Re: Reason in the Balance

Steve Clark (ssclark@facstaff.wisc.edu)
Thu, 27 Jul 1995 12:35:03 -0500

>To: grayt@Calvin.EDU (Terry M. Gray)
>From: ssclark@facstaff.wisc.edu (Steve Clark)
>Subject: Re: Reason in the Balance
>Cc:
>Bcc:
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>
>Hi Terry, you wrote:
>
>>To nit-pick on our area of disagreement, however, I'd like to point out and
>>comment on the footnote on page 77:
>>
>>"The blind watchmaker thesis makes it *possible* to be an intellectually
>>fulfilled atheist by supplying the necessary creation story. It does not
>>make it *obligatory* to be an atheist, because one can imagine a Creator
>>who works through natural selection. Since the consensus of contemporary
>>evolutionary biologists is that evolution is purposeless and unguided,
>>however, it is doubtful that a Creator would have anything to do. A
>>Creator who merely sets a process in motion and theoreafter keeps hands off
>>is easily ignored."
>>
>>Thank you, Professor Johnson, for the crumb tossed my way. However, it
>>seems to me that the last two sentences in this footnote are a huge non
>>sequitur.
>
>Amen! I am baffled by this line of reasoning by Phil and others. Just
because atheistic evolutionists claim that evolution disproves God, I see no
reason why the rest of us have to subscribe to this gross extrapolation of
what the science shows.
>
>The consensus of contemporary evolutionary biologists on God's
>>role may have very little to do with his actual role. Thus, the conclusion
>>"it is doubtful that a Creator would have anything to do" does not actually
>>follow from the premise of this sentence. Perhaps in the minds of the
>>contemporary biologists it does, but if we are theistic realists (as I
>>claim to be) then our conclusion must be based on what is real and not the
>>consensus of the biologists.
>
>Right on. Why does one "have to" automatically buy into this metaphysical
position if one is willing to consider evolution? Indeed, is any
metaphysical position supported by science?
>
>Thus if the Creator does work through natural
>>selection, he could still be doing a great deal concerning the origin,
>>development and providential governing of the universe (as the scriptures
>>teach and as any good theist worthy of the label would acknowledge). Given
>>this, the last sentence is moot. Those of us who advocate that the Creator
>>has worked through natural selection and other mechanisms describable by
>>science do not believe that God merely sets the process in motion and
>>thereafter keeps hands off.
>>
>
____________________________________________________________________________
Steven S. Clark, Ph.D. Phone: (608) 263-9137
Associate Professor FAX: (608) 263-4226
Dept. of Human Oncology and email: ssclark@facstaff.wisc.edu
UW Comprehensive Cancer Ctr
University of Wisconsin "To disdain philosophy is really to
Madison, WI 53792 be a philosopher." Blaise Pascal
____________________________________________________________________________