Intermission and Recommended Reading

We are taking a brief break from our current series. I’ve been snowed under at work and wasn’t able to provide timely feedback to our last guest-poster. The intermission should end this weekend. In the meantime, why not check out a few other series I’ve been reading over the past month?

1. Peter Enns is Back
As I posted in April, Peter Enns was suspended from WTS over his controversial book Inspiration and Incarnation. The WTS board announced on May 21st that a Hearing Committee has been formed to review Enns' status at the seminary. A recommendation to the board is due by December. I’d be shocked if Enns was still with WTS come January.

Enns has been a model of integrity throughout this entire affair, and I haven’t seen any public comments from him regarding his suspension. However, he has just posted five articles on his blog defending the claims of I&I:

a. Introduction
b. The Authority of Scripture
c. The Westminster Confession of Faith
d. Inerrancy
e. The Audience of I&I

2. A Wesleyan Minister Publicly Announces his Acceptance of Evolution
Pastor Frank Ritchie from New Zealand runs the blog Servant’s Thoughts. He recently announced (with great trepedation) that he accepts the evidence for biological evolution. Check out this series of posts:

a. I am a Christian who believes in Theistic Evolution
b. Theistic Evolution: My Fears
c. Dr. Graeme Finlay: Christian Scientist

The third post discusses his meeting with Graeme Finlay who has written an excellent article in the most recent PSCF entitled “Human Evolution: How Random Process Fulfils Divine Purpose”. If you joined the ASA, you too could read the entire article. (Who says I can't advertise on my blog :-) )

3. A Series of Delusions
Haven’t had enough of Dawkins yet? Then check out Cliff Martin’s reviews of “The God Delusion” and “The Dawkins Delusion”.

4. Gordon Glover’s Video Series on Science and Education
Had enough reading? Would you rather be watching a video instead? Gordon has started his video series on Science and Education. The first four videos are now up: See video #1, #2, #3, and #4.

5. Saving Darwin Blog Tour
The Science and Religion Today blog is posting articles from Karl Giberson (author of post#8 in the current series here) as he promotes his new book Saving Darwin. Check out:

a) Thoughts on his talk at Wheaton
b) Lawyer, Liar, or Lunatic

New Beginnings

It is the beginning of March, but here in Canada spring is definitely not in the air. Today the snowfall will be 30 cm in Toronto (about 1 foot for those of you using the archaic British Imperial system). It is so miserable outside that even the dogs have refused to venture out. No matter, the sled doesn’t have wireless internet anyways. Fortunately the Igloo does. So, it is a perfect time to highlight some new (or relatively new) blogs hosted in sunnier climes.

1. The Creation of an Evolutionist

Mike Beidler’s recently launched blog documents his “journey from Young-Earth Creationism (YEC) to Evolutionary Creationism (EC)”. He has some good posts on John Walton’s discussion of Genesis: see part 1, part 2 , and part 3.

2. The Heartwood Harold

Dustin is a biologist in the field of conservation genetics. On his blog he writes about the interplay of science and faith. Check out his excellent post on Ants mimicking Fruit which starts with:

It’s no joke, no slight of words on my part. This forthcoming study in the journal American Naturalist details how a group of scientists studying ants in Peru discovered that a parasitic nematode has the ability to modify its host (in this case an ant) to resemble ripe fruit. Apparently, these infected ants (whose rear ends eventually look like red berries) are attractive to and consumed by fruit-eating birds.

He has an interesting discussion on God’s “good” creation which he continues in part 2.

3. Wishing doesn’t make it so

Vera finds herself “in the unfortunate yet fascinating position of being a quasi-Seventh-day Adventist who believes that evolution is true”. On her blog, she tells “the tales of my struggle to make sense.” Being part of the SDA is particularly difficult for those trying to reconcile modern science with their faith since Young Earth Creationism is woven so tightly into much of SDA theology. Check out Vera’s post Virginia was a Sucker.

