areas & meet in certain limit questions (like "Why is
> there
> something rather than nothing) so I'm NOT arguing that they're totally
> separate - as with NOMA or Bultmann.

The thing that always seems ad hoc to me in the approach you take is the
picking and choosing that goes on.

> Pedantry is my profession! Seriously, I thought from the way you
> presented
> your initial post that you wanted suggestions for clarifying, fine-tuning
> &c
> your arguments. Several of my comments were made with that in view.

Yeah, I asked for it. So I stand corrected

>>I find it odd that you equate theism with Christianity. While
> > Christianity is theistic, theism is not Christianity.
>
> Precisely & you'll see that I said just that at the end of my initial
> response. I do see that you're defending "theism" but the fact that
> you're
> concerned withy Christianity is very close to the surface of your argument
> &
> sometimes breaks through explicitly, so I thought you were in fact going
> to
> go beyond mere theism. But now I won't expect that.

OK. Glad to hear that. The fact that I am concerned with Christianity is
because I am a Christian. I guess it is hard for people to concentrate on
the argument at hand without reading all sorts of background info into the
argument. That is a shame in my book, but it happens all the time.
Concerning Christianity, part of the defense of Christianity IS the defense
of theism because if theism is false, then so is Christianity. But
Christianity can be false and theism ok. Because of this, it is important
to the Christian that theism is true.
Received on Wed Jun 22 15:46:54 2005