Re: Seely's Views 2

On Tue, 31 Aug 2004 10:43:58 -0600 jwburgeson@juno.com writes:
> Glenn wrote: "The only way we can be sure we are not a part of a
> long
> running joke, a longer version of the Ilich Lenin in my heart
> routine, is
> via some form of objective verification."
>
> Glenn -- I found Don's little essay very much to the point and, I
> would
> observe, from my own POV "right on target."
>
> You say "The only way we can be sure ... is via some form of
> objective
> verification."
>
> 1. We can't be sure. See Peat's "THE MYTH OF CERTAINTY." If
> absolute
> certainty is the only thing that will satisfy you, I suggest you
> will
> search for it w/o finding it all your life. Don't get me wrong. I'd
> LOVE
> to have absolute certainty. But it seems that God has not (yet)
> offered
> me that option.
>
> <snip>
> Again -- Inference to the best explanation. That precept explains
> why I
> am not a YEC, although I once entertained the idea that the YEC
> viewpoint
> was worth more than 0.66% (Currently, I still hold it to about a
> 0.01%
> possibility level).
>
> Read Don's excellent post again. Try to get inside his head. Try to
> argue
> his point. A good lawyer, my learned barrister daughter tells me,
> knows
> the opposing arguments very well -- and can argue them persuasively.
> You
> need to be able to do that to understand them.
>
> I confess I do not (yet) understand YOUR POV well enough to argue
> it
> persuasively. I can do that, I think, with the ICR POV. But your
> particular "search for certainty" (also see Casti's book by that
> title --
> a review on my website at www.burgy.50megs.com/sfc.htm) is one I
> rejected
> as a youth -- long before I became a Christian.
>
> Burgy
>
Following up Burgy's certainly approach, let me as whether in the
universe, God's work, there is perfection. I don't know how life began,
whether by natural process or divine fiat, but I see no evidence that it
was perfect when it began. Rather, primitive forms had to develop into
complex forms, stage by stage. But was there ever a stage when a
life-form was perfectly adapted? Indeed, the best adapted are probably
bacteria and other microbes, though they too have to evolve.

There are some OECs who hold that every new entity (species, family, or
higher taxon) was introduced creatively. The evidence of extinctions
makes God the author of imperfection. So, any way we look at God's
handiwork in nature, there is imperfection, approximation, things fitted
temporarily to changing conditions. Why then must God act differently in
revelation?

To add a philosophical twist, can the finite be anything but imperfect?
Dave
Received on Tue Aug 31 15:49:44 2004