O’Leary’s recent columns of interest : On neuroscience implications/applications of intelligent design
| December 26, 2006 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
For links to all go here.
1. A recent ChristianWeek column: Faith@Science: The God gene? Spot? Circuit? Okay, maybe a Module?
(Note: This is the column I wrote shortly after finishing my work on The Spiritual Brain, explaining why notions of a God spot, gene, module, or circuit in the brain are completely ridiculous.)
For more go here.
2. Another recent ChristianWeek column:“Made in the image of God”? What does that mean?
Ever hear of a “humanzee”? Some would hail the hybrid of a human and a chimpanzee as a crowning achievement.
Because chimpanzees are our closest genetic relatives, hybrids have been attempted. According to recently unearthed documents, Joseph Stalin hoped to produce half-man, half-ape super-warriors, but the project came to nothing. The disgraced chief scientist died in the vast Soviet prison system.
But just as often, anti-religious motives fuel the wish for a humanzee. Zoologist Richard Dawkins, who promotes atheism from his chair at Oxford University, has proclaimed that such a hybrid would shake up all our value systems. He argues that differences between the human mind and the chimpanzee mind are only a matter of degree, not kind. Indeed, Spain has been considering giving great apes human rights, and some have argued seriously for reclassifying chimpanzees in the same genus as humans.
For more go here.
3. A third recent ChristianWeek columns: Faith as one of the healing arts
According to an article in Jewish World Review (October 3, 2006) hospitals in the United States have finally begun to pay attention to patients’ religious beliefs. “The last thing you want to worry about while somebody is sick is that they might have to transgress on something they believe in,” says Zahava Cohen, Englewood Hospital’s patient care director (New Jersey). Cohen is surely right; and we can only hope that this trend spreads.
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The way in which we receive health care makes a huge difference to its ultimate effect. This reality has long been disguised under the misnamed and misunderstood “placebo” effect. Literally, the word means “I will please.” Originally, it referred to sugar pills given to a patient who believes that they are potent. Over one third of patients get better simply because they think the placebo is a powerful medicine. The placebo effect probably underlies traditional shamanism. The reason so many tribal Christians continue to surreptitiously visit shamans is not that they are deluded into believing that shamanism works but because it so often does work. Unfortunately, the shaman typically attributes the healing to specific bizarre practices rather than to the power of belief to trigger healing processes.
For more go here.
42 Responses to O’Leary’s recent columns of interest : On neuroscience implications/applications of intelligent design
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This isn’t a reading of the Biblical text; it’s putting the institution in the context of the ANE. It wasn’t (generally) racial; it wasn’t generally forced; it had elements of gaining social mobility; it was a way of allowing the poor to support themselves; and so forth. There are significant differences between slavery in the ANE and slavery in the Americas, and many have correctly noted this.
Rude – I don’t disagree with what you’re saying (and I hope I didn’t give any indication to that regard). Your point about interpreting law is especially cogent, since the same argument could be made about the Constitution since we have a hard time interpreting it consistently. I was sort of playing devil’s advocate regarding Arnhart’s comments.
Arnhart,
One needs to read the rabbis and trace the application of the Torah into the Second Temple and beyond.
One needs also to consider that outside of Israel as once constituted under God, it is advisable that the nations take a moderate stance. A liberal republic or democrcy founded on Torah principles is far safer than some theocratic regime which thinks it has replaced ancient Israel. That is a lesson of Euro-American history and it’s a lesson other parts of the world are now in the process of learning.
Now the question is not whether there should be a designer–it’s whether there is one. Likewise the question is not whether the Torah is what we would like it to be, the question is whether it really is what it claims to be. God–through the prophet–predicts that we won’t like what he says (Isaiah 55:8): “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.”
