Re: [asa] David S Wilson

Randy

You misunderstood my remark. I was not reacting to the research, but to Wilson's comment that "a God that didn't make
  a difference wasn't worth believing in". It seems to me he was saying that if God could not be detected by the methods of science, then He's not worth believing in. I pointed out that there is far more to life than science. And by implication a part of our witnessing to scientists who take this tack must include this fact. So far as the research is concerned, I;m glad he did it. Christians should not be afraid of any research that doesn't violate basic human dignity (e.g. under research that violates basic human dignity I'd classify the medical experiments of the Nazi's in WWII)
 
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

----- Original Message ----
From: Randy Isaac <randyisaac@comcast.net>
To: asa@calvin.edu
Sent: Sunday, May 6, 2007 11:14:07 PM
Subject: Re: [asa] David S Wilson

 
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Bill,

    It may well "cheapen these aspects of our
humanness and raises the question: Why bother with trying to figure out life, or
indeed why bother with life itself?" but only in the "nothing buttery"
version of that explanation, to use Donald Mackay's phrasing. That is, our
first natural response might be to be skeptical of the research results coming
out of the socio-evolutionary work. Such skepticism may be well-founded but
maybe not. What if that work is correct? Your natural reaction, like that of
many of us, might be to view it cheapening our humanity. But if viewed as a
non-exclusive explanation, it could also be a much grander perspective of
understanding, in a hierarchical way perhaps, of the mysteries of God's creation
and how he created our emotional capability. That's not unlike the way we now
understand the natural physical world. Maybe the psychological world has a
similar level of explanation that we do not yet understand very
well.

Randy

  ----- Original Message -----

  From:
  Bill Hamilton

  To: Randy Isaac ; asa@calvin.edu

  Sent: Sunday, May 06, 2007 9:30 PM

  Subject: Re: [asa] David S Wilson

  Randy
  wrote

Atheism: In his presentations, Wilson said nothing to indicate
  his
views on the existence of God so in our informal discussion I
  asked
David "What, if anything, do you feel your studies tell us about
  the
existence of a transcendent God?" After a few exchanges where
  he
wanted a definition of what I meant by "God", he stated that
  given
his assumption of naturalism he felt all aspects of human
  behavior
could be satisfactorily explained. Therefore he had no need of
  God. I
took the approach of questioning why the existence of God
  was
mutually exclusive to any scientific explanation, using the
  typical
arguments of laws of physics not being mutually exclusive to
  God's
involvement. He then asserted that a God that didn't make
  a
difference wasn't worth believing in.

It seems he's limiting his discourse to science:
  That a God not scientifically detectable is not worth believing in. But
  there's much more to life than science. Surely he doesn't believe that there
  is nothing in his relationship with his wife, if he's married, that's not
  scientifically explicable. By and large scientists work on "toy" problems --
  carefully circumscribed so that the methods of analysis and measurement we can
  devise can be applied. That puts human-human relationships and
  human-creator relationships outside the domain of science. Perhaps Wilson can
  live believing that there are scientific explanations for all of our emotions
  and mores, and that feelings of compassion and love have mechanical
  explanations. But to my mind that cheapens these aspects of our humanness and
  raises the question: Why bother with trying to figure out life, or indeed why
  bother with life itself?

   
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
  

  
  Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell?
Check out new
  cars at Yahoo! Autos.

 
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Received on Mon May 7 06:55:33 2007