tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28187031749636945042024-03-09T04:00:21.010-06:00Know ThyselfΓνῶθι Σεαυτόν: A blog about religion, story, and most of all trying to understand our place and importance in this worldKeith Reichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10679244684706964812noreply@blogger.comBlogger267125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2818703174963694504.post-78043078801480777142017-09-14T07:52:00.001-05:002017-09-30T11:55:43.478-05:00DIY Summer IV: Demolition IIThis is the fourth in my DIY summer series. Parts <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/08/diy-summer.html">I</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/08/diy-summer-ii-concept.html">II</a>, and <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/09/diy-summer-iii-demolition-i.html">III</a> are linked here. This post will deal with the two openings I had to make in my center load-bearing wall. <br>
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First, I had to make a brand new opening in the wall to connect the kitchen to the living room. This was necessitated by the fact that I would be closing off the opening from the kitchen to the hallway to make a brand new pantry. This isn't the best picture to show, but the opening on the right hand side of the photograph is where the new pantry is going to go. That opening lead to the hallway and bedrooms and one could also go from the hallway into the living room. By closing off the kitchen-hallway entrance, I would need a new opening from the kitchen to the living room.<br>
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The first thing to do was to cut through the plaster and remove all of the wall, slightly larger than the new 3' opening. To cut the plaster in somewhat straight lines, I used a sawzall with a concrete cutting blade. It worked fairly well. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFpk8c5x_6K5UkYYSkhA_jbRfhNQsninTbK6Y7NjcnHPDEGZwV5UAwRwEH6O7pv7bSUETzMNyaxzYAiJDQWVcDR08PQgdBo9jJo3DdkHFH7LvUoFfX6ly9H7Cs73EaqsomsqaWH62YiFMC/s1600/IMG_5943.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFpk8c5x_6K5UkYYSkhA_jbRfhNQsninTbK6Y7NjcnHPDEGZwV5UAwRwEH6O7pv7bSUETzMNyaxzYAiJDQWVcDR08PQgdBo9jJo3DdkHFH7LvUoFfX6ly9H7Cs73EaqsomsqaWH62YiFMC/s640/IMG_5943.JPG" width="480" id="id_8d35_d2fc_1ba9_7dc0" style="width: 480px; height: auto;"></a></div>
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Above is the new opening from kitchen to living room. On the left you can see the opening to the hallway which will become the new pantry. </div>
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Because this is a load bearing wall, I would need to create a new header to bear the load across the new opening. I chose two sandwiched 2'x10's as my header. This is a bit of overkill for a 3' opening, but I already had the wood from the other header I would have to build. The next task was to create a temporary support wall alongside the current wall so that I could remove the studs and install the new header and supports. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><img id="id_a49c_28aa_57f7_d1ac" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpm1Ajb7bIRQ6WVNsL7cShfqxJn5FQiOzxV1L8qv-gO-YFv_WacgEOYy2xvXiQHJ6mp7Eqn5fY4laPAVJBggQ1gnUm7CqOh1kfBifqRqQS6MSZtaHxW5sgPSL8Zig1nhRPTJCnDuPggWyU/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 353px; height: auto;"><br>Here is the temporary support wall. Now to take out the studs and install the new header. To support the header it would take a king stud on each side and two jack studs under the header on both sides. <img id="id_8928_113d_8466_d613" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhobHe7ZUwrtSRBNjVRzAB83oUoejH87FfrawPxU5TK43crCHQELXfma4f39aJcLu3PBDEkLeWEkDw4OAzNvgILmzJL64Pby22O3uejriTfkumGNeny-bq2122MVhouLyaHJiqU86hIf524/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 353px; height: auto;"><br>Above is the new opening. Following the same process with the bigger opening yielded the results below. With the 8’ door opening I was unable to lift the two sandwiched 2’x10’s on my own. I was supposed to have help from a colleague but a last minute trip meant that he was unavailable. I had to un-sandwich the 2’x10’s and put them in place one at a time and then screw them together. In the end I had one new opening and an 8’ opening instead of the old 4’ opening. <br><img id="id_fa5d_f692_46cc_b888" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA8guDivJwja4KVGTZAUTAdETCr8VqxOqzG2W3Ra6zKuBaNnJyVGxdKPbv1m5K3MaqkZLRvJT8MyzboH01zE4NLz74VCFoNCULyR_KUFDdYDe-h6y4Aleh81rMVnxlaj6oqIKy1xmAkEVs/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 353px; height: auto;"><br><img id="id_b6ec_e43a_607d_9007" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjybjrGqv8UL-f4lxiaF7leyjafPcfSRm7nLd3Yw5fvyWp4mjjywcDdJa6wakCjZr0rj9o3wlrdp7TTFKTxPr_Cuxqdy_ckmIA5znxbvwcxZc8XfKiWEB_y-sQYakMzGW7Z_mm64SQW8PE_/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 353px; height: auto;"><br><br><img id="id_630c_f1c7_d69b_ea69" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUoylFHGYVV9f-Zp7zTc2v_B0aKlS8614cO9YwqH_RUffjOKPmboyWyYy4tl0fvP1TBMKK6vpqBsrJ-aNYKwDeY8lcCOOUuQz7ucRuomrha-kqRMw_iVLzNVTVk5H96Qc4ViB9Hslyl6y6/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 353px; height: auto;"><br>With those openings the demolition was complete and the construction could begin. Come back soon for the construction. </div>
Keith Reichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10679244684706964812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2818703174963694504.post-18112868550959729452017-09-12T07:59:00.001-05:002017-09-12T07:59:48.005-05:00DIY Summer III: Demolition IHaving explained the concept in part II of this series, I now move on to demolition. Demo is many people's favorite part of a construction project. It's where you get to let loose with a sledge hammer and take out some of your frustrations. Well, that is all well and good if you don't actually plan on living in and using your home during the remodel. Unfortunately, my home needed to stay usable during the demo, so, I had to go a bit slower, be a bit cleaner, and avoid destroying the still-in-use kitchen.<br />
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I began by removing the walls concealing the chimney, the back entrance cavern, and the strange refrigerator cubby. Here is before the demo began.<br />
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The first picture is from the back entrance looking toward the small pantry. The wall to the right of the pantry conceals the chimney. The second picture looks from the kitchen toward the back entrance, the wall concealing the chimney, and the refrigerator cutout. . All of this would have to go. \<br />
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Taking off the wall plaster reveals the chimney. This chimney had already been removed below the roofline, so at least this project would not include roofing. But I still had to take the chimney down in the attic and then work in the kitchen. Plaster walls are a bear. Mine did not use the common wood lath with plaster on top. Instead, my walls were constructed of 2'x3' plaster boards (a predecessor to drywall) with a layer of plaster on top. All in all, the walls were 1" thick of plaster, making them hard to break and heavy to carry.<br />
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At this point we hit the first major snag in the plan. In the picture above, you can see the black pipe. That is the main sewer exhaust pipe, and it is made of cast iron. I could try and move it, or leave it in place. If left in place, it would constrict my plans to push the kitchen wall all the way back to the left. Add to this, the fact that the wall in line with the sewer pipe turned out to be load bearing. Ugh. In the end, I decided to leave the sewer pipe and most of the load bearing section of the wall, which would mean holding the kitchen wall out about 2 feet from the left.<br />
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Taking down the chimney was absolutely the dirtiest job I have ever done. I had help from my colleague, Dr. Ed Snyder. Because I did not want to have to redo the tile floor, we had to be very careful. I put down pads and blankets to protect the tile, then we basically removed the chimney brick by brick with a 4lb. hammer and pry bar. There was who knows how many years of grimy soot baked in to all the bricks and by the end of the day, both Ed and I were quite a sight. After the chimney was removed below the floor line, I placed a couple pieces of plywood over the hole to avoid late night accidents. </div>
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Next: Demo 2, openings in load bearing walls.</div>
Keith Reichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10679244684706964812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2818703174963694504.post-89237174299407159802017-08-27T15:26:00.000-05:002017-08-27T15:26:33.259-05:00DIY Summer II: The ConceptOur cape cod style home has a pretty traditional layout. Approximately 1/2 of the square footage is dedicated to three bedrooms, two baths and a hallway. The other 1/2 is made up of a decent sized living room, and modest sized kitchen and dining room. Each of these rooms is completely enclosed with walls and small doorways. We cook a lot, and I do mean we. Both Brooke and I share the cooking and now our four year old is getting into the mix. The kitchen, which was redone shortly before we bought the house, has become the most crowded room in the home. There is not enough counter space, so we are always running into each other.<br />