ID takes up proposal of detecting design in the natural world. This is a modest proposal and one where a “scientific” answer is possible. The question of God, however, and of the God of Israel and the validity of the Bible–dealing with this cuts across many disciplines and (this side of the world to come) we can expect that sincere people will come to different conclusions. But it just happens that a large number of Americans do accept the Torah as God’s word–the book that played a significant role in the founding of their nation.
I can sympathize with those who for whatever reason find that they cannot accept the Torah but still seek common cause with many of its teaching in some other philosophy . I will argue that Darwinism isn’t up to the task, but will welcome those who accept the ethics.
Arnhart- the Bible CANNOT be the foundation of our laws? Odd how that works. I’m sure the founders and their writings would take issue with that statement.
Also- you claim the Bible’s take on slavery is different from the comments posted here…then you conveniently change the sort of “slavery” you’re talking about and talk about prisoners of war. We DO, in fact, take prisoners of war today! I hope you’re aware of that fact. Prisoners of war can’t choose to be released from their contract after 6 yrs? GASP!! How could a military dare do that? Shall we allow murderers to go free from prison after 6 yrs?
You can’t claim the Bible supports southern- style slavery, then back that claim up by suddenly jumping to Biblical law pertaining to military prisoners taken during war!!
The Bible, of course, does not of course condone genocide (the verses you mention are stories of WAR.) War exists- shocking isn’t it? Do you deny that wars exist? Deuteronomy 20 for example is a rallying cry for the people of Israel to fight those who try to steal their land and their resources. I assume you’re a strict pacifist? My morality tells me (and I think most Americans agree) that we have to fight those who hate us and want to destroy us, or we will be overtaken by them!
This is why, in my opinion, atheists can’t often be trusted to study the Bible and teach it. Arnhart here gets more than a few things completely wrong…why? His goal is to attack the Bible, and when attacking something is your goal, your study of the subject usually isn’t too precise or careful.
Rude,
ID denies Biblical theology. It assumes a dichotomy such that either living beings naturally evolved or they were intelligently designed.
Dembski’s “explanatory filter” means that if we can explain something as a product of natural regularities or chance, then we cannot attribute this to design. But the Biblical theology of Creation ex nihilo would say that everything is intelligently designed by God–either through His design of natural laws (including evolution) or through His designing things outside His natural laws. For that reason, many Christian scientists believe that if all living things could be explained as products of Darwinian natural evolution, this would be a wondrous manifestation of God’s power for intelligently designing natural laws to execute His purposes.
Whether God works through the ordinary laws of nature or through extraordinary miracles, it’s all an expression of His intelligent design.
From this point of view of Christian theology, Darwinian evolution is intelligent design. (This is suggested by Darwin’s “There is grandeur in this view of life . . . .”)
It should be pointed out that most of what Arnhart wasn’t to go to in the Bible to support his claim is text that pertains to a SPECIFIC nation (Israel). And the law and rules for that particular nation.
Would I automatically take all the laws for Israel and use them in the US? Not all of them, because we, as Americans, never faced the exact threats the nation of Israel did. We never needed military law that dealt with the type of warfare that would take place in a nation completely surrounded by enemy nations (we’re surrounded by 2 oceans!) We don’t have a temple- so we don’t need certain religious laws that pertain specifically to the temple and behavior in and around the temple.
Most of these laws aren’t global univerals, they’re specific for a time period and place. Some of the OT laws are univerals- thou shall not murder (it IS murder not “kill”- God makes it clear that the nation of Israel would have to fight battles with their enemies in order to stay on the map) is one of those univerals.
Oh wow. Didn’t someone point out that Darwin, when he spoke of a “creator” never meant God or anything like that? Dawkins talks about the granduer of life and the world, but he’s a strict atheist. So, taking Darwin’s language and attempting (and badly, at that) to give it religious meaning is absurd.
Furthermore- I don’t think I’ve ever seen any argue that a series of blind unguided accidents over billions of years is in any way intelligent design, let alone a fit for Biblical theology!
