Religion & Law

Theological Revelations

By John Pieret

Heh!

The Discoveryoids are in a theological dispute with the "theistic evolutionists" that, quite appropriately, clearly reveals the religious roots of Intelligent Design Creationism. The latest feeble bow shot is by David Klinghoffer, who once again demonstrates that he has an intellectual range that is both an inch deep and an inch wide.

Quite apart from the slapstick of citing Whittaker Chambers as if he was a seminal figure in conservative thought, Klinghoffer is once again reduced to beating his little tin drum to the tune that "Darwinism," itself a parody of science, is nothing but a variation on Epicurean philosophy and that the only choice is between "scientific utopianism," unguided by moral purpose, and a belief in "'unchanging human nature,' the 'soul,' [and] traditional morality," rooted in "Biblical religion."

As always, though, the only matters of real intellectual value at Klinghoffer's blog appear in the comments, where "Turmarion" points out the real dispute, as revealed in a piece by West:

West (grudgingly!) admitted the following, with emphasis and brackets added: "I accept Collins' proposal [that God works through "random" factors] as a logical possibility. In the abstract, God could have chosen to create a guided process that looks to us as if it is unguided. The relevant question for a Christian or Jew, however, is did God create life in that way based on what we know about His character and own self-explanations to us?...While Collins' view is logically compatible with the idea that God actively guides the development of His creation, it is still in tension with the traditional Biblical understanding of God."

After bloviating for two and a half essays, then, West gives up the game by admitting that he has neither scientific nor philosophical grounds on which to refute the view of Collins (which he shares with Barr and myself) that God works through "random" processes. Unable to refute this, he falls back on arguing about how we understand God. The problem is in what he doesn't say: Among Christian and Jewish theologians and philosophers, almost none outside those who hold the untenable belief of young-Earth creationism (which to your credit, David, you reject) have a problem with evolution! Now unlike West, I'm not arguing reality based on a "majority vote" of theologians and philosophers. My point is, however, that West seems to imply that it is self-evident that the traditional understanding of God excludes evolution and that the fact that almost no non-young-Earth theologians and philosophers agree with him indicates that it's not as self-evident as he seems to think! I might also point out that there are theists who are not Jews or Christians, and for them, West's argument here will obviously seem much less than compelling.

No one I know doubts that God acts through secondary causes. The issue is whether human beings can discern evidence of God's activity in nature through the things He created. Darwinists deny this, and Collins and Barr seem to as well (at least in the area of biology).

Joe Carter is exactly right that the Collins' position seems strangely similar to the view embraced by some Biblical creationists that God has misled us by creating things that look like they are ancient even though they aren't. Similarly, Collins and Barr suggest that God created life through a process that looks "random and undirected" even though it's not.

Full post as published by Thoughts in a Haystack on August 08, 2009 (boomark / email).