On Sun, 07 Jul 1996 21:21:24, Glenn Morton wrote:
GM>Stephen Jones wrote:
>
>>The diference between Pearce and I is that I am
>>prepared to say that the genus Homo (eg. H. habilis, H. erectus, H.
>>neanderthalis) had an emerging image of God.
>
>Are you now saying that the image of God EVOLVED?
No. I am saying that God progressively created it! :-)
I am attracted to Leakey's description of the four key stages of
human development:
"There is, however, a great deal of agreement among researchers about
the overall shape of human prehistory. In it, four key stages can be
confidently identified. The first was the origin of the human family
itself, some 7 million years ago, when an apelike species with a
bipedal, or upright, mode of locomotion evolved. The second stage
was the proliferation of bipedal species, a process that biologists
call adaptive radiation. Between 7 million and 2 million years ago,
many different species of bipedal ape evolved, each adapted to
slightly different ecological circumstances. Among this
proliferation of human species was one that, between 3 million and 2
million years ago, developed a significantly larger brain. The
expansion in brain size marks the third stage, and signals the origin
of the genus Homo, the branch of the human bush that led through Homo
erectus and ultimately to Homo sapiens. The fourth stage was the
origin of modern humans-the evolution of people like ourselves, fully
equipped with language, consciousness, artistic imagination, and
technological innovation unseen elsewhere in nature." (Leakey R.,
"The Origin of Humankind", Phoenix: London, 1994, p.xv)
Of course, unlike Leakey, I do not believe this was by naturalistic
evolution, but by mediate progressive creation:
"But while it has ever been the doctrine of the Church that God
created the universe out of nothing by the word of his power, which
creation was instantaneous and immediate, i. e., without the
intervention of any second causes; yet it has generally been admitted
that this is to be understood only of the original call of matter
into existence. Theologians have, therefore, distinguished between a
first and second, or immediate and mediate creation. The one was
instantaneous, the other gradual; the one precludes the idea of any
preexisting substance, and of cooperation, the other admits and
implies both. There is evident ground for this distinction in the
Mosaic account of the creation. God, we are told, " created the
heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and
darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved
upon the face of the waters." Here it is clearly intimated that the
universe, when first created, was in a state of chaos, and that by
the life-giving, organizing power of the Spirit of God, it was
gradually moulded into the wonderful cosmos which we now behold. The
whole of the first chapter of Genesis, after the first verse, is an
account of the progress of creation; the production of light; the
formation of an atmosphere; the separation of land and water; the
vegetable productions of the earth the animals of the sea and air;
then the living creatures of the earth; and, last of all, man. IN
GEN. I. 27, IT IS SAID THAT GOD CREATED MAN MALE AND
FEMALE; IN CHAPTER II 7, IT IS SAID, THAT " THE LORD GOD
FORMED MAN OF THE DUST OF THE GROUND." It thus appears that
forming out of preexisting material comes within the Scriptural idea
of creating....There is, therefore, according to the Scriptures, not
only an immediate, instantaneous creation ex nihilo by the simple
word of God, but a mediate, progressive creation; the power of God
working in union with second causes." (Hodge C., "Systematic
Theology", Vol. I, 1892, James Clark & Co: London, 1960 reprint,
pp556-557 emphasis mine).
God bless.
Steve
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| Stephen E (Steve) Jones ,--_|\ sejones@ibm.net |
| 3 Hawker Avenue / Oz \ sjones@iinet.net.au |
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| Perth, West Australia v (My opinions, not my employer's) |
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