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Our first ideas about how to remedy this small kitchen was to take down virtually all walls between kitchen, dining room, and living room, creating a great room that would only be partitioned by furniture. This dream quickly died due to practicality and cost. But, we still wanted to make improvements. Therefore, we came up with several scaled back versions of the project.<br />
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First, let's look at the before layout and pictures.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHJDIJzChl479IGsxH_jCCNrv63L-5isbyoJibx3vWNNUeDq0xcLGkFQh8k3XArmsHfXCeSKcATt2aRd5lngHBOiwbimQfqtcW6V2ku20rlbCOgrDa9Ei77KlUMPBOBiRk7IF8CrKudAfR/s1600/Kitchen+Before.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1310" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHJDIJzChl479IGsxH_jCCNrv63L-5isbyoJibx3vWNNUeDq0xcLGkFQh8k3XArmsHfXCeSKcATt2aRd5lngHBOiwbimQfqtcW6V2ku20rlbCOgrDa9Ei77KlUMPBOBiRk7IF8CrKudAfR/s640/Kitchen+Before.jpeg" width="523" /></a></div>
The layout is in 1/4 scale. First one can see the cramped entrance. Next, to get from the kitchen to the living room one either hast to walk through the dining room or walk into the hallway and make a U turn into the living room. Looking at the pictures, the first photo is the back door entrance to a very small vestibule with a small door to our minuscule pantry. This always felt like coming into a small cavern. The next photo is looking into the kitchen from the vestibule.<br />
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Continuing into the kitchen, one can see the slightly dated appliances and the entrance into the dining room.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoXuxuEl2exmmgYpd8aHC6ZYEli8OQkBFFxfp_2NOOjs2dnvA6p7lIGVeto9YGBYAN-t8UxgCVD43Xchs8_hhsNJZXZYuxwUSRNfZs_YRFfOvJFN0za7I4p52MSC3eZze9symIb5_bJQot/s1600/Kitchen+Back+Entrance+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoXuxuEl2exmmgYpd8aHC6ZYEli8OQkBFFxfp_2NOOjs2dnvA6p7lIGVeto9YGBYAN-t8UxgCVD43Xchs8_hhsNJZXZYuxwUSRNfZs_YRFfOvJFN0za7I4p52MSC3eZze9symIb5_bJQot/s640/Kitchen+Back+Entrance+3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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If we move toward the dining room and shoot back into the kitchen, one can see many problems. First, is the cramped nature of the back entrance. The second is the awkward cutout for the refrigerator. To the left of the refrigerator is a wall (also you can see this area to the right of the small pantry from the back entrance and the X on the layout drawing). The reason that wall is there is that, behind it is an old, unused chimney. My best guess is that it was for an old wood burning stove. It has long since been walled in. That chimney really eats up usable space in the kitchen and its removal will be a major part of the remodel.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO1NZHAK-X7XRS2hZRZBHYuRuG-NZHEuNYETQCahWxY_XK96QVCB2274uVrU9rGELTEHvGix9tWI1zVZcRV-sSpxoq7Uy8iEEgw3YFVoJPlmwEKVUT2fjt1yp1Lh_BucFtfzQHGAWXHail/s1600/Kitchen+from+DR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO1NZHAK-X7XRS2hZRZBHYuRuG-NZHEuNYETQCahWxY_XK96QVCB2274uVrU9rGELTEHvGix9tWI1zVZcRV-sSpxoq7Uy8iEEgw3YFVoJPlmwEKVUT2fjt1yp1Lh_BucFtfzQHGAWXHail/s640/Kitchen+from+DR.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Looking back from the Hallway, one can again see the outdated appliances and the slightly cramped nature of the kitchen due to the wall along the right hand side that encompasses the chimney.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHNMUu5oEdIXiiJIjfZpVcMNn_AEM9vE6rm-hUkCAK1CLPKEnmBK20YeelEao9-spsGxd6CHCV53PoLwv41aLkzbTNLiiq2cksIJdgPaWXJXeIGnccGNnAdzidc0N1P1og-Ik4m9V_bBMy/s1600/Kitchen+Plan.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1286" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHNMUu5oEdIXiiJIjfZpVcMNn_AEM9vE6rm-hUkCAK1CLPKEnmBK20YeelEao9-spsGxd6CHCV53PoLwv41aLkzbTNLiiq2cksIJdgPaWXJXeIGnccGNnAdzidc0N1P1og-Ik4m9V_bBMy/s640/Kitchen+Plan.jpeg" title="" width="514" /></a></div>
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This was the plan we came up with. There are several improvements included in this plan. First and most extensive, is along the left hand side of the kitchen as you enter from the back. The plan calls for the removal of the small pantry, the walled-in chimney, and the refrigerator nook. It also involves building a new pantry where the entry to the hallway was. We would have to make a new opening between the kitchen and living room. Then, along the left wall, we would install new cabinets and move the oven to this wall along with a overhead exhaust hood. We would move the refrigerator against the back wall and get all new cabinets and countertops throughout. It also includes removing the top half of the wall between the kitchen and dining room, making a peninsula and providing a more open feel. Finally, we wanted to enlarge the 4 foot opening between the living room and dining room into an 8 foot opening. And, of course, what is a new kitchen without new appliances? So, that was part of the plan as well.<br />
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We were planning all of this during my spring semester and as the end of the semester drew nearer we were having a really hard time deciding on cabinets and countertops. We just didn't want to rush the choice, so we decided to defer on the new cabinets and countertops and split the project into two phases. We would make all of the previously named changes this summer (phase 1) except the cabinets, countertops, removing the top half of the wall between kitchen and dining room, and moving the oven to the left wall. We will make all of those changes in Phase 2.<br />
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Stay tuned as I blog through the rest of the project!Keith Reichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10679244684706964812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2818703174963694504.post-27240527268540291232017-08-18T15:38:00.001-05:002017-08-18T15:38:44.326-05:00DIY Summer<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCMq-1gIUhA98gnrZnEy3m8enA5QicS2kWfXq3xO7SopQx8Bx095j77NXK1yPHHSCx7v5-XyecJglhNxCxeFMOY8ayS2sUcTUdvYZ5GqhtpFZTbNk6xsxyRxs-g0dh4MtYRpEwLPkit8Br/s1600/IMG_5897.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCMq-1gIUhA98gnrZnEy3m8enA5QicS2kWfXq3xO7SopQx8Bx095j77NXK1yPHHSCx7v5-XyecJglhNxCxeFMOY8ayS2sUcTUdvYZ5GqhtpFZTbNk6xsxyRxs-g0dh4MtYRpEwLPkit8Br/s400/IMG_5897.JPG" width="300" /></a>Ironically, the most popular post, by a wide margin, that I have ever published on this blog has nothing to do with my expertise or the topics that I usually post on, namely Religion and the New Testament. The post "<a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2010/06/doctor-handyman-and-horse-shelter.html">Doctor Handyman and the Horse Shelter,</a>" published in June of 2010 has had over 16,000 page views over the life of the blog. It was a post about building a horse shelter near Waco, TX.<br />
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Well, that was before I got a full time teaching job, and I have not done much construction since, but this Summer I undertook a kitchen remodeling project. It was a difficult but fulfilling project and took nearly all three months of my Summer break. I think most aspects of the project came out very well and we love our new kitchen. Over the next several posts, I am going to recount this project for anyone who might be interested. If you read this blog for New Testament/Religion topics, you will not find for a bit and can skip any posts with DIY in the title.Keith Reichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10679244684706964812noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2818703174963694504.post-56927249392725723362017-03-30T09:10:00.000-05:002017-03-30T09:10:00.302-05:00Finding Darwin's God IX<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Darwins-God-Scientists-Evolution/dp/0061233501/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486563486&sr=8-1&keywords=finding+darwin%27s+god" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">Miller, Ken.<i> Finding Darwin’s God: A Scientist’s Search for Common Ground between God and Evolution</i>.New York: Harper Perennial, 2007. ISBN: 978-0061233500.</a><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/02/finding-darwins-god-i.html">Part I</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/02/finding-darwins-god-ii.html">Part II</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/02/finding-darwins-god-iii.html">Part III</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/03/finding-darwins-god-iv.html">Part IV</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/03/finding-darwins-god-v.html">Part V</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/03/finding-darwins-god-vi.html">Part VI</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/03/finding-darwins-god-vii.html">Part VII</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/03/finding-darwins-god-viii.html">Part VIII</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In his final chapter, titled "Finding Darwin's God," Miller sets out to do three things. First, he rejects the common path of finding in the natural world something apparently unexplainable by scientists and assigning the explanation to God. He notes that theists have often hung their hopes on science's unsolved mysteries as the unique domain of God's work, God's fingerprints on creation. Yet, for Miller, this is a losing hand for theists to play. Sure, science has not yet been able to explain everything. Yet, they have explained a lot, and they are finding new answers every day. The minute that a theist draws a line in the sand and says that some unexplained mystery must be the domain of God's work, a scientist comes along and explains that mystery. Then, the case for theism is damaged. This view has often been called the God of the gaps theory because it places God into the gaps of scientific knowledge. The problem is that as time goes by, those gaps continue to shrink, as does the supposed domain of God's work. Instead, Miller claims, one should expect the natural world to have natural, scientific explanations, and to be confident that scientists will continue to find explanations for the previously unexplained mysteries of the universe. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Second, Miller argues that a common refrain of anti-theist scientists, that science proves that the universe has no meaning or purpose, is not a scientific claim at all. He says that when these scientists make these claims, they are using their credibility as scientists, and claiming the backing of science, but that they have wandered outside of the bounds of science in these proclamations. Science does not assign purpose or meaning to the universe. It cannot. So, in the same vein, it cannot assign purposelessness or meaninglessness to the universe. </span><br />
