RE: [asa] List of positions n Origins (question on DE)

From Howard Van Till's website regarding his perspective of God at the
beginning equipping the creation with all of the functional capabilities
that would be needed to actualize the full variety of structures and forms
through the course of time.

"... What would I call such a perspective? Oddly, that presents me with a
minor problem. I wish to employ a name that does not carry all of the
negative baggage that has come to be associated with some of the more
familiar terminology of the creation/evolution debate. And since this paper
is directed primarily to a Christian audience, I wish also to employ a name
that most clearly demonstrates the Christian foundation on which my
perspective is built.

"Views similar to mine are sometimes identified with the label, theistic
evolution. But that term has some very serious shortcomings. As I see it, it
turns the order of importance of divine and creaturely action upside down.
Because it appears as the noun, the term evolution‹which focuses our
attention on the natural action of creatures‹appears to be the central idea.
Meanwhile, by referring to God only in the adjective, theistic, the
importance of divine creative action seems to be secondary. But that
implication would be unacceptable to me.

"As a means toward restoring the relative importance of divine and
creaturely actions I have sometimes used the label evolving Creation for my
perspective. I think it's a much better term than theistic evolution, but it
still has the problem of having to deal with all of the negative attitudes
that many of Christians of the fundamentalist and evangelical, especially in
the US, have toward anything that even sounds like 'evolution.' As I have
already indicated, the scientific concept of evolution, properly defined,
does not entail any idea that conflicts with the historic Christian doctrine
of creation. The reality is, however, that many persons, both within and
outside of the Christian community, and both within and outside of the
scientific community, have been led by the rhetoric of the
creation/evolution debate to associate the word 'evolution' with the
worldview of naturalism. That association is, I believe, the result of a
serious misunderstanding of both 'evolution' and 'creation.' Nevertheless,
even if the association of evolution with naturalism is entirely unfounded,
as I believe it is, that association is deeply established in our culture
and extremely difficult to correct.

"So, then, what label shall I choose for my concept of a Creation that has
been equipped by God with all of the capabilities that are necessary to make
possible the evolutionary development now envisioned by the natural
sciences? For the purposes of the discussion to be carried out in this
paper, I shall call it the fully-gifted Creation perspective — a vision that
recognizes the entire universe as a Creation that has, by God's unbounded
generosity and unfathomable creativity, been given all of the capabilities
for self-organization and transformation necessary to make possible
something as humanly incomprehensible as unbroken evolutionary development."

=========================================

> -----Original Message-----
> From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu
> [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu]On Behalf Of Bill Powers
> Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 4:54 PM
> To: Dehler, Bernie
> Cc: 'ASA'
> Subject: Re: [asa] List of positions n Origins (question on DE)
>
>
> Is Howard Van Till really TE? The last time I heard him, unless I'm
> thinking of someone else, it was his view (am I thinking of someone
> else) that it seemed to him that perfect God would not need to or
> perhaps even want to interfere with the evolution of the cosmos. That
> sounds to me like DE.
>
> bill powers
>
> On Thu, 19 Feb 2009, Dehler, Bernie wrote:
>
> > List of positions on Origins:
> >
> >
> >
> > Young Earth Creationist:
> >
> > Ken Ham (Answers in Genesis ministry)
> >
> >
> >
> > Old Earth Creationist:
> > Hugh Ross (Reasons to Believe ministry)
> >
> >
> >
> > Theistic evolutionist:
> > Howard Van Till (author & scholar)
> >
> >
> >
> > Deistic Evolutionist:
> >
> > ???
> >
> >
> >
> > Atheistic Evolutionist:
> > Richard Dawkins (RichardDawkins.net "ministry")
> >
> >
> >
> > Who would be a good representative candidate for the DE position?
> >
> >
> >
> > ...Bernie
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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Received on Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:04:48 -0600