{"id":2030,"date":"2009-10-08T11:27:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-08T11:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/10\/review-of-the-lost-world-of-genesis-one-part-fifteen\/"},"modified":"2009-10-08T11:27:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-08T11:27:00","slug":"review-of-the-lost-world-of-genesis-one-part-fifteen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/10\/review-of-the-lost-world-of-genesis-one-part-fifteen.html","title":{"rendered":"Review of The Lost World Of Genesis One, Part Fifteen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Proposition Fifteen of Walton\u2019s The Lost World of Genesis One<\/em> asserts that the current debates about Intelligent Design and fundamentally about purpose<\/em>. Walton points out early on that there is no necessary contradiction between something being viewed as an \u201cact of God\u201d and yet also being subject to scientific investigation, since \u201cEverything that exists and everything that happens is, in Christian thinking, ultimately an act of God\u201d (p.126). It is not clear, however, whether at this point he is backtracking from his earlier rejection of a view of God \u201cmicromanaging\u201d all that occurs (p.119).<\/p>\n

Be that as it may, his main point in this short chapter is an important one: Intelligent Design \u201cdoes not contribute to the advance of scientific understanding because it does not offer an alternative that is scientifically testable and falsifiable\u201d (p.127). Walton is critical both of ID\u2019s \u201cGod of the gaps\u201d approach (which attributes to God only those things that currently seem inexplicable, leading to a shrinking role for God as scientific understanding progresses) and also of Neo-Darwinism (for assuming that there must<\/em> be a natural explanation even if one hasn\u2019t been found). In the end, however, Walton seems to realize that something like methodological naturalism is integral to the scientific method, and that it would be inappropriate for scientists to ever simply declare their work of searching for scientific explanations to be over (p.130).<\/p>\n

It may be that some or even all explorations of science may lead beyond their own scientific domain into metaphysics, and that the two cannot always (or perhaps ever) be completely separated. But ultimately what matters from Walton\u2019s perspective is the affirmation that God created. Whether this was done instantaneously or through the use of long-term, complex processes should not matter from a Christian perspective, as far as Walton is concerned (p.131).<\/p>\n

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Proposition Fifteen of Walton\u2019s The Lost World of Genesis One asserts that the current debates about Intelligent Design and fundamentally about purpose. 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