Does a commitment to methodological naturalism mean you have to ignore evidence of special creation

[Swamidass (Peaceful Science)]

@Daniel_Fisher

But I observe that the BioLogos position, with its explicit commitment to methodological naturalism, similarly “promises to ignore any evidence that points to a special creation.”

This is false.

I am a BioLogos scientist and affirm methodological naturalism (though it is incorrectly named) as the rule of science. It has its roots in Pascal, Bacon, Kepler, and Boyle’s theology, so I am good company. Perhaps we call it methodological theism for this conversation (abbreviated MN/MT).

Any how, I do acknowledge evidence for special creation and have for years.

Evidence and Evolution

A Genealogical Adam and Eve in Evolution

The 100 Year Old Tree

The best evidence is Scriptural and philosophical. Specifically, because of MN/MT science is blind to special creation. It is silent about it. Therefore we cannot say for sure whether or not it happened. It is always a possibility. And if one is so convinced from Scripture, it is a certainty regardless of the scientific evidence.

This means it is reasonable to believe in the special creation of the origin of life or in the RTB model. However, this is not a belief that can be said to be within science itself. One has to adopt this view, perhaps with evidence and reason behind you, but admit it is not a fully scientific notion. In the scientific discourse, however, we do not consider the possibility.

To leave you with a quote from my last article on this point:

Therefore, entirely consistent with the genetic evidence (Figure 1), it is possible Adam was created out of dust, and Eve out of his rib, 6,000 years ago in a divinely created garden where God might dwell with them, the first beings capable of a relationship with Him. Perhaps their fall brought accountability for sin to all their descendants.17 Leaving the Garden, their offspring blended with their neighbors in the surrounding towns.18 In this way, they became genealogical ancestors of all those in recorded history.19 Adam and Eve, here, are the single-couple progenitors of all mankind.20 Even if this scenario is false or unnecessary, nothing in evolutionary science unsettles this story. So, evolution presses in a very limited way on our understanding of Adam and Eve, only suggesting (alongside Scripture) that their lineage was not pure. Any case claiming that evolution itself requires more dramatic rethinks of Adam is in scientific error.

You can’t get more explicit than that.

@Daniel_Fisher

But at core, I simply trust their philosophical approach, one that (however badly executed) is at least committed, in principle, to an approach that “follows the evidence wherever it leads” - with no conclusion considered off limits.

This is not true. They have specified as movement what they know the answer to be before they do the inquiry. If you doubt this, read Darwin on Trial and the Wedge Document. They are not open to following the evidence where it leads. Usually this is because they are convinced evolution is not compatible with Scripture.

@Daniel_Fisher

Hence my difficulty… if, by some chance, God had intervened in a direct way- a manner that would be at least reasonably recognizable by empiric methods, the BioLogos scientist is all but guaranteed to misinterpret the data.

False. If this happened, I would gladly acknowledge it. It would not be a scientific claim, but it still could be a valid evidential claim. This has not happened clearly yet, except in the Ressurection. Read here: Dr James Tour and the Great Pascal

Nonetheless, I do acknowledge some weak evidence supporting God’s intervention in human evolution, the origin of life, the origin of consciousness and the origin of the universe. This weak evidence though. Not enough for certainty, and it cannot be considered this way in science. Though if we take the evidence from Scripture into account, that does tip things considerably (but not in science).