Literature reviews: Finding Darwin’s God
A review of the book, Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution. Published in Origins n. 55.
A review of the book, Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution. Published in Origins n. 55.
Darwin's God: Evolution and the Problem of Evil. Published in Origins n. 55.
Creationism is a robust paradigm, fully capable of undergirding the scientific enterprise in the new millennium. Wider acceptance of creationism by the scientific community in the future will depend, in part, on how well theologians can convince scientists of the priceless value of revealed information.
Animals can change in small or even large ways to adapt to their surroundings, but humans were created as God’s perfect climax to all that had thus far been created.
The Intelligent Design movement is crucially important for all Adventist educators, especially for those in science, in the integration of faith and learning in their classrooms.
Review of the book, Annie's Box: Charles Darwin, His Daughter, and Human Evolution. Published in Origins n. 53.
In two recent publications, Alister McGrath cites John Calvin in support of divine accommodation in a theory of origins. In order to evaluate the validity of McGrath's use of Calvin, it is necessary, first, to look briefly at the concept of divine accommodation and its use as a hermeneutical tool.
Literature Review
A review of Summer for the Gods. Published in Origins n. 51.
Historians of science have suggested that the Judea-Christian environment of western Europe and the belief in a monotheistic God were responsible for the development of modem science in that culture. Today students can still see that Christianity and physics are compatible and that similar assumptions underlie both.
There has been a long and arduous search for a plausible evolutionary mechanism that would produce complex organized life. We shall look briefly at the past two centuries of this search.
Science and Scripture are built, according to Boyle, on the same epistemological features of revelation, reason, and experience but with different relative contributions from each.
Newton was an unusual person—absent-minded and generous, sensitive to criticism and modest. He faced a series of psychological crises. He had trouble maintaining good social relations. Yet, he was one of history’s rare giants—a brilliant physicist, a superb astronomer and mathematician, and a natural philosopher.
Review of the book, Scientific Theology. Published in Origins v. 24, n. 2.
As biological knowledge has increased, the argument for design has been revived and expressed in more sophisticated ways, such as the argument from “irreducible complexity.” The existence of certain features that could not survive in intermediate stages is evidence of a Designer. It is also evidence of a Designer God who created by special intervention—Creation—and not through a continuous process such as evolution.
Both faithd and reason are important in Christianity, and Christians should not neglect either. Published in Origins v. 23, n. 2.
A farewell editorial by Dr. Ariel Roth, who has been editor of Origins since its inception in 1973, and Director of the Geoscience Research Insittute since 1980. Published in Origins v. 23, n. 2.
This descriptive analysis provides a comprehensive and wholistic view of Creation in the Book of Psalms.
Long ago, the Psalmist recorded a gem of inspiration: "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." Nature calls us to recognize its Creator and nature invites us to probe its mysteries. Within the context of that call and that invitation, there need be no conflict between biblical Christianity and science, between faith and reason. A scientist can indeed be a Christian.
Darwin's theory is in crisis. The academic ball is in its court. What will the Adventist ministry speak in response? The general community, for the time being at least, is listening.
Claims that Christianity upheld the idea of a flat earth through the so-called "Dark Ages" until finally the light of science revealed the true sphericity of the world are fabrications of anti-Christian writers. The overwhelming majority of Medieval thinkers believed in a spherical earth. Such false stories have caused many to "retro-progress," with an increase in ignorance rather than in knowledge. Published in Origins v. 22, n. 1.