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

Gregory Arago wrote:

> If there are any such persons, I’d be glad to hear about them. And
> if not, then I wonder where peoples’ priorities lie. ‘Process’
> positions (including philosophy and theology) surely need to be
> addressed at ASA – this would help to clarify the ‘origins’ vs.
> ‘processes’ issue that I raised with which David C. cautiously
> agreed. Evolution IS predominantly about ‘processes,’ while
> ‘creation’ IS about ‘origins’ and ‘originality.’ What happens with
> TE views, and perhaps even to a further extent with EC’s also, is a
> conflation of these two very different (though in some ways
> complementary) concepts/percepts. I have tried to show that this
> conflation is faulty, whereas George Murphy has remained silent on
> the topic.

Creation is a theological doctrine and thus encompasses all of God's
activity to bringing into existence and sustaining all of physical
reality. God's creative activity is expresses in and through natural
processes. My physical body was created by God, yet my conception
and development was a biological processes. Similarly, the origin of
new species is a biological process, as the origin of life itself was
likely through chemical evolutionary processes. Yet those processes
are undergirded and sustained by God's active creative power. God is
actively involved the continual process of life and death in the
natural world (Psalm 104:27-30).

Evolution is a process whereby new biological species and new
biological innovation are brought into existence by God. Given this
theological perspective, I am not sure that there is a dichotomy
between "origin" and "process,' unless you simply mean the origin of
all physical reality (ie, why there is something rather than nothing).

Keith

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Received on Sat Sep 8 20:29:57 2007