4. A Time to Tear Down, a Time to Build Up

Peter Enns book Inspiration and Incarnation is on my personal Top-10 list. I think the incarnational model of scripture he articulates is extremely helpful for Evangelicals, particularly those trying to reconcile the inspired Word of God and the findings from modern science, history, biblical studies, and archaeology. Although Enns does not post that frequently on his blog, he does provide some excellent resources including his paper Preliminary Observations on an Incarnational Model of Scripture.

5. Jesus Creed: Series on Science and Faith

Scott McNight’s blog Jesus Creed is doing a series on Science and Faith (HT: To both Dustin and Mike) by blogging about Francis Collins The Language of God. Check out the first post.

Posts of the Month Awards – October 2007

I know that the last time I did something like this was almost 2 months ago, that mid-month is a silly time to be passing out monthly awards, and that some of the posts in contention were actually published late last month. But when PEDEBA (The Panel of “an Evangelical Dialogue on Evolution” Blog Authors) reaches consensus, it acts immediately. So on with the show.

A) Post of the Month Award

*** “Sympathy for the Devil’s Chaplin” by Stephen Matheson (Part-one here and Part-two here):

After much heated debate, PEDEBA unanimously chose Matheson’s two-part series on Richard Dawkins. Matheson gives credit where credit is due. He also apologizes (sort of) for referring to Dawkins as “The Idiot”, highly recommends (some of) his writings, and points out areas where Christian critics have been unfair to the Professor with the Overlong Title. Looks like I’ll have to put Dawkins book “The Extended Phenotype” on my “To Read” list. So many good books, so little time …

B) Honourable Mention

In Chronological Order ...

1) “Theisms, Creationisms, and Evolutionisms: An Exercise in Definition” by Henry Neufeld

Henry Neufeld is a prolific blogger (Ok, just about anyone is prolific compared to my once-a-week-or-so postings) and Evolution-ID-creation is a frequent topic for Henry. I always appreciate his perspective, even when I don’t agree with it. This post provides a good overview of some of the pertinent definitions in the evolution debate. It also references (in the comments) a good discussion on ID’s relationship to YEC at Sun and Shield, the blog of Martin Labar who occasionally comments here on "An Evangelical Dialogue on Evolution".

2) “Biblical Literalism: Fast Track to Atheism” and the “The Evolutionist Conspiracy” by James McGrath

Two good posts in one day (where does he find the time??), the first on the fact that biblical literalism can lead to a loss of faith (as I’ve commented before here) and the second on the myth of the evolution conspiracy.

3) “Randomness in Nature” by Gordon Glover

Gordon Glover, author of Beyond the Firmament, addresses a reader's question on randomness in evolution and how this can be consistent with God’s providence.

4) “The Gift is not like the Trespass” by Stephen Matheson.

Matheson comments on Paul’s argument in Romans 5 comparing Adam's sin and Christ's redemptive work. A very interesting take for those struggling with the issue of the (seemingly) required historicity of Adam.

5) “The Clergy Letter Project: Pastors for Evolution” by Vance McAllister

McAllister points out that many Christian clergy have signed an open letter stating that there is no conflict between the Christian faith and evolution.

C) The Not so Fine Print

PEDEBA deliberated for many hours making these very difficult choices. The Panel’s decision is final. Those who voice their disagreement or disapproval will not be considered for future awards until they submit an essay entitled “How I convinced Richard Dawkins and Ken Ham to agree on just about everything”.

Cliff Martin’s very interesting series on "Entropy and Theodicy" at Outside the Box was originally nominated for consideration. However, it was discovered that Cliff is the 5th cousin of one of the PEDEBA panel members and was thus ruled ineligible for the award. The PEDEBA committee on nepotism, despotism, and endofNOMAtism is currently considering a challenge to this ruling but was unable to reach a decision prior to the randomly selected award deadline.

Award winners receive a significant cash prize of 10% of the revenue generated from "An Evangelical Dialogue on Evolution" during the month in which their post appeared. More significantly, the cash prize is in Canadian Dollars. For my American winners: No, that is not monopoly money, and yes it is worth much more than that boring green stuff you try to sluff off on us. (I have been waiting YEARS to say that!)

Four Evolution and Faith Posts of Interest

I will be spending the next week in the great outdoors and won’t have access to the Internet. So while I take a break from blogging, I’d like to recommend the following four posts on Evolution and the Christian Faith.

