[asa] anti-evolutionism and deism

I've been discussing interpretations of Genesis with my youth pastor, and he
recently gave me a copy of his YEC-perspective syllabus notes which take an
anti-evolutionary stance. In order to refute evolution from a theological
perspective, it said that in the evolutionary creationist/theistic
evolutionist view:

1. God creates at the level of minimal existence
2. God steps aside while creation progresses onward

I discussed with him how deistic this seemed to me. It presupposes that
when God isn't acting supernaturally (creating through evolution), He is "at
the level of minimal existence" and has "stepped aside." Yet this is
exactly how (with very few miraculous exceptions) God acts in the natural
world today! This view forces them to say that God is of "minimal
existence" and has "stepped aside" *today*. In their own YEC view, God was
actually only "active" for six days, and left it alone after that.

My youth pastor responded by saying, "well there are some things that God
lets happen," stating that God's ways of working have changed to the
less-miraculous. I responded by pointing out that this doesn't mean that
God is acting any less, only differently. The syllabus implied that God was
acting *less* today (or at least that is the unavoidable philosophical
conclusion). I pointed out the many instances where the Bible says God did
something, yet we accept a natural explanation (e.g., meteorology,
embryology).

Anyway, what do you all think? Do the professor's statements lead to a
deistic view of the natural world? I would enjoy your insights!

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Received on Thu Apr 19 20:51:12 2007