Re: [asa] Apologetics Conference

David Opderbeck wrote:

> Are you suggesting that human agency and will, and human reason,
> are so unlike God's agency, will, and reason that humans are
> utterly incapable of discerning whether God has acted in history
> absent specific verbal / written revelatory confirmation? If so,
> what theological perspective are you drawing this from?

I am not saying anything about the ability of human reason. I am
simply stating that supernatural agents are not subject to SCIENTIFIC
test and confirmation. They are not because supernatural agents can
by definition do anything -- they are unconstrained. They are
equivalent from a scientific perspective to a statement of
ignorance. Unless we claim perfect and complete knowledge of the
natural world and its processes and capabilities, any gap in our
current scientific understanding is just that. Those gaps could be
the result of direct divine intervention -- but that conclusion would
be theological, not scientific.

Theologically I do not see either biblical warrant, or apologetic
value, in tying any current gap in our scientific understanding of
the natural world to a demonstration of divine agency. There is
natural revelation but that has nothing to do with science. That is
God's gracious revelation to us, by God's initiative. As I have
stated previously, if we cannot see God in a sunset or a flower, we
will not see God in a mitotic spindle or a flagellum. If we cannot
see God in those things for which we do have scientific
understanding, we will not see God in those things for which we don't.

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/

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Received on Sat Nov 18 11:39:09 2006