Re: Ellen White, Price, and YEC

From: george murphy (gmurphy@raex.com)
Date: Mon Aug 27 2001 - 13:17:04 EDT

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    Charles Carrigan wrote:

    > At 06:47 PM 8/24/01 -0400, you wrote:
    >
    >> And on a different topic, I can't help passing along this thought
    >> for the day:
    >> "Think of the difference it would have made to contemporary
    >> Christianity if
    >> Darwin had read Pascal instead of Paley in his days as a divinity
    >> student"
    >> (E.T. Oakes, 2001).
    >>
    >> Karl
    >> *****************************
    >> Karl V. Evans
    >> cmekve@aol.com
    >
    >
    > I for one wouldn't mind seeing further comments on this quote, as one
    > who is not at all familiar with the writings of Pascal and Paley, or
    > much else that divinity students read.

        Some of Pascal's notes relevant to the question of natural theology
    are as follows:

    It is a remarkable thing that no canonical writer ever used nature as a
    proof of God's existence. All set out to convince us of it. But David,
    Solomon, and the rest never said: 'There is no void; therefore there is
    a God.' They must have been cleverer than the cleverest of their
    successors, every one of whom has used this argument. The fact is worth
    pondering on.

    If it is a sign of weakness to have used nature as a proof of God, do
    not despise Scripture for it; if it is a sign of strength to have
    recognized these contradictions, give Scripture the credit for it.

    What meets our eyes denotes neither a total absence nor a manifest
    presence of the divine, but the presence of a God who conceals himself.
    Everything bears this stamp.

            These are, respectively, #s 6 and 7 on p.32 and # 602 on p.222
    of the Penguin edition of The Pensees.

    Shalom,

    George

    George L. Murphy
    http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
    "The Science-Theology Interface"



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