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Finally, Miller wants to answer the question of what kind of God science and evolution has led him to believe in. He answers with a quote from the last sentence of Darwin's <i>Origin</i> as follows:<br />
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"There is a grandeur in this view of life; with its several powers having been originally breathed by the Creator into new forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most wonderful and most beautiful have been, and are being evolved." What kind of God do I believe in? The answer is in those words. I believe in Darwin's God. (292). </blockquote>
Keith Reichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10679244684706964812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2818703174963694504.post-45535074158665478602017-03-28T08:54:00.001-05:002017-03-28T08:54:17.377-05:00Finding Darwin's God VIII<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Darwins-God-Scientists-Evolution/dp/0061233501/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486563486&sr=8-1&keywords=finding+darwin%27s+god" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">Miller, Ken.<i> Finding Darwin’s God: A Scientist’s Search for Common Ground between God and Evolution</i>.New York: Harper Perennial, 2007. ISBN: 978-0061233500.</a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/02/finding-darwins-god-i.html">Part I</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/02/finding-darwins-god-ii.html">Part II</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/02/finding-darwins-god-iii.html">Part III</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/03/finding-darwins-god-iv.html">Part IV</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/03/finding-darwins-god-v.html">Part V</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/03/finding-darwins-god-vi.html">Part VI</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/03/finding-darwins-god-vii.html">Part VII</a></span><br />
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In chapter eight, titled "The Road Back Home," Miller discusses some of the implications of the findings of science on a religious person's faith in God. Or, to put it another way, he goes into a theological discussion of what kind of God can be seen as compatible with the findings of modern science. In short, his answer is that the findings of modern science do not at all contradict the traditional God of the western monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). This chapter seems to be a catch-all chapter for discussing some of the religious objections to evolution.<br />
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First, he lays out three foundational beliefs about God shared by all three western monotheistic religions. These are: 1) the primacy of God in the universe, 2) we exist as the direct result of God's will, and 3) God has revealed himself to us.<br />
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Miller then walks the reader through some of the findings of modern science to demonstrate that science does not contradict these core beliefs of theists. He begins with the scientific findings that the universe did in fact have a beginning. If the universe had no beginning, then perhaps the view of God as creator would become untenable. Yet, the universe did have a beginning in the so-called big bang, and science has discovered when it was.<br />
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Next, Miller discusses what has been called the anthropic principle. In short, the anthropic principle states that the universe, and specifically a few constants (constant physical forces) in the universe: gravity, strong nuclear force, and electromagnetism, for example, make possible the development of life. If any one of these constants were just slightly higher or lower, then life would not be possible. Miller, quoting Stephen Hawking, writes: "'If the rate of expansion one second after the big bang had been smaller by even one part in a hundred thousand million million it would have recollapsed before it reached its present size.' Conversely, if <i>g</i> were smaller, the dust from the big bang would just have continued to expand, never coalescing into galaxies, stars, planets, or us" (227-228).<br />
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Miller notes that these constants by no means prove the existence of God, they also speak to how wonderfully hospitable this universe is to life, such that even strong atheists, such as Daniel Dennet note the danger of the anthropic principle. Miller quotes Dennet as follows:<br />
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Believers in any of the proposed strong versions of the Anthropic Principle think they can deduce something wonderful and surprising from the fact the we conscious observers are here--for instance, that in some sense the universe exists <i>for</i> us, or that perhaps we exist <i>so that</i> the universe as a whole can exist, ore even that God created the universe the way He did so that we would be possible (228).</blockquote>
The next issue that Miller tackles is the notion of luck or chance. Many religionists object to evolution on the ground that, they say, God would not have left creation to chance, as evolution holds. Yes, Miller concedes, evolution does rely on chance, especially in the appearance of mutations. Yet, for him, the existence of chance in no way nullifies the existence of God. Miller compares evolutionary chance to historical chance. If chance can play a part in history, determining the rise and fall of human empires and the like, then of course it can play a part in evolution. Neither discounts the existence of God. Moreover, without the element of chance, there can be no free will, no free creatures, and no true love of God.<br />
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Miller moves on to discussing the role of God in a self-sufficient universe as described by modern science. First of all, Miller does not discount miracles. He claims no philosophical worldview that would deny the possibility of miracles. That said, he says that natural phenomena have natural, scientific explanations. Miller also claims that God can be seen at work through natural, scientific phenomena. For example, he explains that the very existence of the universe cannot be explained through science alone. God, according to Miller is responsible for the existence of the universe.<br />
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In short sections, Miller refutes the idea that God would not have taken so long to get to his crowning achievement, humans; and the idea that evolution is too cruel to be the process by which humans were created. His refutation of the first is simply that God is patient and not bound by time as humans are. His answer to the second is twofold. First, cruelty is relative and nature can be seen as cruel, or beautiful. Second, the real surprise in life is not that nature can be cruel, but that something like altruism exists at all. <br />
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In the end, I found this the weakest chapter in the book so far. There are some great insights in this chapter, but as a whole, the organization was a little weak and slipshod. Some of Miller's generalizations about religion were not nuanced enough. In the end though, Miller does present plausible reasons why evolution need not be a threat to traditional belief in God.<br />
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<br />Keith Reichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10679244684706964812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2818703174963694504.post-33471419738247311622017-03-22T13:06:00.004-05:002017-03-22T13:06:58.732-05:00Finding Darwin's God VII<br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Darwins-God-Scientists-Evolution/dp/0061233501/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486563486&sr=8-1&keywords=finding+darwin%27s+god" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">Miller, Ken.<i> Finding Darwin’s God: A Scientist’s Search for Common Ground between God and Evolution</i>.New York: Harper Perennial, 2007. ISBN: 978-0061233500.</a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/02/finding-darwins-god-i.html">Part I</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/02/finding-darwins-god-ii.html">Part II</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/02/finding-darwins-god-iii.html">Part III</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/03/finding-darwins-god-iv.html">Part IV</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/03/finding-darwins-god-v.html">Part V</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/03/finding-darwins-god-vi.html">Part VI</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In chapter seven, titled “Beyond Materialism,” Miller
