Terry Gray wrote:
>
> Finally, if Van Till says that God just started it off at the big
> bang--which is a very unnuanced way of putting Van Till's viewpoint--
> then Van Till is a deistic evolutionist. Setting the process up and
> starting it off and then letting it unwind is deism not theism.
>
> TG
>
Doug writes:
This and the other emails in this thread highlight the problems with all of
these labels for evolution/theology viewpoints. We're all operating with a
different set of definitions for each term, and dropping people into one
category or another does not do their view justice if you the term is an
oversimplified charicature of the more nuanced view. Van Till's RFEP is
probably compatible with deism or theism depending on how you overlay your
understanding of how God interacts with the world.Depending on the audience,
I accept the TE label or not.
I think you need to separate the ideas on at least two axes (two
dimensions): one for evolution and one for theology. Just because a person
is completely on the evolution side with respect to scientific understanding
does not necessarily mean any one kind of viewpoint with regard to theology
(even specifically pertaining to how God interacts with the world). Among
those of us who are 100% "evolutionist" and 100% "theist", there are
Calvinists, Arminians, Open Theists, Process Theists, and all varieties of
overlapping nuanced views that mix and match some aspects of these different
theologies. Just because you don't know of any dispensational evolutionists,
doesn't mean there couldn't be one in theory. Just as there could be a
process theologian who believes that God created the universe in six days
only 6000 years ago (or yesterday, for that matter).
It's only an essential aspect of the popular representatives of YEC that
there is only one dimension (axis) with regard to science/theology
understanding. Obvious there are some combinations that "fit" together
better than others, but there is a wide range of fully theistic, thoroughly
Christian theologies that can work with a full acceptance of evolution as an
accurate scientific description of natural history and process on Earth.
Don't make up new terms; no matter how you define it initially, if it
catches on, it will come to mean all sorts of other things.
Doug Hayworth
(back on the list after a long hiatus)
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Received on Tue Dec 18 16:03:14 2007
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