Allan Harvey distinguished between God-of-the-Gaps reasoning and
theology noting that most who object to the God-of-the-Gaps of
intelligent design object more to the theology than the reasoning.
The theology is more troubling than the reaoning. However, I think
acceptance of the reasoning has troubling theological implications. A
fundamental question is, "Are gaps relevant to the truth of
Christianity?" Do we need gaps to be intellectually fulfilled
Christians? To pursue God-of-the-gaps reasoning seems to imply that
the answer to both these questions yes, at odds with the belief that
God has revealed himself clearly through Jesus.
I think that another feature that was missed in David Snoke's article
(and is missed by Dembski) is that a fundamental problem with gap
reasoning is the act of associating God with gaps and thereby
excluding him from the parts of Creation that are scientifically
understood. Both Snoke and Dembski seem to understand that those who
object to gap reasoning do so only because the gaps will inevitably
close, that, therefore, gap reasoning is not a problem if the gaps are
robust (I am a little surprised that David would contest the idea that
the gaps have not closed but that is beside the point). In fact, the
act of implicitly excluding God's activity from the rest of Creation
is far more devastating and was what I believe was the focus of
C.A. Coulson who originally coined the term "God-of-the-Gaps." This is
described very nicely in Loren Wilkinson's response to Phillip Johnson
and Denis Lamoureux, in "Darwinism Defeated? The Johnson-Lamoureux
debates on biological origins" (Regent College Press, available on
Amazon.com).
>
> While I've already gone a couple of e-mail rounds on this with David, the one
> observation I would make for teh ASA list is that it is important to
> distinguish between two things:
>
> 1) God-of-the-Gaps REASONING, in which Gaps are seen as *positive evidence*
> for the supernatural. While I might differ with him on a few things, David
> does a good job arguing for this.
>
> 2) God-of-the-Gaps THEOLOGY, in which Gaps are seen as a *theological
> necessity* because "natural" explanations are seen as entailing the absence
> of God. From the standpoint of Christian theology, this is an abominable
> denial of God's sovereignty over nature and ability to create in a
> fingerprint-less way if He so chooses.
>
> I think there is a common misconception that those of us who dislike the
> "Intelligent Design" movement have a fundamental objection to #1. That may
> be true for some, but for most of us I think the main objection is that we
> see a lot of #2, both in the movement itself (such as the way Phil Johnson
> appears to say that the truth of theism *requires* the sort of scientifically
> detectible "fingerprints" he is advocating) and even more so in the way the
> movement is perceived by people in the church ("Christianity isn't false
> after all because evolution isn't true after all.") The ID movement would
> win a lot more friends in these circles if they would take a forceful stand
> against God-of-the-Gaps theology.
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> 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"
>
> --part1_32.1a5cf217.28c56bb0_boundary
> Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII"
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
> <HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2>In a message dated 9/3/01 1:42:30 PM Mountain Daylight Time,
> <BR>burgy@compuserve.com writes:
> <BR>
> <BR>
> <BR><BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">To David Snoke:
> <BR>
> <BR>I found your article in PERSPECTIVES easier to read than the draft you
> <BR>sent around a few months ago. Well done. I hope it stirs discussion.
> <BR>
> <BR>Burgy
> <BR></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=3 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0"></BLOCKQUOTE>
> <BR></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">
> <BR>While I've already gone a couple of e-mail rounds on this with David, the one
> <BR>observation I would make for teh ASA list is that it is important to
> <BR>distinguish between two things:
> <BR>
> <BR>1) God-of-the-Gaps REASONING, in which Gaps are seen as *positive evidence*
> <BR>for the supernatural. While I might differ with him on a few things, David
> <BR>does a good job arguing for this.
> <BR>
> <BR>2) God-of-the-Gaps THEOLOGY, in which Gaps are seen as a *theological
> <BR>necessity* because "natural" explanations are seen as entailing the absence
> <BR>of God. From the standpoint of Christian theology, this is an abominable
> <BR>denial of God's sovereignty over nature and ability to create in a
> <BR>fingerprint-less way if He so chooses.
> <BR>
> <BR>I think there is a common misconception that those of us who dislike the
> <BR>"Intelligent Design" movement have a fundamental objection to #1. That may
> <BR>be true for some, but for most of us I think the main objection is that we
> <BR>see a lot of #2, both in the movement itself (such as the way Phil Johnson
> <BR>appears to say that the truth of theism *requires* the sort of scientifically
> <BR>detectible "fingerprints" he is advocating) and even more so in the way the
> <BR>movement is perceived by people in the church ("Christianity isn't false
> <BR>after all because evolution isn't true after all.") The ID movement would
> <BR>win a lot more friends in these circles if they would take a forceful stand
> <BR>against God-of-the-Gaps theology.
> <BR>
> <BR>---------------------------------------------------------------------
> <BR>Dr. Allan H. Harvey, Boulder, Colorado | SteamDoc@aol.com
> <BR>"Any opinions expressed here are mine, and should not be
> <BR> attributed to my employer, my wife, or my cats"</FONT></HTML>
>
> --part1_32.1a5cf217.28c56bb0_boundary--
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joel W. Cannon | (724)223-6146
Physics Department |
Washington and Jefferson College |
Washington, PA 15301 |
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