Re: [asa] Natural theology

> I think that the Romans passage is a good illustration
> of the two-book idea...here we see that in nature,
> God's power and deity is evident to everyone; not from
> a "scientific proof" necessarily, but just plain
> common sense

This is an important point missed in attempts to justify current ID
practice by appealing to Romans 1:20. "being understood through what
has been made" includes the conscience, beauty, and other things
inaccessible to science. On the other hand, when the Bible explicitly
deals with what can be learned about God through purely physical
studies, the answer is "not much"-Eccesiastes and Job deal with this
extensively. Pascal (quoted approvingly by Lewis) asserted that
those who appeal to the physical world as evidence for Christianity
make the case for Christianity seem very weak. The purported Haldane
line about inordinate fondness for beetles is actually on target-study
of science doesn't tell us much that is theologically useful; perhaps
one might conclude a fondness for diversity.

Biblically, we ought to appreciate God's hand in all things as
reflecting His care and power, rather than demanding signs of gaps in
the evolution of complex molecular processes or other gaps in
evolution, etc.

-- 
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections
University of Alabama
"I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"
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