Re: [asa] Evolution of the Soul

Jim's point is well taken, I think. All we can ever do is observe
other physical entities by indirect means; we cannot experience them
directly in a way that would allow us to be certain of what they are.
Nor can we be sure, even if there were a way to have such a direct
experience of the other, that "physical" would continue as a
meaningful category.

But to more directly interface with Gregory's question: No, I don't
believe it is necessary to hypothesize a particular, intrinsic
"soulishness" that was implanted miraculously. It might have been
more of a formational-economy thing, but I doubt it fits very well
with anyone's usual notion of design. Certainly not Plantinga's
design plan, at any rate, which hypothesizes a "sensus divinitatus"
inserted by (Plantinga's words) "God or evolution or both".

The only sure thing we know on this subject is in John 3. A body
becomes a living spirit through the work of the Spirit. How the body
is prepared for such a visitation is in open question.

Chris

On 9/25/06, Jim Armstrong <jarmstro@qwest.net> wrote:
>
> I'm not so sure about this take. While in our understanding of the physical
> world and its workings, we have some sense and in many cases even passably
> workable models of behavior, my sense is that our void of knowledge about
> what those photons, interactions, reactions, etc. really ARE still leaves
> room for an enmeshing of the "truly physical" and that a different aspect of
> reality which is harder to conceptualize and describe in consensus. JimA
>
>
> Alexanian, Moorad wrote:
>
>
>
>
> If by evolution one understands a truly physical (material) theory, then
> how to understand concepts like soul, spiritual, rationality, consciousness,
> life, etc. seems to me to become insurmountable problems in such scientific
> theories of the physical aspect of Nature.
>
>
>
>
> Moorad
>
>
>
> ________________________________
>
>
> From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu
> [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On Behalf Of Gregory
> Arago
> Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 10:54 AM
> To: ASA list
> Subject: [asa] Evolution of the Soul
>
>
>
> Given that a majority of people on this discussion list are both scientists
> and Christians who accept evolution as the vehicle (or mechanism) through
> which God created the world, there is a question that has returned to me
> that I would like to ask you now. It comes from reading the work of Nikolai
> Berdyaev, the Russian religious philosopher who was exiled and lived in
> Paris after the Russian Revolution(s). Berdyaev writes about 'the genesis of
> man in God and God in man.' It got me wondering how an evolutionary theist,
> theistic evolutionist (TE) or evolutionary creationist would understand the
> appearance, emergence or genesis of God in humankind, whether God would
> appear from within or from outside of the human mind/body and how the
> connection would (originally) be made.
>
>
>
> Berdyaev writes: "For if there is such a thing as a human longing for God
> and a response to it, then there also must be a divine longing for man the
> genesis of God in man; a longing for the love and the freely-loving and, in
> response to it, the genesis of man in God."
>
>
>
> My questions to those at ASA are the following: What do we know about the
> evolution of spirit or the evolution of the image of God? Was there an
> 'intervention' in the process of transformation in the morphology of species
> change between quadruped and biped, in the case of where human beings
> (supposedly) 'evolved' from ancestor beings, when something non-natural or
> extra-natural was involved? Could it be said that God (has) evolved in God's
> relationship with human beings? Did knowledge of God and relationship with
> God evolve 'into' human existence, based on the physiological capacity of
> having a larger brain and evolving language? Or do human beings and also all
> of matter contain (a kind of) spirit from the 'big bang' that was realized
> in a personhood sense somewhere along the timeline of life on earth?
>
>
>
> A book and an article, both of the same title, have been helpful for me on
> this topic: "The Evolution of the Soul," by Igor Sikorsky (1949), father of
> the modern helicopter, and The Evolution of the Soul by Richard Swinburne
> (1986, 1997), current philosopher of religion at Oxford University. Both
> books accept (natural) scientific evolution as a reality and discuss the
> spiritual life of humanity in the light of philosophical and theological
> understanding.
>
>
>
> Gregory A.
>
>
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Received on Mon Sep 25 14:31:01 2006