Re: [asa] public response

On May 19, 2008, at 7:48 PM, Keith Miller wrote:

>
> As Paul deVries emphasized when describing methodological
> naturalism, to make the supernatural part of the domain of science
> is to yield to the culture of scientism that sees science as the
> ultimate arbiter of all truth.
>
> My view of continuous creation that sees God actively involved in
> natural processes, including biological evolution, is NOT a
> scientific conclusion. It is NOT science -- it is philosophy and
> theology.
>
> Keith

Very well said! This has some important implications:
1) While our theological views are not science, they are no less
true. Science only reveals one type of truth, not all truth.
Naturalists, YECs, and IDists all tend to equate "science" and "all
truth", but we should resist this as sloppy thinking. (If science
were expanded to encompass all truth, it would lose its distinctive
character and the term would become meaningless.)
2) We must not set up a false dichotomy of "God OR natural
processes". As Keith says, God works THROUGH natural processes, so
both can be true simultaneously. This is difficult to communicate to
others, but I believe it is essential.

I've watched a couple of sessions of Del Tackett's "Truth Project"
and have a mixed reaction. His treatment of the Big Bang as pointing
to a creator was not bad (I think this is his session 5 or 6?) and
his approach of communicating "natural vs supernatural" as "inside vs
outside the box" is helpful to people (this was an earlier session).
However, he tends to slip into the false dichotomy of "God OR natural
processes" mentioned above. And in contrast to his view of secular
science (cosmology) as discovering truth and able to reveal truths
about God, his perspective of other secular endeavors (especially
philosophy) is primarily as falsehoods which blind people from the
truth. He makes lots of overly broad characterizations; his
treatment of philosophy is similar Francis Schaeffer's treatment of
art and culture in "How Shall We Then Live?"

Kirk

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Received on Tue May 20 11:54:28 2008