"Test everything; hold fast to what is good."
Here’s a delightfully odd Bob Dylan song: I’ve been thinking about that one lately as I’ve tried to give names to all the animals who dwell in or visit my little patch of Chester County — such as the pickerel frogs like the one pictured here. That photo is by Wayne Fidler, from the Pennsylvania [...]
In the first part of this discussion, I objected to the idea that the modifier “theistic” in “theistic evolution,” might simply refer to the believe held by us theists of God’s pervasive providence. The problem, we noted, is that if we’re talking about God’s constant presence in all things, that can’t explain the use of [...]
BioLogos has listed what it calls “Core Tenets or Assumptions of Theistic Evolution.” I mostly agree with them, but I am not a theistic evolutionist and I do not “believe in” evolution. Well, actually, let me qualify that a bit: I do not accept the label of “theistic evolutionist.” I cannot really say, with certainty, [...]
Let me step back and explain where I’m coming from with today’s odd burst of posts. I’ve been butting heads with young-earth creationists for most of my life. This goes back more than 30 years, to the middle-school “science” classes wherein I was first, unsuccessfully, indoctrinated in “scientific creationism.” We studied “the controversy” — but [...]
One of my pet-peeve misconceptions is the notion that an illiterately literal reading of Genesis 1-11 is somehow an expression of “conservative” theology. It isn’t. Of course this “literal” belief in the six-day creation of a young earth isn’t liberal theology either. It’s just bad theology. Not orthodox, not conservative or liberal, just wrong — [...]
Sometimes people think I’m overstating the case when I describe American evangelicalism as primarily driven by culture-war tribalism in service of partisan politics. Or when I criticize that tribalism as a tool cynically employed by hucksters seeking to cash in on the tribal market niche. Or when I suggest that those hucksters are the lackeys [...]
The “Omphalos hypothesis” discussed in the previous post is horrifying as theology. The idea that the Creator is also the Great Deceiver suggests some rather appalling aspects of the character of God. But it does make for fertile ground for some potentially fascinating, or at least amusing, storytelling. Think again of that 28,000-year-old Australian rock [...]
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