on 3/23/96, Jack wrote:
>Professor Kline's view is explicitly non- (or even anti-) concordist, at
>least for Gen 1 (I think his last footnote makes it clear that his
>position is more concordist for Gen 2-3). My own conclusions, though they
>could perhaps be construed in a non-concordist (e.g. complementarian) way,
>lend themselves more >to a mildly concordist mode.
I continue to think about the 'right' mode. I mentioned earlier that I had
used with young people John Wiester's "The Genesis Connection", which is
strongly concordist. His main conclusions are that:
1. "the order of events in Gn 1 and the scientific record are in
substantially the same sequence"
2. "all major explosive adaptive radiations correlate with scripture's
creation commands"
3. " each creation command in Gn correlates with a scientific puzzle or gap".
While point 1. is debatable, and 2. may be overstated, I have felt for a
long time that point 3. is a fair description of where we are today in
science, and have been for a long time despite eg. the past 40 years of
'origin of life' studies or findings from paleo-anthropology. I
occasionally tell HS students that it's worth remembering that among the
best people in the field of 'abiogenesis', there is no longer any consensus
that *"even in principle"* can the (earthly) 'origin of life' be claimed to
be understood (no matter what HS textbooks may say).
To say this of course means stepping onto that infamous slippery slope,
the "God of the gaps" approach... Although this view is in one sense
philosophically disastrous (if it is taken to mean that God is not
constantly "upholding the universe by His word of power..."), what if it's
true in the sense that God did something very "unusual" at certain points
during the history of the universe?? Is is ok to be (as Jack calls it)
"mildly concordist"?? Is this a position that is 'faithful to science and
Scripture', even if it's philosophically vulnerable??
Peter
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Peter J. Vibert
Senior Scientist Interim Pastor
Rosenstiel Basic Medical The Congregational Church
Sciences Research Center in North Chelmsford
Brandeis University 15 Princeton Street
PO Box 9110, Waltham, MA 02254 N. Chelmsford, MA 01863
tel: (617) 736-4947 tel: (508) 251-1261
fax: (617) 736-2419
Int: peter@hydra.rose.brandeis.edu
WWW: http://www.rose.brandeis.edu/users/vibert
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