questions whether materialism spells the end of God.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">First, he notes, that with the increasing
knowledge of humans, which got dramatic boost with the rise of modern science,
the place of gods and goddesses in the universe began to shrink. Miller puts it
this way:</span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Then something happened. Something wonderful. A few of our
ancestors began to learn the rules by which nature worked, and after a while,
we no longer needed Apollo to pull the sun’s chariot across the sky.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We no longer needed Ceres to waken seeds from
winter sleep. The movements of the sun and moon became part of a mechanism, a
celestial machine in which each motion could be calculated and explained (p.
193).</blockquote>
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Thus began the retreat of the gods in the natural world, and
it has not stopped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Science has
continually filled gaps in human understanding of nature and the gods have lost
their everyday role.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This situation
naturally led to Deism, the idea that God was the great architect who designed
the natural world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or, to use another
more common view, God was the master watchmaker who constructed the natural
world and its natural laws, then wound up the clock and let it go. Yet, Miller
notes, Deism failed on two counts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>First, it failed because it did not line up with the view of God in the
great western religions which views God as personal and involved in the world.
The Deistic watchmaker has no interaction with the natural world on a
day-to-day basis. Perhaps more significantly, Deism did not line up with the
progression of scientific knowledge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Deism might have persisted if scientific knowledge ended with a
Newtonian universe of cause and effect dictated by concrete unbreakable
laws.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet, science did progress, putting
an end to the Newtonian, deterministic universe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Enter quantum physics. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Max Planck, a German physicist, came up with quantum theory
in the early 1900s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without getting too
deep into the science, which frankly is beyond me, he theorized that light,
which we knew behaved like a wave, also behaved like a particle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He came up with a unit of light called a
photon. Others noticed that these photons of light behaved rather strangely.
These subatomic particles of light do not always behave according to fixed
physical laws in a Newtonian way such that we can absolutely predict the
results.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, Miller explains, a
common household mirror reflects about 95% of the light hitting it. The other
5% passes right through the mirror.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
strange behavior of the photons occurs in that it is completely unpredictable
which 5% of the photons will be reflected and which will pass through. Miller
writes,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If we rig up an experiment in which we fire a single photon at our
mirror, we cannot predict in advance what will happen, no matter how precise
our knowledge of the system might be. Most of the time, that photon is going to
come bouncing off; but one time out of twenty, on average, it’s going to go
right through the mirror.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is
nothing we can do, not even in principle, to figure out when that one chance in
twenty is going to come up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It means
that the outcome of each individual experiment is unpredictable in principle (p. 200). </blockquote>
<o:p></o:p></div>
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Take this further, and Werner Heisenberg came up which his “uncertainty principle,” in which he stated that the nature of subatomic particles is inherently unpredictable. What is the upshot of these developments in quantum physics,
according to Miller?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is that the
universe is not a deterministic physical system that obeys physical laws in a
Newtonian fashion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, on the macro level,
this quantum indeterminacy behaves according to statistical averages, which allows scientific predictions on a large scale. This is why science works, and
why the physical world largely behaves according to physical laws.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet, at its core, the system has a built-in
uncertainty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to Miller, it is
this quantum indeterminacy that allows for true freedom and frees us from a
deterministic physical system. It frees us from a Deistic god who designs and
winds up the watch and then leaves it to its own devices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It leaves room for the workings of God in the
world, while not impinging on a self-sufficient material universe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Miller ends his chapter this way:</div>
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But the tools of science itself have discovered that
scientific materialism has a curious, inherent limitation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we certainly left to wonder what to make
of that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It could be just a puzzling,
curious fact about the nature of the universe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Or it could be the clue that allows us to bind everything, including
evolution, into a worldview in which science and religion are partners, not
rivals, in extending human understanding a step beyond the bounds of mere
materialism (219).</blockquote>
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Keith Reichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10679244684706964812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2818703174963694504.post-19647463050881967212017-03-08T17:00:00.000-06:002017-03-08T17:00:20.788-06:00Finding Darwin's God VI<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Darwins-God-Scientists-Evolution/dp/0061233501/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486563486&sr=8-1&keywords=finding+darwin%27s+god" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">Miller, Ken.<i> Finding Darwin’s God: A Scientist’s Search for Common Ground between God and Evolution</i>.New York: Harper Perennial, 2007. ISBN: 978-0061233500.</a><br />
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<a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/02/finding-darwins-god-i.html">Part I</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/02/finding-darwins-god-ii.html">Part II</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/02/finding-darwins-god-iii.html">Part III</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/03/finding-darwins-god-iv.html">Part IV</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/03/finding-darwins-god-v.html">Part V</a><br />
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In chapter six, entitled “The Gods of Disbelief,” Miller
takes on several interlocutors at once with regard to a philosophical outlook
called materialism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Materialism is the
philosophical outlook that says that the material/physical universe is all that
exists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If materialism is the correct
philosophical outlook, then perhaps there truly is no room for God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Miller does not take this stance, but instead,
looks to question it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Materialism is the outlook taken by most of Miller’s
opponents in this chapter such as biologists Richard Dawkins and William
Provine, Sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson, Geneticist Richard Lewontin, and Philosopher Daniel Dennet, among others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In their view, Darwinian evolution is the death knell of the antiquated notion of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since they subscribe to philosophical
materialism, and the material universe is all that exists, then there is no
longer any place for God since science and evolution by natural selection have
been able to explain the material causes of the universe, and even of life
itself. There is no place left for a God if all things can be explained through
natural cause and effect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--StartFragment-->
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">It is this extreme view,
taken by some evolutionary biologists and other scientists, that Miller believes
is at the heart of Christian opposition to evolution. It is not lack of education about the
processes of evolution and its lack of explanatory power that accounts for
opposition to Darwinism, rather, it is the militantly anti-religious nature of some
of the proponents of evolution. Believers
are led to believe that an acceptance of Darwinian evolution necessarily
