RE: [asa] Keller on Evolution

Is he saying "there is no God", "theistic evolution", and "young-Earth
six-day creationism" are the three options with insurmountable difficulties?

 
It's unclear the way he's written it -- it sounds like he is instead
equating "theistic evolution" with the position that "there is no God"
(option #2), where his option #1 comes from the previous sentences regarding
the Catholic view on a Historical Fall. If this is what he meant, then he
has confused theistic evolution with atheistic evolution. But later, he
describes one particular variant of TE (or possibly OEC), as "I also think
that there also was a very long process probably, you know, that the earth
probably is very old, and there was some kind of process of natural
selection that God guided and used, and maybe intervened in."
 
I can't quite tell what view he thinks DOESN'T have insurmountable
difficulties. Maybe he didn't try to answer that question.
 
 
Jon Tandy
 

-----Original Message-----
From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On
Behalf Of Steve Martin
Sent: Monday, February 25, 2008 12:51 PM
To: Ted Davis
Cc: asa; Rich Blinne
Subject: Re: [asa] Keller on Evolution

First Things published an interview with Keller this morning re: his book.
(See: http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=981). Not sure we should
really call him TE (He personally disavows the term - includes TE as one of
the options with "insurmountable difficulties"). He says (highlights added
by myself):

At the same time, if you say, "There is no God and everything happened by
evolution," naturalistic evolution-then you have "theistic evolution": God
just started things years ago and everything has come into being through the
process of evolution. You have young-Earth six-day creationism, which is
"God created everything in six 24-hour days." To me, all three of those
positions have perhaps insurmountable difficulties.

 
Looks like it is the whole divine action issue that is confusing him -
either God did it or evolution did it. This isn't surprising since many of
us that hold to a TE / EC view have difficulty articulating it clearly (I
do) even if we aren't confused ourselves (don't think I am :-) ).

Again, the important point is that Keller reiterates that these "origins
issues" are red herrings & that he can accept those with TE / EC views as
orthodox believers. It's an important first step.

thanks,

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Received on Mon Feb 25 14:26:02 2008