Wednesday, May 08, 2013

 

They Know Their Own


Intelligent Design is a commonly accepted theory in the faith community used to explain the role of God in creation and human existence.
Was that some evil "Darwinist" misrepresenting the Intelligent Design Movement?

No, it was the student newspaper of Greenville College, a Christian institution, reporting on a colloquium led by Dr. Jack Collins, a professor of Old Testament studies at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, who has degrees from MIT in Computer Science and Systems Engineering, a M.Div. from Faith Lutheran Seminary and a Ph.D. in Hebrew linguistics from the University of Liverpool.

It is not possible to tell how good Collins' presentation was from the scant information in the report but he apparently conveyed this:
Collins is careful to point out the flaws that come with a belief in ID. The theory lends itself to propose "God created this, because it is 'design,' while God is not responsible for that, because it is not 'design.'" He also cautions against appealing to areas of ignorance for assertions in God, and resting faith on an absence in knowledge.
Specifically, he warns against "God of the gaps" theology which, of course, the IDers deny they are engaged in.

No matter what their hope to someday fool the courts, it's clear they can't fool their co-religionists.

Labels: ,


Comments:
Hmmmm, interesting. Collins' MDiv is from a school not accredited by the ATS,

http://www.ats.edu/MemberSchools/Pages/Alpha.aspx

but Covenant is. Both Faith Lutheran and Covenant affirm the inerrancy of scripture (many seminaries do not).

Considering that he has a degree from an institution that teaches biblical inerrancy, and teaches at a seminary that affirms biblical inerrancy, I think this is a hopeful sign.

-- pew sitter
 
Ah, thanks. I did not think to look into that. There have been a few recent "defections" from the "inerrantists" by prominent Evangelical theologians. Maybe it is trickling down.
 
Reading around here and there in evangelical pop apologetics, it looks to me like "inerrant" has a ... um ... flexible meaning these days. There seem to be literalist innerrantists and non-literalist innerrantists nowadays.
 
it looks to me like "inerrant" has a ... um ... flexible meaning these days

James McGrath (Exploring Our Matrix) frequently points out that you have to ignore an awful lot of the Bible in order to claim it is the inerrant word of god.
 
James McGrath is right.

-- pew sitter
 
Post a Comment

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

. . . . .

Organizations

Links
How to Support Science Education
archives