The view of Van Till always smelled to me like deism and I still feel that
way. The biblical statement that God sustains the creation means that in a
sense God creates the universe every instant of time. That is to say, God
cannot "go away" since if He did that, then the creation would go off in a
puff. The universe derives its being from God and is not self-existing.
Moorad
-----Original Message-----
From: Howard J. Van Till <hvantill@novagate.com>
To: RDehaan237@aol.com <RDehaan237@aol.com>; hayworth@uic.edu
<hayworth@uic.edu>; asa@calvin.edu <asa@calvin.edu>
Date: Monday, October 23, 2000 2:05 PM
Subject: Re: Meaning of "fine-tuning"
>Bob wrote,
>
>> In a message dated 10/21/2000 9:04:14 AM, hvantill@novagate.com writes:
>>
>> << Episodic creationism, on the other hand, should see evidence for fine
>> tuning
>> and the Anthropic Principle as surprising, since occasional acts of
divine
>> adjustment could presumably make up for any lack of original tuning. >>
>>
>> Howard,
>>
>> Not at all. The fine tuning, as I understand it applies only to the
>> pre-biotic universe, and, as you said, originated in the initial state of
the
>> universe.
>>
>> If one has a developmental model of the universe, as I have, then
episodic
>> interaction with it on the part of God is no problem, anymore than your
>> interaction with your children, all along their developmental trajectory,
>> does not mean that there was something deficient in them. God called His
>> creation Good. Not perfect. Not robust. Just good. There is nothing in
>> Scripture that I can find that says that God is not involved in His
creation
>> at all levels.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Bob
>
>You and I know well the differences in our two perspectives. No doubt those
>differences are rather stable and unlikely to change quickly.
>
>You welcome episodes of divine form-imposing interventions as integral to
>God's creative action. I expect that God gave being to a Creation in which
>such interventions are unnecessary.
>
>I see no basis for thinking that God gave being to a Creation equipped with
>a robust formational economy for the actualization of physical structures
>but a non-robust formational economy for the actualization of life forms.
>
>You have often compared God's creative work to that of a gardener tending a
>garden. But a human gardener does not first give being to the formational
>economy in which the garden participates. The human gardener can do no more
>than employ what already exists. The Creator of the universe, on the other
>hand, has no such limitations and begins by giving being to everything,
>including the Creation's formational economy.
>
>Cordially,
>
>Howard Van Till
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 23 2000 - 14:13:54 EDT