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Re Christian Darwinism, just askin’: Latest Giberson-Collins book is, well, clear about what the authors believe, but …

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After a laundry list of stuff in nature that is bad for humans (so?), we are told,

“We must not, of course, ascribe the origin of these sinister features of the natural world to God.” (P. 133).

Instead,

Science has shown with remarkable clarity that nature has built-in creative powers. (P. 134)

But if nature exists by the will of God, how exactly does that get God off the hook?

(quotations from: Karl W. Giberson and Francis S. Collins, The Language of Science and Faith: Straight Answers to Genuine Questions (InterVarsity Press, 2011.)

Comments
Science has shown with remarkable clarity that nature has built-in creative powers. (P. 134)
Built in by whom?
We must not, of course, ascribe the origin of these sinister features of the natural world to God. (P. 133).
Is that because God just couldn't take that? Or because we couldn't? Earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, cyclones and tornadoes, volcanoes, floods, famine, pestilence, heat, cold, radiation. All those wonderful built in things. If it were me I'd say, hey, that's the way I built it. Deal with it.Mung
April 20, 2011
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"But if nature exists by the will of God, how exactly does that get God off the hook [for evil, whether natural evils or moral wickedness]?" In creating anything at all, God creates 'not-God.' That is, necessarily, all things God creates are necessarily (*) incomplete or non-integral or lacking in some perfection ... else the creation would be God. God could have avoided the reality of (1) natural evil and (2) the potentiality of moral evil by: (1) creating nothing at all; or (2) by creating no agents. The only logically possible "solution" to "the problem of evil" is non-existence (or, at any rate, this is the only "solution" finite beings can attain), which strikes me as no solutin at all -- Buddha had a real insight, he just misunderstood it and misapplied it. (*) The double "necessarily" in intentional.Ilion
April 20, 2011
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There is an answer (*) ... and it's "unsatisfying" *only* due to an emotional refusal to be satisfied. (*) Several, in fact, though they are likely related and may be fascets of a single answer.Ilion
April 20, 2011
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"But if nature exists by the will of God, how exactly does that get God off the hook?" Definitely a serious question for the authors to answer. I doubt there is a satisfying answer in the positive.paragwinn
April 20, 2011
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