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Thursday, July 02, 2009

Theistic evolution - why can't God and Darwin kiss and make up?

Recently, a friend asked me about this perennial topic:

I replied, In today's Christian culture, the materialist atheist model of the universe is assumed to be true, but Christianity can be fitted in as an add-on, a sort of optional part that most people wouldn't need, but some insist on, because it helps them feel good.

No one says Christians can't bark for Jesus somewhere, preferably in a tabernacle far from civilization.

What the ID guys did was provide concrete evidence why the materialist atheist view of the universe - that is accepted as the norm - is incorrect. That it does not remotely account for the evidence. That is why they were so bitterly attacked.

When Mike Behe's Edge of Evolution came out, the posts at one allegedly Christian science list were revealing, disgusting, and pretty lame. I wrote a review here, to help people understand Behe's actual point: Very little Darwinian evolution had been observed in precisely the places we might expect it.

Why were the "Christians" in science so hostile to him? Because he provided evidence that did not support a theory fronted by materialist atheists. The skinny: They own the idea of evidence. Evidence is what supports them. By definition. If it doesn't support them, it isn't evidence.

Francis Collins isn't seriously attacked because he offers no serious challenge. Who cares if he feels good believing in God?

Now, Mike Behe and I have in common that we are real theistic evolutionists, That is, we say that if God wanted to create entirely through evolution, he could do so. But the question of whether God in fact did so must be addressed separately, and it depends strictly on evidence, not on prior assumptions.

What the "theistic evolutionists" (= fellow travellers and useful idiots) that one meets so often in Christian circles (I am using stare quotes here intentionally) mean is something quite different: They want to fit God into a system whose fundamental basis is atheist materialism. They want to form a bubble for theists in a world where atheism is assumed to follow from the evidence.

Apart from the fact that it won't work, it is completely contrary to the Christian tradition - and to all ethical monotheism whatever. If the "theistic evolutionists" were serious about ethical monotheism, they would support ID, the way serious Muslims and Jews do. Because it's obvious.

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