The PERFECT reason to no longer use the terms ID or Intelligent Design … or Theist Evolution …
God-Guided Evolution is perfectly on the mark. Avoid disputes - - use clear terminology that is not ambiguous. God is God. Guided is Guided. Everyone “gets” it.
George
Ahhh … they must be pretty smart. What word do THEY use?
Eddie,
Who thinks life on Earth came about “by accident”? Don’t most scientists working in the field think life arose by some natural processes from non-life or via arriving on Earth from elsewhere. Neither way is “by accident” but by a specific cause and process.
Which is why they are wrong … if they are INTENTIONALLY avoiding the word “Guided”. It can simultaneouslly allow for miracles in real time … as well as front-loaded scenarios of natural processes.
Patrick, i think that lots of scientists are unfamiliar with the idea that Natural Selection is non-accidental.
Natural selection is not accidental. It is brutal.
TE and EC terminology should be avoided like the plague. It is getting us “nowhere” - or “Erewhon” backwards.
This is all a matter of definition. While the logic of Natural Selection is not “accidental” - - in that it does represent a “logic” - - being “not accidental” is not quite the same as “intelligently guided”, right?
That’s why there are so many scientists that can happily remove God from the evolution loop… and still have natural selection.
The best thing to do … is to STOP including the word “random” or “not-random” in the writings.
… or FULLY EXPLAIN what is meant by “random” or “not-random”.
George
given an ocean of minerals and molecules plus a energy source like the sun and heat vents, plus a few hundred million years, self replication molecules appeared, followed by self replicating pre-cells and so on. No accident, just chemistry leading to biology by some yet-to-be discovered natural process(es). It happened about 4.1 billion years ago on Earth.
How can you say this? The universe is a pretty big place with billions and billions of planets, with water and amino acids everywhere. And only 13.8 billion years old. You really think that life has only happened on one planet for only 4 billion years and hasn’t happened elsewhere and won’t happen in the future somewhere else in the next trillion years or so? The Earth may be unique but it is not special. (Copernican Principle)
It is actually called Quantum Mechanics and it is the way the universe works.
I think the intent was simply to explain some basic principles about evolution, such as common ancestry. Nothing to get excited about, really. Did you read the book? When you taught your kids about volcanoes did you feel compelled to say that God designs them and makes them erupt?
Watching you two argue is a great lesson…
Even Eddie is provoked into saying the Universe got lucky…
When the BioLogos position must ultimately be that God made sure the Universe was so lucky…
George
Once and only once?
What does it matter how many times?
God works in real time … AND in Front-Loaded creation. But until science can detect God answering prayers, there will never be any way to detect.
Whatever definition you want to assign to that is fine with me.
“Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” -Colossians 4:6
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