Re: [asa] What is exactly is a TE?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Alexanian, Moorad" <alexanian@uncw.edu>
To: "Dick Fischer" <dickfischer@verizon.net>; "ASA" <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Saturday, September 01, 2007 10:05 PM
Subject: RE: [asa] What is exactly is a TE?

>I presume by "cause and effect processes" one means natural events and
>processes; therefore, God is not involved.

This is kind of like saying "John Kennedy was killed by a bullet and
therefore Oswald didn't do it."

>Is that your understanding? In addition, if God is involved, how do we know
>that?

That God is involved is a matter of faith, not scientific observation or
theorizing. "Faith" there does not mean simply believing something for
which we have no evidence but a trust which is part of the commitment to the
God of whom scripture & the church bear witness, a witness which is
connected with empirical data.

Then on the larger wuestion "What is exactly a TE?" It's a legitimate
question but its importance should not be overstated. "Theistic evolution"
is not a precise technical term but a loose description of a broad range of
positions. It is simply the view that biological macroevolution has taken
place & that God has been involved in the process. (& a "theistic
evolutionist" is then someone who holds that view.) The term is far from
ideal because, among other things, it reduces God's role to an adjectival
one, it says nothing about what "God" is in view, and it makes no connection
with creation. "Evolutionary creationism" solves some of those problems but
not all.

As I have pointed out before, once terminology gets established it is quite
hard to replace or change it. "Big bang" was originally a derogatory term &
is far from ideal but we're stuck with it as a description of a range of
cosmological scenarios with a hot, dense early stage of the universe. The
situation with "theistic evolution" is similar. It isn't going to go away.
Recognize its limitations & don't assume that everybody who is identified as
a TE has some maximal view of the importance or scope of evolution like that
of process theology.

For myself, I have no objection to being identified as a TE if only a broad
characterization is intended. To be more precise, I am a Christian who
thinks that biological evolution has happened and that part of the creative
activity of the Trinity takes place through the evolutionary process.

Shalom
George
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/

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Received on Sun Sep 2 13:24:03 2007