Re: miracles as smokescreen
George Murphy (gmurphy@raex.com)
Tue, 27 Jul 1999 16:08:23 -0400
Craig Rusbult wrote:
>
> George says, .....................................
> >NONE OF THESE APPLY TO THE CREATION OF LIFE, SPECIATION,...
>
> They certainly do apply, if God designed the universe to be
> SELF-OPERATING so natural processes would allow everything needed
> for life (sunshine, DNA & proteins,...) without being SELF-ASSEMBLING.
>
> In the section of my overview cited above, is the following quote:
> "miraculous-appearing theistic action ... eliminates a need for total
> self-assembly. Maybe there is an essential tension between assembly
> and operation, and a universe with optimal operation cannot also be
> self-assembling. { To illustrate, Walter Bradley asks whether a car
> designed to change its own spark plugs would be a good design, or if
> this unnecessary requirement would hinder the car's effectiveness in
> other, more important ways. }"
"If" & "maybe" - but there is no reason at all to make these suppositions
& every reason, in view of the mediated creation of life in Genesis 1, to reject
them. Moreover, the distinction between "self-operating" & self-assembling is
arbitrary: Is conception & embryological development "operation" or "assembly"?
Is the formation of a star "operation" or "assembly"? & if in either case it's the
latter will the IDers insist that there be a special "theistic" embryology or
astrophysics?
Furthermore, there is no reason for anyone but Dr. Pangloss to believe that this
is "a universe with optimal operation." The God who suffered & died for the ungodly is
not an efficiency expert.
George L. Murphy
gmurphy@raex.com
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/