1. The Lesson of Ancient Seas by Fuller Theological Seminary President Richard Mouws

I’m probably partial to Fuller for several reasons. One of my favorite authors is Nancey Murphy a professor at Fuller, while Authority and interpretation of the Bible, a book that had a significant impact on my thinking as I posted here, also came out of Fuller. If Evangelicals had looked more to Fuller for intellectual guidance, Mark Noll may not have had any reason to write The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. Still, I guess I was pleasantly surprised to see the current president of Fuller publicly state that evolution is not theologically threatening, and may in fact be positive for the Christian faith.

In his post, Mouw recounts how he abandoned YEC ideas at a young age. He begins his post with the following:

I was 15 years old when I stopped believing in a “young earth.” And it happened, of all places, at a fundamentalist Bible camp. I worked there on the kitchen staff, and one of my fellow workers, a college student, was reading Bernard Ramm’s A Christian View of Science and the Scripture, which had only recently been published. When one of the speakers at the camp denounced Ramm’s book as heretical, my friend secretly showed me his copy - in that context it might as well have been an issue of Playboy! I got him to lend me the book and I read it, and the two of us discussed it at length. We were co-conspirators in a private act of theological rebellion.

I think many of us that grew up in the conservative wing of the Evangelical church can identify strongly with this. Unfortunately, very few of us had access to material like Ramm’s book that espoused both credible faith and credible science.

Mouw ends his post by stating that Evolution may actually be inspiring.

“When Christ took on human nature, the DNA that made him the son of Mary may have linked him to a more ancient heritage stretching far beyond Adam to the shallows of unimaginably ancient seas. And so, in the Incarnation, it would not have been just human nature that was joined to the Divine, but in a less direct but no less real sense all those myriad organisms that had unknowingly over the eons shaped the way for the coming of the human.”

I find that to be an inspiring theme to add to our understanding of the Incarnation. That long process, beginning in “the shallows of unimaginably ancient seas,” was not
wasted time. It was preparation for the One who would come with healing in his wings, a healing that will only be complete when the Savior returns and announces, “Behold, I make all things new.” And what he will renew in that act of cosmic transformation is all the stuff that he had carried–in his own DNA!– to the Cross of Calvary.

Inspiring indeed.

2. Evolution Revisited by Larry Taylor

Larry touches on two themes that I’ve been thinking about recently. The first is the claim made by some Evangelicals that the theory of evolution is the result of a conspiracy. I hope to post on this in the near future. The second, is the fact that Christian anti-evolutionism in general, and Young Earth Creationism in particular, is dangerous. Taylor states of his scientist father:

As far as I can determine my father died an agnostic, in part because he was not able to reconcile what he knew to be true from chemistry and biology with what his fundamentalist upbringing insisted was dogma. I inadvertently helped drive a wedge between him and faith by pushing a very narrow gospel, complete with YEC propaganda, on him. My intentions were good – I wanted him to be in heaven – but my zeal was unfortunately not backed with knowledge.

An excellent post.

3. Wrestling with Evolution by Tim Challies

Sometimes it is tough to keep the blood pressure down when faced with the latest YEC rhetoric denouncing all Evolutionary Creationists as compromising heretics. I must admit that at times it sparks in me the most uncharitable and un-Christian of thoughts. As such, it is refreshing to come across someone committed to YEC ideas that is open to understanding other points of view, and more importantly, admitting that one can “treasure the Bible” and “affirm the truths of the historic Christian Faith” even while accepting the evidence for biological evolution. Tim does this in his post where he reviews Francis Collins The Language of God, a book I briefly reviewed here. I don’t agree with Tim’s answers, or even how he asks some of the questions, but I certainly appreciate the tone of his conversation, and his willingness to seriously consider other points of view. Thanks Tim.

4. Creationism or Evolution Rant by Chris Tilling

I’ve always enjoyed good rants, and this is a particularly good one. Actually, calling it a rant may be a disservice. Most rants are little more than empty rhetoric; biting, funny rhetoric but not usually insightful. This post probably has too much good content to be considered a rant.