In a message dated 7/18/00 12:50:20 AM Mountain Daylight Time,
crossbr@SLU.EDU writes:
> Mechanism, mechanism, mechanism. That is the issue. Most Christians do not
> deny that humans were formed by
> the dust of the earth; the debate involves the mechanism: by what means
did
> fashion humans from dust? (By
> macroevolution or directly? With direct divine action or without it? etc.
> and every position in between.)
Since Bryan is quoting John Wiester's "mechanism, mechanism, mechanism", we
should probably stop and be sure he is not assigning Wiester's (and Dawkins'
and I would claim Johnson's) God-excluding meaning to certain mechanisms.
I think that in our recent discussions Bryan has agreed that "mechanism" is
not *the issue* in the sense that the viability of Christianity does not
depend on the truth or falsity of a particular mechanism. And that if one
affirms the Biblical doctrine of Providence and God's sovereignty over
nature, "natural" mechanisms for God's creative work should be no danger to
Biblical faith. [I would add that those who incorrectly see natural
mechanisms as eliminating God have an unbiblical "God-of-the-Gaps" theology.]
Having established that mechanism is not a *vital* theological issue, is it
an issue at all? I think that is where what George has been saying comes in.
As we discover the mechanisms by which God did things, we can perhaps get a
glimpse of the character of God. That character will not always fit our
human presuppositions, and if insights from nature challenge us to reexamine
some of those presuppositions, it can be an opportunity for growth. If our
presuppositions about how we think God had to create (for example, thinking
that he must leave "fingerprints all over the evidence", or for that matter
thinking that God must never act "directly") keep us from that growth
opportunity, it is our loss, and the church's.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Allan H. Harvey, Boulder, Colorado | SteamDoc@aol.com
"Any opinions expressed here are mine, and should not be
attributed to my employer, my wife, or my cats"
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