Monday, October 4, 2010

God and Evolution at Biola University

According to the Discovery Institute's Evolution News & Views website, Biola University in La Mirada, CA, will feature a conference on October 16 of this year, discussing the question, "Can you believe in God and Darwinian Evolution at the same time?"  The answer, the DI informs us, may surprise the audience (which, I presume, will be asked not to discuss the shocking surprise conclusion with any friends who might wish to attend future conferences to find out for themselves).

Okay, maybe it won't be such a shocking surprise conclusion.  The listed participants are all noted proponents of intelligent design and advocates of the view that Darwin is responsible for pretty much everything bad that's happened since he was gestating in his mother's womb.  They also appear to be the authors of a new book titled God and Evolution, which might lead a more cynical person than myself to suspect  that the conference is just to sell copies of the book.  Anyway, the DI promises a "wide-ranging critique of those who seek to reconcile materialistic theories such as Darwinism with belief in God."  


They could probably get an even wider-ranging critique if they'd just invite Jerry Coyne or Richard Dawkins.


Now, the question that occurs to me is, can you reconcile materialistic theories such a modern meteorology with belief in God?  According to the Bible (the believers at the conference include a mixture of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, but don't seem to feature, e.g. any Muslim or Vedic creationists), God sends the rain on the just and the unjust.  A couple of passages in the Bible (Genesis 7:11 and Malachi 3:10) speak specifically of God opening the "windows in the sky" to let the "waters above the Earth" fall down as rain.  Yet modern meteorology not only denies that the sky is the sort of thing that can have literal windows or hatchways, but attributes (and with increasing success predicts) the weather to purely material forces such as humidity, temperature, air pressure, wind direction and speed, etc.   Modern meteorologists make no appeal to God's providence or judgment, no explanation for droughts or hurricanes in terms of the sinfulness of farmers or coastal dwellers.  Yet I know of no creationists or ID proponents who insist on a supernatural explanation for precipitation or who dismiss the idea that meteorology and divine providence can somehow be complementary explanations -- although the question of "what does God actually do in theistic meteorology" seems to be just as open a question as the more common "what is God's role in theistic evolution?"

Of course, perhaps I should hope that the former question doesn't occur to the Discovery Institute.

2 comments:

  1. Well, I imagine that our creationists chums will just say that God uses the natural forces we observe as his method of controlling the weather.

    The odd thing is why, in this case, are they prepared to accept that the biblical description of rain is metaphor, whereas they take literally the creation account.

    Why not claim that evolution is God's way of achieving his ends (as many less bonkers Christians do).

    It does seem to me that they have an inconsistent approach whenever science contradicts the bible. Even more so in the example given as I would imagine that evolution is more easily pinned down than meteorology.

    I guess it'll only be a matter of time before AIG presents a paper on sky windows (and Jason Lisle - astrophysicist extraordinare - justifies it by telling us that there have to be Windows for the rockets to get out).

    Phil

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  2. PhilG replied to me:

    I guess it'll only be a matter of time before AIG presents a paper on sky windows (and Jason Lisle - astrophysicist extraordinare - justifies it by telling us that there have to be Windows for the rockets to get out).

    Well, isn't that so? Back when NASA launches were intensively covered, I kept hearing anchormen talking about "launch windows." Obviously this confirms Genesis.

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