Re: [asa] a theological exercise - peripherals

Yes, and it also provides a good hermeneutical exercise, because Psalm 139
literally says God knits us together in the womb. Because we can observe
fetal development from conception to birth, almost no one literally thinks
God is "specially" creating us in the womb in the sense of direct
intervention, even though the text could be "literally" read that
way (though an ID advocate once pushed back to me on this, because, in fact,
there is a significant amount science does *not *know about about cellular
differentiation in fetal development).

Yet, I would still argue that we can and should have a "Christian
embryology." What makes it "Christian" is not how we understand the
physical process of development to work. Rather, it is how we understand
the ontological status of the thing that is developing -- a human being,
something that is made in the image of God and that will become a
responsible agent before God. This has to *radically* affect how we think
about what a fetus "is."

And we should have a "Christian legal theory"; a "Christian literary
theory"; a "Christian economics"; and so on. If God is creator and Christ
is Lord, we should affirm that there is nothing that does not belong to him,
no sphere of life in which his redemption fails to break in.

On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 9:59 AM, Ted Davis <TDavis@messiah.edu> wrote:

> I entirely agree with Steve and George about the embryology/evolution
> analogy being a good one, with regard to naturalism.
>
> I like to ask my students the following questions, which they answer by
> raising their hands if they say "yes":
>
> (1) Do you believe that you are made in the image of God, as I do?
>
> (2) Do you believe that you resulted from a sexual act involving a sperm
> and an egg from your parents, as I do? (Here I add, if you don't believe
> that--ask your mother.)
>
> (3) Do you believe that these truths are contradictory?
>
> This conversation takes place when talking about evolution, reductionism,
> and God.
>
> Ted
>
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-- 
David W. Opderbeck
Associate Professor of Law
Seton Hall University Law School
Gibbons Institute of Law, Science & Technology
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