Then again, I’m sort of confused. The first half of his last comment stated that ID cannot fit with the bible, but that natural laws working on sheer dumb luck, with no guidance, no plan, and no purpose accidentally creating humans is somehow Biblical. I think we’re reading from a different Bible, that’s for sure!
So blind accidents are Biblical and thoughtful guided processes are not? Or is this argument just too confusing for me to grasp?
arnhart
The American constitutional framers rightly wrote the Constitution so that it never mentions the God of the Bible, and its only reference to religion is the “no religious test†clause.
One needs to keep in mind America is a federation of largely independent states, particularly independent when the federal constitution was written. The central gov’t didn’t give a nod to God in the constitution but 45 of the states did in their constitutions.
List of Preambles to US State Constitutions
RE thechristiancynic #31:
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
In response to Larry Arnhart:
“ID denies Biblical theology.†Maybe soâ€â€but there are those who say that “Biblical†theology isn’t really biblical, i.e., Gerhard May (Creatio Ex Nihilo: The Doctrine of ‘Creation Out of Nothing’ in Early Christian Though).
“It assumes a dichotomy such that either living beings naturally evolved or they were intelligently designed.†Hmm … what are the logical possibilities? We’ve always been here … David Berlinski’s “sheer dumb luck†in slow Darwinian fashion or suddenly popping into existence … design by a designer?
“Dembski’s ‘explanatory filter’ means that if we can explain something as a product of natural regularities or chance, then we cannot attribute this to design.†Is there any other way? If the forensic experts can’t show intent then we chalk it up to time and chance.
“But the Biblical theology of Creation ex nihilo would say that everything is intelligently designed by God–either through His design of natural laws (including evolution) or through His designing things outside His natural laws.
Dembski’s design filter doesn’t deny design anywhere. If the laws of physics are contingentâ€â€David Berlinski reminds us that we may not know enough about mathematics to be sure about thisâ€â€but if they are contingent then their “fine tuning†points to design. Materialists, however, opt for many worlds (see Martin Rees’ Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape the Universe).
“For that reason, many Christian scientists believe that if all living things could be explained as products of Darwinian natural evolution, this would be a wondrous manifestation of God’s power for intelligently designing natural laws to execute His purposes.†Except that it would make God unnecessary this side of his designing of the lawsâ€â€which is Deismâ€â€which was favored by the Enlightenment because it freed us from any responsibility to the Hebrew God of history.
“Whether God works through the ordinary laws of nature or through extraordinary miracles, it’s all an expression of His intelligent design.†Two misconceptions emerge here: 1) If God made matter and then waited for chance and necessity (“sheer dumb luckâ€Â) to produce Adamâ€â€the laws were designed but Adam wasn’t. If God expresses his agency via the laws then it’s not Darwinism. Richard Dawkins understands this. 2) Intelligent Design does not invoke miracles if by miracle you mean the suspension of the laws of nature. Did the design in the Apollo rocket arise by miracle?
“From this point of view of Christian theology, Darwinian evolution is intelligent design. (This is suggested by Darwin’s ‘There is grandeur in this view of life . . . .’)†No it isn’t! The materialists understand this. Either you explain with chance and necessity and exclude design (a la Monod), or you admit design (as does Intelligent Design).
Now invokes less materialist rage the further back in time that he invokes design. Push it back before the Big Bang and the ACLU hardly notices. Extend it to the origin of life and you raise a few eyebrows, but challenge Darwin and you’d better watch your scalp.
Why do you think this is?
I’d be about as happy having Old Testament law for the law of this land as I would the sharia. They are quite similar. Anyone who makes excuses for the things in the Old Testament either hasn’t read it or isn’t able to be objective. I find it odd that God should be excused for such poor training of his people in what should have been the highest morals on the planet.
