I like it, Keith! This makes a lot of sense from a scientific thinker's
point of view. If you can put a theologian's hat on for a bit, do you
think Scriptures give us any indication that any of God's continuing
actions have special status distinguishing them from the more
ordinary? I.e. is lightening igniting Elijah's soaked altar, or dead
people coming to life, scriptural evidence that something apart from
nature (still undetectable to science, of course) is in operation? Or
are these just a seamless continuation of the ordinary world which at
times produces extraordinary looking events? Some will dismiss
fantastic Biblical claims as Spirit-led hyperbole or literary mechanisms
that would dissolve into "mere" mythology under a scientific eye if one
could go back in a time machine. I don't know what your approach is,
but I'm curious as to how you attempt to conceptualize this
scientifically unreachable category commonly called 'miracle'.
--merv
Keith Miller wrote:
>
> The question of divine agency is a theological one not a scientific
> one. I believe that God is active in the creation of each new
> individual organism (Psalm 104:27-30). I believe that every human
> being is created by God. Is there any scientific way of demonstrating
> such action? No. Also, from my theological perspective God never
> intervenes in anything. Why? Because God is always there.
> Intervention implies that God is somehow less present before and after
> the intervention.
>
> If God does not break chain of cause and effect there is nothing for
> science to "see." If God has acted in the history of life in such a
> way as to break such causal chains then such discontinuities would
> simply be places where scientific descriptions fail to provide a
> plausible explanation. However, and this is critical, there is no way
> to distinguish such current explanatory gaps from current ignorance.
> Science as a discipline will simply state there is no current
> satisfactory scientific explanation and scientists will continue to
> search for such explanations. In fact, it is the currently unknown
> that drives science forward. It is what energizes the work of
> individual scientists.
>
> So, science as a discipline cannot demonstrate divine action.
>
> Keith
>
> Keith B. Miller
> Research Assistant Professor
> Dept of Geology, Kansas State University
> Manhattan, KS 66506-3201
> 785-532-2250
> http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~kbmill/
>
>
Received on Fri Jan 13 20:30:07 2006
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