Re: [asa] Collins' book is reviewed by the Arizona Origins

David commented

> But statements like this -- *"ID portrays the
> Almighty
> as a clumsy Creator, having to intervene at regular intervals to fix the
> inadequacies of His own initial plan for generating the complexities of
> life"* -- are bunk. Nothing I've read in the ID literature suggests any
> such value judgments about the capabilities or purposes of the
> designer. Even if we assume ID is really a religious theory about the
> "Almighty," from a Christian theistic perspective, we'd say that if
> God did
> "intervene" in natural history, that intervention was perfectly good and
> wise, fully in accordance with God's character, even if we don't know
> the
> ultimate reasons for that "intervention."
>

I have not read Collins' book yet, but we had
similar discussions here before some 3 or 4 years ago.

This is not an argument denying God's intervention in history,
it is an argument against God having to "redesign" the
creation because he didn't get it right the first time.

Of course ID folk don't say that God had to "fix it", but
if we take the irreducible complexity (IC) argument seriously,
then it means that at various points, God had to intervene,
as it were, in the creation and change it so that some new
function would appeared. In effect, that means he didn't have
it right in the first place. Far more spectacular and profound
is a creation that God need not periodically "fix" to get right.

It certainly could suggest that the creation is half baked. God
said "Let the ....", not "now we fix the .... ". God said that it
was "good". Moreover, the all IC doesn't correspond so strongly
with a particular command that God purportedly made in Gen 1:
Though perhaps one can force something there.

I suppose if one can really show that a particular biological
component is irreducibly complex and therefore, Xxx indeed
did have to intervene, well, I suppose that Collins would have
to back off on that point. At least at this point, it does not
look like the IC argument carries a significant weight. Hence,
we might best infer that God didn't have to intervene and the
creation is a truly incredible work of art.

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Received on Sun Oct 8 14:01:05 2006