entails a rejection of God. Yet Miller
questions this assumption. He states
that it is an unprovable assumption that lies at the heart of philosophical
materialism, namely, that the material world is all there is. By making this assumption, Dawkins, Dennet,
Wilson et. al., have wandered away from science into philosophy. In the same
way, religious reactionaries have also fallen into the same assumption,
assuming that if Darwinian evolution is true, then philosophical materialism
must also be true. Yet miller questions
this assumption. He claims that there is
no necessary logical connection between being able to explain the natural world
through science and making the philosophical leap to proclaiming that the
natural world is all that there is. He
will set out to question materialism in chapter seven. Stay tuned. </span><!--EndFragment--></div>
Keith Reichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10679244684706964812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2818703174963694504.post-87776324964822387662017-03-03T16:24:00.001-06:002017-03-03T16:24:22.815-06:00Finding Darwin's God V<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Darwins-God-Scientists-Evolution/dp/0061233501/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486563486&sr=8-1&keywords=finding+darwin%27s+god" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">Miller, Ken.<i> Finding Darwin’s God: A Scientist’s Search for Common Ground between God and Evolution</i>.New York: Harper Perennial, 2007. ISBN: 978-0061233500.</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/02/finding-darwins-god-i.html">Part I</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/02/finding-darwins-god-ii.html">Part II</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/02/finding-darwins-god-iii.html">Part III</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/03/finding-darwins-god-iv.html">Part IV</a><br />
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In Chapter five, titled "God the Mechanic," Miller takes on Michael Behe, a proponent of intelligent design. Behe is a biochemist, and the first of Miller's interlocutors that can claim to be an expert in a relevant scientific discipline. Behe is known for his term "irreducible complexity." By this term, Behe means that there are certain aspects of biological life that are "irreducibly complex," such that evolution and natural selection are not sufficient as to account for their existence. Specifically, as a cell biologist, Behe claims that the complex structure and machinery of the cell are irreducibly complex, such that if you take away one part the complex, multi-part machine, the entire cell does not work. Evolution and natural selection, according to Behe, cannot account for the simultaneous coming together of all of the separate yet needed parts of the irreducibly complex machine. Now it should be said, that, as a biochemist, Behe subscribes to most of the processes of evolution and long history of the universe and the earth. It is only at the point of the irreducibly complex biochemical systems that Behe sees the need for a designer.<br />
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Therefore, Behe argues, one must posit a designer for these irreducibly complex biological machines. Miller seems a little underwhelmed by Behe's argument and calls it merely the same old argument from design, dusted off and repackaged with the language of cellular biology. It is the same argument made by William Paley, the eighteenth century clergyman, who came up with the analogy of the watchmaker. Paley argued a watch demonstrates design, so there must be a designer. In the same way, biological life demonstrates design, therefore there must be an intelligent designer.<br />
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Miller attempts to deconstruct Behe's arguments for irreducibly complex machines by demonstrating that each example given by Behe has been definitively shown to be evolved through natural selection from less complex machines. For example, Miller points out that scientists have been able to demonstrate more simple versions of the cellular cilium and the process of coagulation of blood. Basically, scientists have shown that supposedly irreducibly complex biological machines can be formed by borrowing parts from other working machines. The machines become more and more complex over time, but each small change that creates an advantage are selected for by natural selection.<br />
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In the end, Miller labels Behe's God the mechanic, who at one point in the distant past created all of the irreducibly complex cellular machines. Miller quotes the following from Behe:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Suppose that nearly four billion years ago the designer made the first cell, already containing all of the irreducibly complex biochemical systems discussed here and many others. (One can postulate that the designs for systems that were to be used later, such as blood clotting, were present but not "turned on." In present-day organisms plenty of genes are turned off for a while, sometimes for generations, to be turned on at a later time.) (p. 162). </blockquote>
This argument, of God the mechanic of complex machines billions of years ago, is, according to Miller, the final blow to Behe's hypothesis. Miller states the problem with this hypothesis as follows:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If we choose to give Behe's theory serious consideration, if we treat it as a scientific hypothesis, then we are obliged to ask what would happen to those preformed genes during the billions of years that follow? As any student of biology will tell you, because those genes are not expressed, natural selection would not be able to weed out genetic mistakes. Mutations would accumulate in these genes at breathtaking rates, rendering them hopelessly changed and inoperative hundreds of millions of years before Behe says that thy will be needed (p. 162). </blockquote>
Keith Reichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10679244684706964812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2818703174963694504.post-53276096914163257382017-03-01T14:35:00.001-06:002017-03-01T14:35:55.152-06:00Finding Darwin's God IV<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Darwins-God-Scientists-Evolution/dp/0061233501/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486563486&sr=8-1&keywords=finding+darwin%27s+god" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">Miller, Ken.<i> Finding Darwin’s God: A Scientist’s Search for Common Ground between God and Evolution</i>.New York: Harper Perennial, 2007. ISBN: 978-0061233500.</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/02/finding-darwins-god-i.html">Part I</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/02/finding-darwins-god-ii.html">Part II</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/02/finding-darwins-god-iii.html">Part III</a><br />
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In Chapter four, titled "God the Magician," Miller takes as his main interlocutor Berkeley Law Professor Phillip Johnson who wrote the book <i>Darwin on Trial</i>. Johnson, building on his trade as a lawyer, attempts to create in his reader a "shadow of a doubt" as to the veracity of the science of evolution. In order to create this "shadow of a doubt," Johnson exploits a mid-20th century intra-scientific debate that took place among community of evolutionary biologist: namely, the debate between punctuated equilibrium and phyletic gradualism.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjPJ7TA2COp3st2nboA0Z_i6VPRMzJzHfdpz5jfb4In9-WM6KlZdCAIjgehzmlI_PzqAD-tJa4XOhPVEWTO7Ngae9XQr9DA8ThGIx0fA4Sbqtu3nukARQjdmJgrCs38D-rcH23i__7nZAJ/s1600/Evolution-gradualism-3.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjPJ7TA2COp3st2nboA0Z_i6VPRMzJzHfdpz5jfb4In9-WM6KlZdCAIjgehzmlI_PzqAD-tJa4XOhPVEWTO7Ngae9XQr9DA8ThGIx0fA4Sbqtu3nukARQjdmJgrCs38D-rcH23i__7nZAJ/s400/Evolution-gradualism-3.gif" width="400" /></a>Though the two sides of this debate use the highly technical terms "phyletic gradualism" and "punctuated equilibrium," the concepts are actually quite simple. Phyletic gradualism is essentially the original Darwinian idea that species would develop gradually over millions of years. In this case the fossil record should demonstrate a number of gradual changes in form as species develop. Yet, this, apparently is not what the fossil record shows. Enter Stephen J. Gould, Niles Eldredge, and punctuated equilibrium. Gould and Eldredge, both evolutionary biologists, shook up the scientific community in the 1970s with their theory of punctuated equilibrium. By closely examining the fossil record, Gould and Eldredge argued that what the fossils actually show is a punctuated speciation event in a geological instant followed by long geological periods of stability among species. Just like that, Gould and Eldredge had overturned over a century of scientific wisdom about the evolution of life on planet earth. <br />
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Phillip Johnson jumped on this apparent instability in the scientific community regarding evolution and used it to write his book to cast doubt on the theory of evolution. He noted that punctuated equilibrium does not support Darwin's original theory at all. Instead, it lines up more closely with a biblical view of instantaneous appearances of new species on earth, with God as their creator, creating each species according to its own kind (Genesis 6:20). God, in this scenario, is the magician invoked to account for this apparent instantaneous creation of each new species according to their kinds.<br />
