Dunno about Boyd’s views on satan, but his book “The Myth of a Christian Nation” is a valuable read.
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C.S.Lewis also made the point that the moral law being universal in all people means it was given to us by God. Many teachers in universities suggest it is due to social development. But one cannot argue that the moral law is true. Somehow we have come to know this truth, which I believe is from God. But that is a matter of faith. My faith was finally fulfilled when I came to realize that God does not break the laws of physics through what seem to be miracles. Quantum physics allows for an observed quantum event for creation and the special theory of relativity and time dilation allows for Him to overcome the uncertainty principle as He can see the future. The Bible describes God with these attributes well before mankind knew these scientific principles thus it validates the Bible and Jesus Christ along with it. Of course this isn’t proof, but it makes a further case for how it is all possible.
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A point trivially countered by observing that moral law is not universal in all people.
Greg, who is not a biologist, ascribes much more in evolution to the “destructive” power of demonic forces than I do. I admire much of his theology but this is one aspect I disagree with. I wrote to him in 2019 explaining some objections from a biologist’s point of view. We exchanged one round of friendly emails but I got busy… and he got busy…I still have, in my ‘drafts’ email folder, the next formulation of my rebuttal to Greg which has been sitting there since 2019. I’m not much for online argumentation, apparently. Much rather have an engaging discussion over coffee.
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As an atheist, I’ve never found the moral argument to be that compelling. I have much more respect for the faith position that God supplied our morality.
I do think this is the best approach for apologetics aimed at atheists. Others may disagree, but I have yet to see an objective, logic based argument that leads to God. There just isn’t proof in this sense, and I don’t think the vast majority of Christian converts were convinced by this type of proof. Belief is based on faith and personal experience, and I see nothing wrong with this position being a part of witnessing to atheists.
So where in evolution doesn’t nature or God explain anything that only demons can explain?
Greg Boyd, (I hope I’m not misinterpreting him), would ascribe the suffering and violence in nature: parasitism, predation, and also disease etc. to effects of spiritual warfare (i.e. demonic forces acting contrary to God’s wishes and trying to destroy God’s creative efforts). It’s one approach to theodicy.
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It fits well with some strains of second-Temple Jewish thought.
So predation, at least six hundred million, easily a billion years old, is unnatural?
Seems like a man of many interests; even endorsed Rob Bell’s Love Wins. (A friend of mine has that tattooed on his forearm.) Thinks through Christian Nationalism. Condemns human violence.
I can’t use his interest or even possible obsession with spiritual warfare as a guide for categorizing him or anyone else. If I had to shun everyone I like and love who is serious about spiritual warfare and satan, because rationalists said so, and all the humanists and atheists I like and love, because fundamentalists in my life say so, I would have almost no one left.
The cost is too high.
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Greg (and many other Christian theologians, classically) would hold that a subset of angels rebelled and fell after the creation of the universe but before the appearance of life on Earth. According to that perspective, demonic forces would have been around to mess with things here on Earth from the beginning.
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As a Christian, I’m open to the idea that supernatural, personified evil may cause some degree of destruction and suffering in the world. What I’m skeptical of, as a biologist, is that demonic forces would have such a sophisticated knowledge of DNA and all its potential functions, that they could have the foresight or ability to tweak mutations in the genomes of species over millennia to result in exquisitely formed predators etc. I suspect that Greg’s naiveté about genomes and selection may be leading him to assume more “creative” power for demons than is warranted. I don’t view predators as “evil”. Anyways, that’s where my rebuttal letter and friendly discussion with him ended in 2019. It was my fault for dropping the conversation. A busy life intervened…
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Fundamentalist theologians. Those who only deal in knowledge quality beliefs, could agree that that can be derived from the text.
How? Does that not mean “blind faith”, which is faith without evidence, there are so many theological. problems and statements which I have seen for sure are false which causes a problem to whether the Bible can be trusted as a source of truth.
What you are looking for as Truth is what makes all the difference. For those who need all truth to be in the form of that which can be catalogued as literal scientific ‘facthood’, they will inevitably be finding all sorts of things about the bible that fail to deliver that - or about “someone’s understanding of the bible” anyway - an essential caveat which never comes from the lips of any fundamentalist. But if you can tear free of that tiny mental prison for all things acknowledged as truth, and wake up to the wider reality that a person can be true, or a fictitious story can be a vehicle for truth, or a community or a principle can be true, then there is all sorts of truth to be found in the narratives of scripture. And much falsehood that can be derived from it too by minds enslaved to all sorts of untrue people, principles, and things that cause them to use Christ (and the bible) as mascots rather than guides for discipleship.
I might have needed to define for myself “science” better to others, but basically, when I say science, it is not just experiments and the use of the scientific method, it is also gathering evidence using the naturlistic framwork, since there is no evidence of supernaturism. I am a former believer.
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