Re: [asa] More WLC on Evolution, ID, and Genesis

Heya Ted,

Some comments below.

Ted cautions:
> Actually, very few historians would agree with this conclusion. While most
> would not deny that religion and science were closely intertwined prior to
> ca. 1800, not many would say that "modern science was birthed by a biblical
> worldview," as if Christianity were the one main cause of modern science.

*snip*

that Xty shaped modern science in some major ways. It's another thing
> entirely, however, to say that Xty caused modern science, as if there
> wouldn't have been anything like it without Xty --a counterfactual
> hypothesis that can't really be tested. Furthermore monocausal accounts of

I don't see WLC making that particular claim ('There wouldn't have been
anything like [modern science] without Xty'). All I see him saying is that
modern science certainly grew out of a particular time and place that was
Christian/biblical in its worldview, and that a strong argument can be made
for the particular compatibility of, perhaps promotion, a scientific outlook
with said Christian worldview.

I understand why a Christian apologist like Craig would be attracted to the
> idea that "Xty caused modern science," thereby conveying the cultural
> authority and respect that many modern people have for science back onto
> Christianity, but unfortunately it's overreaching. Denying the old
> proposition that Christianity had nothing positive to contribute to science
> is one thing, but affirming this one is quite another. I urge considerable
> caution here.
>

Caution is always good when it comes to claims like these, but I don't think
WLC is saying 'Xty caused modern science' in some counterfactual claim way.
Where modern science arose, what culture it arose in, what the religious
worldview of that culture promoted or was compatible with - all those strike
me as pretty modest and reasonable things to be discussed from an apologist
perspective. Especially when WLC wasn't framing the development as some
miraculous gift from God, but rather pointing out the tame view of the world
a biblical worldview supports/promotes. I imagine he would include judaism
in the consideration of a 'biblical worldview' as well, considering where
he's basing his explanation of this worldview.

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Received on Tue Nov 25 11:24:27 2008