@GBrooks9's View On God's Engagement

Wow. I guess I’ve really been out of it since retirement. The “‘waiting for evolution to produce a creation’ that God can work with” absolutely amazes me.

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I should point out that @jongarvey has even created a Sci Fi scenario along these lines … does God design all of human evolution … to get exactly what he wants?

My answer? Of course he does.

@AllenWitmerMiller

This idea erupted immediately when an atheist asked me how God would install a mutation?

I said, well, there are lots of ways, but designing creation so a cosmic ray hit a specific part of the DNA would certainly be one way.

Then I started getting hit with protests about God aiming a ray gun at hominid genitals … in order to get the next mutation…

As a Molinist, I have a similar reaction.

(I can’t help but wonder what percentage of Christians who are comfortable with evolutionary creationism are Molinist—and even got there through a Molinist route.)

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Weird. Considering the ubiquitous nature of cosmic radiation etc., expecting a silly “ray gun” is downright face-palm inducing.

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Frankly, I haven’t done any research on Molinism… @swamidass has mentioned it a few times.

What is the key aspect of Molinism that is at play here?

They were being figurative … to accentuate the oddness of my proposition.

But apparently, at BioLogos, I was the first one to actually specify a way for God to “guide” evolution:

“poof” a mutation by miraculously creating a cosmic hit on DNA… or

using natural law to design a chain of events that would send a cosmic ray…

(or any of the other energies known to corrupt DNA replication).

You should really start sending those BioLogos folk to the conversation here. I hope you link here when appropriate. The water is nice here at Peaceful Science.

Shockingly, most have never heard of it.

You are not the first, but they are generally speaking not prone to support that view. @TedDavis is an exception, as are others. Some are down right opposed to it.

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A post was merged into an existing topic: What is Molinism?

From a theological point of view, of course he could inspire some mutations. I’m just saying we have not produced any scientific evidence that He did, and whether or not He did, God providentially governs all things.

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2 posts were merged into an existing topic: What is Molinism?

Isn’t that just the dumbest thing…

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@swamidass

And now we are right back to where I am a little concerned!

Professor, I have stated already, and you have recognized already, that I’m not making this a scientific claim!

This is a THEOLOGICAL ASSERTION!

If God is outside of Time, and everything is created and done and completed in a moment …
all of God’s contemplation is accomplished long before humans experience this so-called moment
when God makes his choice.

God has made his choice before Creation … not in Real Time… wondering just what to do.

Every time you say “but we have no evidence for this”, I am wondering what you are talking about.

Are you okay with this assertion from a Theological Stance?

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Then I have no problem with it. God can do whatever He wants. My main issue is with importing these theological claims into science, which you are not doing.

Yes, absolutely. If you find me repetitive in saying “but we have no evidence for this,” that is because the distinction between a scientific and theological claim were not clear to me. If you make that clear, I do not have an objection.

I think you have a perfectly reasonable position.

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My apologies for not being clear about that. It never occurred to me that anyone would ever think I that I thought science would support the idea that controls every detail about the universe (except, of course, free will events).

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It is okay. I know what you mean but others are here too. When we are not clear here it creates avoidable conflict, as you have seen. This is the core of the conflict over ID, so we can’t be ambiguous about it, or at least I can’t.

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@swamidass

Right! But the core of the Conflict regarding ID is not, in my view, the core of the issue about Gen.Adam (GA).

While the epistemological implications of ID are not a frivolous concern, if I were to quantify how much of your Peaceful science time has been spent on a theologically-inspired footnote, i would estimate something like 75%!

75% of your time has been hijacked by a theological question that you have already rejected (because of your scientific pursuits)… but which continues to inspire opposition against ALL your Christian work … because so many Creationists would rather argue about design than to acknowledge the central truth of your Peaceful science work:

that a real Adam/Eve can and was created through Special Creation… in the midst of a human population that God invested thousands of generations building … in order to arrive at exactly what he wanted for humanity.
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.
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Don’t make these hijackings so easy. Put them in a Scientist-to-Scientist section … so you can more frequently pursue your central focus: Special Creation and Evolution are just two folds of a single divine cloth of God’s plan!

:smiley:

I’m considering this. Could be good idea.

Agreed.

It waxes and wanes…

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The situation seems to have improved