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Miller spends the rest of chapter four dispelling the misuse of punctuated equilibrium by Johnson and others to cast doubt on Darwinian evolution. A key to his argument is the discussion of the phrase "geological instant." Miller notes that a "geological instant" is not really an instant. In the long course of the 4.5 billion year geological history of the earth, an "instant" is actually quite a long time, millions of years in fact. Miller points out that what Gould and Eldredge refer to as instantaneous speciation events actually cover millions of years of evolution. Gould and Eldredge were of course supporters of evolution. They simply demonstrated that, relatively speaking, evolution and the change of species actually happens quite quickly on the geological timescale and then species are stable for longer periods of time. Yet, they still evolved, they still shared common ancestors.<br />
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Miller's biggest problem with Johnson and others like him is not just that they are wrong in their understanding of evolution and science, but rather, the theological implications of their interpretations of the evidence. Namely, if Johnson is correct, and each new species is created instantaneously and magically by God, then what does that say about God. Specifically, since the fossil record demonstrates that most of the species that have ever lived on this planet have gone extinct, then God must not be a very good designer. He had to create each species magically, only to have most of them become extinct. What kind of a God creates like that? Miller asks.<br />
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Miller ends his chapter this way:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Intelligent design advocates have to account for patterns in the designer's work that clearly give the appearance of evolution. Is the designer being deceptive? Is there a reason why he can't get it right the first time? Is the designer, despite all his powers, a slow learner? He must be clever enough to design an African elephant, but apparently not so clever that he can do it the first time. Therefore we find the fossils of a couple dozen extinct almost-elephants over the last few million years. What are these failed experiments, and why does this master designer need to drive so many of his masterpieces to extinction? (p. 127). </blockquote>
Keith Reichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10679244684706964812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2818703174963694504.post-78754849110300962302017-02-22T10:18:00.000-06:002017-02-22T10:18:36.571-06:00Finding Darwin's God III<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Darwins-God-Scientists-Evolution/dp/0061233501/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486563486&sr=8-1&keywords=finding+darwin%27s+god" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">Miller, Ken.<i> Finding Darwin’s God: A Scientist’s Search for Common Ground between God and Evolution</i>.New York: Harper Perennial, 2007. ISBN: 978-0061233500.</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/02/finding-darwins-god-i.html">Part I</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/02/finding-darwins-god-ii.html">Part II</a><br />
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In chapter 3, titled "God the Charlatan," Miller takes on those who would reject much of modern science that apparently contradicts the Bible. He labels these opponents of science "Young Earth Creationists" or YECs for short. </div>
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Most of the chapter deals with the age of the earth. YECs claim that the earth is young, less than 10,000 years or so. Miller argues for an old earth based on the findings of geologists. He, though not himself a geologist, lays out the basic reasoning that geologists use to estimate that the earth is about 4.5 billion years old. The strongest and most consistent method for dating the earth is a process called radiometric dating. While not belaboring the point (since I am in no way a geologist), the basics of radiometric dating are as follows: there are certain radioactive isotopes such as Carbon 14, Uranium 235, Potassium 40, and Rubidium 87 (among others) that are unstable and decay into other stable elements at a constant rate. A half life is the time that it takes for half of the unstable "parent" element to decay into its stable "daughter" element. Because this rate is constant, this acts like a radioactive stopwatch that can accurately measure the time of the formation of that rock that contains the parent and daughter elements. With half lives of up to 48 billion years, this method has been able to on numerous occasions date the formation of the earth to approximately 4.5 billion years old. </div>
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YECs have had some quick comebacks and objections to this method of dating the earth, such as noting the assumptions that are present (e.g., the original chemical composition of the rock, the assumption of a constant rate of decay). Yet, Miller notes that even the YECs are admitting the accuracy of the method. Miller quotes from the book <i>The Genesis Flood</i>, a YEC book, as follows: </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We reply, however, that the Biblical outline of earth history, with the geologic framework provided thereby, would lead us to postulate <i>exactly</i> this state of the radioactivity evidence. We would expect radiogenic minerals to indicate very large ages and we would expect different elements in the same mineral, or different minerals in the same formation to agree with each other (p. 77).</blockquote>
Basically, the YECs do not deny the evidence, they just have a different explanation. Basically, they argue that God created the earth ~10,000 years ago with "apparent age." In short, God created the earth to look 4.5 billion years old when in fact it was quite young. This reasoning holds for stars as well, that read as being billions of light years away. The light from these stars did not in fact travel for billions of years, but instead, the light was created as already on its way. This is what has lead Miller to title this chapter "God the Charlatan." Here we get into theology. If God created the world to look old, even if it is in fact quite young, then God is a liar, a cheat, and a fraud. By trying to defend YEC, the YECs have in fact said profound and disturbing things about God. Miller ends his chapter this way:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
What saddens me is the view of the creator that many people find what they believe to be divine revelation preferable to scientific knowledge. In order to defend God against the challenge they see from evolution, they have had to make Him into a schemer, a trickster, even a charlatan. Their version of God is one who intentionally plants misleading clues beneath out feet and in the heavens themselves (p. 80).</blockquote>
Keith Reichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10679244684706964812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2818703174963694504.post-47855891083784544122017-02-15T11:00:00.000-06:002017-02-15T11:00:07.168-06:00Finding Darwin's God II<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Darwins-God-Scientists-Evolution/dp/0061233501/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486563486&sr=8-1&keywords=finding+darwin%27s+god" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">Miller, Ken.<i> Finding Darwin’s God: A Scientist’s Search for Common Ground between God and Evolution</i>.New York: Harper Perennial, 2007. ISBN: 978-0061233500.</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/02/finding-darwins-god-i.html">Part I</a><br />
<br />
In Chapter 2, after stating that his stance as a believer in the scientific field places him outside of the norm, Miller sets out to discuss what science can investigate and how is can be investigated. He is responding to the following critique:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
There is a school of thought that rejects the very idea that any theory about the past can be scientific. Science, the argument goes, is based on experiment and direct, testable observation... Since there were no human witnesses to the earth's past, the argument goes, all statements about that past, including evolution, are <i>pure</i> speculation (emphasis original, p. 22). </blockquote>
Miller answers this critique giving several examples of how science can investigate events that the scientist did not directly witness. The first is that of forensic science. The police do not have to witness a crime to scientifically investigate a crime scene and find scientific evidence that can lead to an arrest and conviction. The second is the investigation of the sun. No human has ever been to the sun and directly observed it in a laboratory. Yet, one can investigate the effects of the sun and make scientific conclusions, such as the elemental makeup of the sun. His third example is somewhat whimsical, but deals with pop-top beer cans produced between 1962-1975. These pop-tops can be found in trash deposits. They are evidence left over from the past. This leads to Miller's last example, which is that the past has left literally mountains of evidence buried in the earth. It is this evidence that science can investigate and led scientists in the 19th century to conclusions that ended with Darwin's theory of evolution.<br />
