Re: [asa] God as Cause

(Sorry for the delay in responding to this -- the four post limit got me)
--- Bill Green <wgreen82004@yahoo.com> wrote:

> How many of you believe that God cause all things?

I do.
>
> It seems that the Bible has a lot to say about causes.
>
[snip]
>
> These verses seem to teach that God causes all natural processes, from
> plate tectonics (mountains) to wind and frost, growing grass and running
> water.
>
> I have read some articles about "complementarity" on your website, but I am
> not clear as to whether many of you believe that God actually directly
> controls natural processes.
>
> The "complementarity" view, it seems, could include a view in which the
> theological perspective is superfluous or only necessary for certain
> purposes.

I haven';t read the pieces on complementarity, but I doubt that any ASA member
would conclude that the theological perspective is superfluous.

It seems to me that in order to avoid this situation, and in order
> to affirm the Scriptural definitions given above, we must ascribe to God the
> direct causation of all of these processes, and the scientific explanations
> as descriptions of his activity.

Right

Scientific or material "causes" are not
> "causes," but only sequential events, all caused by God. How can we say, for
> example, that God causes the grass to grow when we are in church, but then
> say that auxins and cytokinins cause it when we are in the lab? If auxins
> and cytokinins are sufficient, then why invoke God at all?
>
In specific answer to your question above, one could ask what causes auxins and
cytokinins to have their properties. If this can be answered naturalistically,
another question could be posed asking why the naturalistic answer is true.
Eventually one of the answers you will get is that the laws of chemistry and
physics dictate the properties you observe. Atheistic naturalists take the laws
of chemistry and physics as givens. Christians realize that God ordained them.
Lest I read like a deist, let me say there's more (much more). When I was a new
Christian 35 years ago I became intrigued with the difference between the
Bible's view of demon possession and modern psychiatry's view that mental
disorders are caused by chemical imbalances, not demons. Eventually I
concluded that it's certainly possible that demons work by creating chemical
imbalances.

I believe that God is completely in control. Even where secondary causes are
involved, God establishes the secondary causes and oversees their functioning.
The fact that God may work through a long chain of intermediate processes does
not mean He's not in control. My view is that God functions at every level,
from the quantum to the universe as a whole. However, He normally functions
according to discoverable laws. Why? Among other reasons so that men can by
investigation come to understand the world they live in.

Bill Hamilton
William E. Hamilton, Jr., Ph.D.
248.652.4148 (home) 248.821.8156 (mobile)
"...If God is for us, who is against us?" Rom 8:31

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Received on Fri Jan 5 08:23:39 2007