It was OK for a man to strike his slave an kill him, if he didn’t die right away. If he died right away, he got a fine. A man could only take freedom from slavery if he abandoned his wife and children. Wives and children didn’t get freedom at all. If he wouldn’t abandon them, he forever gave up his right to any freedom. The old testament did command that the Hebrews kill women and children – that is, when they didn’t save the virgin girls for the men. There is even one of those war passages in which it glorifies the ripping of babies out of the wombs of the mothers. Even the psalms, usually beautiful, contains one in which the author delights in victory, and that he will “dash their infants against the rocks.”
How would you like it if America were invaded, and you and your wife and son were killed, but your 12-year-old daughter, after watching this, was kept as booty for a soldier? This is God we’re talking about.
There is not one entity posing as God in the Old Testament. There are two. The Lord is not Jehovah. If they were the same, why did Isaiah say “I am sick of your fatted calfs”? Why did Jesus quote Hosea thus: “I will have mercy and not sacrifice?”
First- the view of “slavery” is wrong. You’re referring mainly to prisoners who were forced into servitude. We still make prisoners work today- licence plates come to mind…being the stereotypical job for inmates.
As for dashing children against rocks- Psalm 137:9 does NOT say that the author will do this or that he will enjoy this. He is telling of a FUTURE event that will happen at the hands of two warring factions.
God, in this verse is talking about the Babylonians and how they had become wicked. They would be defeated in battle by the persians and other factions that fight war against them and that some soldiers in the ranks will kill children and will enjoy it. That’s merely an observation of a sad future event that will take place.
Like I said before, some people refuse to study the Bible carefully, which results in mistakes like these.
If I said “one day a nation will rise in the middle east, and they will blow up innocent children and they will revel in it” that’s simply an observation of a sick people…not an acceptance of the act or even a blessing on that act.
As for slavery- here is a detailed look into the Bible and “servants” (the translation into English isn’t perfect…the Bible, as written, in English, should read servant and servitude not slavery and slave.) As others keep trying to point out- you have to look at the context of HISTORY, the era these events took place, the culture of the ANE, etc.
http://www.christian-thinktank.com/qnoslave.html
So…when you actually take the time to truly study the issue and understand it, you see that uou can, in fact (and we do, in fact) use OT law as our moral foundation and legal foundation as well.
Avocationist says,
“I’d be about as happy having Old Testament law for the law of this land as I would the sharia.â€Â
But the Torah is the deed to a specific piece of real estate andâ€â€unlike that other traditionâ€â€there is no Torah injunction to enforce the word beyond the borders of that piece of real estate. The New Testament, which by the way upholds the authority of the Old (John 10:35; 2Timothy 3:16; etc.), condones no such stratagem either. So I shouldn’t worry that today’s Scripture respecting Judeo-Christians are about to enforce a theocracy on the rest of us.
Also as various here have saidâ€â€the Torah presupposes divine guidance (urim & tummim, etc.) within Israel, something that it does not presuppose out there in the nations.
And then there’s the little thing of viewing a culture across time. One can imagine that from the perspective of the far future our own society might look pretty repugnant. It is interesting that our worst tyrants have loathed in particular the Old Testament, whereas the founders of our nation loved it.
You decry “Anyone who makes excuses for the things in the Old Testament …†Well not for excuses but for some real Torah wisdom let me recommend The Jewish Ethicist. Wonderful refreshing stuff. You do, however, bring up an interesting point. Intelligent Design is not about the book of Scripture, only the book of Nature. Intelligent Designâ€â€thankfully!â€â€is not an organized movement embroiled in arguments over both books. Secularists would far rather pick at Genesis and the rest of the Torah than face the falseness of their own creation myth.
But what happens when elite society decides the book of Nature and the book of Scripture are in serious contradiction? And what do you think might happen when elite society once again decides that the two books are not in contradiction? These are valid questions for the nation. Phillip Johnson who, when wearing his ID hat, councils that we stay out of Genesis, nevertheless says we must decide, “Are we one nation under God? Or are we one nation under Darwin?â€Â