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Miller wraps up chapter two by discussing the creative power of evolution. He points out clear examples of evolution in the modern world such as the evolution of bacteria to become resistant to certain antibiotics. He notes that scientists can actually witness this evolution in process because of the high reproduction rates of bacteria. He also notes that scientists are beginning to use evolution in their research to create organisms with certain characteristics. Evolution and natural selection, Miller contends, is a fantastic and creative tool that can bring phenomenal change in living organisms.<br />
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Miller concludes his chapter with the following quote:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
It is high time that we grew up and left the Garden. We are indeed Eden's children, yet it is time to place Genesis alongside the geocentric myth in the basket of stories that once, in a world of intellectual naivete, made helpful sense. As we walk through the gates, aware of the dazzling richness of the genuine biological world, there might even be a smile on the Creator's face--that at long last His creatures have learned enough to understand His world as it truly is (p. 56). </blockquote>
Keith Reichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10679244684706964812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2818703174963694504.post-20190170767647659142017-02-10T11:00:00.000-06:002017-02-13T08:29:52.853-06:00Finding Darwin's God I<div class="tr_bq">
I continue in my reviews of the books that I am using in my Religion and Science course this semester. You can view my serial review of <i>Scripture and Cosmology</i> by Kyle Greenwood here (<a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-i.html">Part I</a>, <a href="https://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-ii.html">Part II</a>, <a href="https://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-iii.html">Part III</a>, <a href="https://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-iv.html">Part IV</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-v_30.html">Part V</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-vi.html">Part VI</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/02/scripture-and-cosmology-vii.html">Part VII</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/02/scripture-and-cosmology-viii.html">Part VIII</a>).</div>
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The second book that I will be reviewing is <i>Finding Darwin's God </i>by Kenneth R. Miller.<br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Darwins-God-Scientists-Evolution/dp/0061233501/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486563486&sr=8-1&keywords=finding+darwin%27s+god" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">Miller, Ken.<i> Finding Darwin’s God: A Scientist’s Search for Common Ground between God and Evolution</i>.New York: Harper Perennial, 2007. ISBN: 978-0061233500.</a></div>
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In Chapter 1, Miller lays out as starkly as possible the potential conflict between religious (Christian) views of creation and Darwin's scientific theory of evolution. He sets side by side a question from a Christian Catechism with a parallel question from an imaginary scientific catechism as follows: </div>
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Question: "Who made us?"<br />
Answer: "God made us."</blockquote>
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Question: "Who made us?"<br />
Answer: "Evolution made us." (p. 1-2).</blockquote>
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Miller lays out what he calls "Darwin's dangerous idea" as follows: "Evolution displaced the creator from his central position as the primary explanation for every aspect of the living world" (p. 14).<br />
or as Richard Dawkins has put it, "Although atheism might have been <i>logically </i>tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist" (p. 14).<br />
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Given the mountains of evidence that have been compiled over the past 150 plus years that support Darwin's original theory, Miller ends his chapter in the following way:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Is it time to replace existing religions with a scientifically responsible, attractively sentimental, ethically driven Darwinism--a First Church of Charles the Naturalist? Does evolution really nullify all world views that depend upon the spiritual? Does it demand logical agnosticism as the price of scientific consistency? And does it rigorously exclude belief in God?</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
These are the questions that I will explore in the pages that follow. My answer, in each and every case, is a resounding <i>no.</i> I do not say this, as you will see, because evolution is <i>wrong</i>. Far from it. The reason, as I hope to show, is because evolution is <i>right </i>(p. 17) </blockquote>
Miller, himself a Christian and a Scientist sets out to explain how, at least according to his point of view, both Christianity and Darwinism can exist together and how they can in fact have a fruitful relationship. Stay tuned for further chapter reviews ahead. Keith Reichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10679244684706964812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2818703174963694504.post-33091257321095981582017-02-03T08:51:00.001-06:002017-02-03T08:51:32.494-06:00Scripture and Cosmology VIII<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Scripture-Cosmology-Reading-Between-Ancient-ebook/dp/B015TBK2T8/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484748484&sr=1-1&keywords=scripture+and+cosmology" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">Greenwood, Kyle. <i>Scripture and Cosmology: Reading the Bible between the Ancient World and Modern Science</i>. DownersGrove, IL: IVP Academic, 2015. </a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-i.html">Part I</a>, <a href="https://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-ii.html">Part II</a>, <a href="https://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-iii.html">Part III</a>, <a href="https://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-iv.html">Part IV</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-v_30.html">Part V</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-vi.html">Part VI</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/02/scripture-and-cosmology-vii.html">Part VII</a><br />
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In the eighth and final chapter of his book, Greenwood lays bare his overarching agenda for writing: namely, to combat many Christians' war on certain parts of science, specifically the theory of evolution. No, the book has not been about evolution at all, but in the final chapter he urges Christians to be consistent with regard to the relationship between science and religion, or science and biblical interpretation. Inasmuch as modern cosmology is not controversial to most Christians, Greenwood uses this as a foil for his real agenda. He shows that Christians accept the findings of modern science (i.e., modern cosmology), even when they directly contradict biblical evidence (i.e., ancient near eastern three tiered cosmology), and then calls Christians out for inconsistency of opposing the science of evolution. He also lists other examples where Christians hold to modern science over biblical teachings. The most prominent is modern medicine. Very few people eschew modern medicine in favor of biblical remedies, such as putting a leper outside of the camp and waiting for it to go away.<br />
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In the end, I think that Greenwood's book is successful at bringing to the fore the cognitive dissonance that exists for many Christians who inconsistently oppose portions of science when they seemingly contradict the Bible, yet have no problems accepting other portions of science that also contradict the Bible.<br />
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I'll end with the following quote from Greenwood's conclusion:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Sincere Christians with sincere questions are not helped by artful interpretations of scripture that ignore the realities of the world God created. As humanity presses on to unmask more and more mysteries of the cosmos, let us consider Calvin, Aquinas, Maimonides and Ambrose, who entreat us to let those trained in studying the natural world speak on matters pertaining to such. </blockquote>
Keith Reichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10679244684706964812noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2818703174963694504.post-90766755298581664072017-02-01T14:46:00.001-06:002017-02-01T14:46:40.063-06:00Scripture and Cosmology VII<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Scripture-Cosmology-Reading-Between-Ancient-ebook/dp/B015TBK2T8/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484748484&sr=1-1&keywords=scripture+and+cosmology" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">Greenwood, Kyle. <i>Scripture and Cosmology: Reading the Bible between the Ancient World and Modern Science</i>. DownersGrove, IL: IVP Academic, 2015. </a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-i.html">Part I</a>, <a href="https://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-ii.html">Part II</a>, <a href="https://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-iii.html">Part III</a>, <a href="https://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-iv.html">Part IV</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-v_30.html">Part V</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-vi.html">Part VI</a><br />
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Chapter VII is what I would call a "pastoral chapter." After having spent six chapters laying out the evidence that the biblical cosmology follows the ancient near eastern cosmology and that this view is untenable with the modern scientific cosmology, Greenwood feels the need to reassure his readers who might feel that the book is an assault on the authority of the Bible.<br />
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Greenwood lays out the problem like this:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If someone's only experience with the bible is one in which the ancient cosmological evidence is either disregarded--whether by overprotective teachers or by willful neglect--or dismissed as not applicable, what happens when these issues are brought to their attention? The response, all too often, is either continued ignorance or willful abandonment of the entire Christian enterprise... In the case of the former, ignorance leads to a shallow faith, where sincere questions are given pat answers, theological complexities are brushed aside with blind faith, childlike faith never matures to a vibrant faith with deep roots that can withstand storms and droughts, and God is barely smarter than a fifth grader... In the case of the latter, the tragedy is that having been seemingly duped on this issue, believers wonder where else they have been led astray by their trusts Christian leaders. </blockquote>
Most of the rest of the chapter discusses the doctrine of divine accommodation. This doctrine expresses the view that when God speaks to humans (as in the Bible), God does so at the level of the humans understanding. He likens this to parents talking to young children. For example, when a parent is asked by a toddler why a pebble sinks in water, but a much larger boat floats, the parent does not give the toddler a lesson on water displacement and fluid dynamics. He or she simply explains that it is because of the shape of the pebble and the boat. The explanation comes in terms the toddler can understand. In a similar way, God accommodates his language to humans understanding at the time of the Bible's writing, which, in this case means, God speaks according to an ancient near eastern cosmology.<br />
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In the end, this chapter left a little bit wanting in my mind. First, Greenwood seems to assume a fairly facile and non-nuanced view of biblical inspiration. He seems to assume that all biblical material is direct communication between God and humans. Yet, since this is not a chapter on biblical inspiration, perhaps I am expecting too much from Greenwood at this point. Second, his analogy about a parent is helpful in some respects, but, it may introduce some problems Greenwood did not expect. If a parent tells a child a boat floats because of its shape, that is a simple but factual answer. Of course there is a more complex and more complete answer, but it is nevertheless not demonstrably non-factual. If God tells humans that the world is flat, that is a simple but non-factual (or perhaps I should say, alternatively factual answer). Maybe I am being unfair because analogies can always be pushed too far. Nevertheless, I am not sure that Greenwood has really teased out accommodation in most helpful way, perhaps because of his too-facile assumption of divine inspiration of scripture. If you have read the book, what do you think?<br />
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Keith Reichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10679244684706964812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2818703174963694504.post-29394619471024334942017-01-31T08:44:00.000-06:002017-01-31T08:44:01.019-06:00Scripture and Cosmology VI<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Scripture-Cosmology-Reading-Between-Ancient-ebook/dp/B015TBK2T8/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484748484&sr=1-1&keywords=scripture+and+cosmology" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">Greenwood, Kyle. <i>Scripture and Cosmology: Reading the Bible between the Ancient World and Modern Science</i>. DownersGrove, IL: IVP Academic, 2015. </a><br />
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<a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-i.html">Part I</a>, <a href="https://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-ii.html">Part II</a>, <a href="https://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-iii.html">Part III</a>, <a href="https://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-iv.html">Part IV</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-v_30.html">Part V</a><br />
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In chapter 6, Greenwood lays out the massive paradigm shift that is often labeled the Copernican Revolution. The three major players in this paradigm shift were Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, and Johannes Kepler. Copernicus, unsatisfied with the ability of the Ptolemaic system to account for<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4zyqJIDGDZXa2WHvLJl-630jkvFPb_pmbjj9Dr75hjpKhBU9bK-xifIcFoptUniO6seux7wLprbqI01xYK_F4RUF20Fba9QFhngS5eUIkDSPCHncYe4cBeaC3_DhttxXplyEu49Eudpay/s1600/copernicus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4zyqJIDGDZXa2WHvLJl-630jkvFPb_pmbjj9Dr75hjpKhBU9bK-xifIcFoptUniO6seux7wLprbqI01xYK_F4RUF20Fba9QFhngS5eUIkDSPCHncYe4cBeaC3_DhttxXplyEu49Eudpay/s320/copernicus.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
celestial phenomenon, posited the earthshaking idea that the sun, and not the earth, was the center of the universe. Instead of the heavenly bodies revolving around a fixed earth, the heavenly bodies revolve around the sun, while the earth rotates on its axis. Galileo confirmed Copernicus' new model of the universe with the help of the newly invented telescope. Nevertheless, Copernicus' new model was not perfect and the problem lay in the fact that he posited circular orbits for the planets around the sun. Kepler, a contemporary of Galileo, solved this problem when he posited elliptical orbits for the planets. This world view with the planets revolving around the sun and the earth rotating on its axis are common sense today, yet at the time, these findings were simply astonishing. Yet, these three astronomers and mathematicians revolutionized humans' understanding of the cosmos and forever changed human history in the process. </div>
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Greenwood then goes on to discuss the effects of this scientific paradigm shift on the religious communities of the time. Copernicus was spared much difficulty as he did not publish his work until shortly before his death. Galileo was not so lucky. The Roman Catholic church brought Galileo before the inquisition and charged him with heresy. He was forced to recant. </div>
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Both Protestants and Catholics had a difficult time accepting the new paradigm as it seemed to go against he "plain sense" of many biblical passages. The Bible clearly states that the earth is set on firm foundations and does not move (Ps 104:5), and further, the sun, not the earth, was commanded by Joshua to stand still and it did (Josh 10:12). These statements are hard to reconcile with the new Copernican model. </div>
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Nevertheless, the Copernican model, though imperfect, won the day. It's scientific and mathematical explanations of the cosmos were impossible for biblical literalism or Papal authority to overturn. Kepler improved on Copernicus with his elliptical orbits, Newton improved on it further with his laws of motion, and Einstein improved it further with his theory of relativity. Now, no one seriously disputes the finding of the Copernican revolution and its subsequent improvements through science, It was left to Christians of all varieties to adjust their biblical interpretations to match the new scientific discoveries. Most Christians today have no difficulty believing in biblical authority while also holding to a modern scientific understanding of the cosmos. </div>
Keith Reichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10679244684706964812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2818703174963694504.post-80909250989821391512017-01-30T11:23:00.000-06:002017-01-30T11:23:45.830-06:00Scripture and Cosmology V<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Scripture-Cosmology-Reading-Between-Ancient-ebook/dp/B015TBK2T8/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484748484&sr=1-1&keywords=scripture+and+cosmology" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">Greenwood, Kyle. <i>Scripture and Cosmology: Reading the Bible between the Ancient World and Modern Science</i>. DownersGrove, IL: IVP Academic, 2015. </a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-i.html">Part I</a>, <a href="https://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-ii.html">Part II</a>, <a href="https://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-iii.html">Part III</a>, <a href="https://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-iv.html">Part IV</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuOtCK3QsW80tSeOC6QIFBHfBj506EPIDbWUEe_H9iFyTV2EFtH_PMquwjDRlQJx6CJh4qJnd3n3cxpXiJNFrorTiFpFpR_bf2k7q61CdnEVe0nq3ckss3V_K6djPmS8kQ8IbJp6arqN6k/s1600/greek_cosmos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuOtCK3QsW80tSeOC6QIFBHfBj506EPIDbWUEe_H9iFyTV2EFtH_PMquwjDRlQJx6CJh4qJnd3n3cxpXiJNFrorTiFpFpR_bf2k7q61CdnEVe0nq3ckss3V_K6djPmS8kQ8IbJp6arqN6k/s320/greek_cosmos.jpg" width="317" /></a>In chapter five, Greenwood lays out the development of what he calls the Aristotelian cosmology. This cosmology began with pre-Aristotelian Greeks and was driven by philosophical and metaphysical concerns, rather than scientific or mathematical concerns: namely, the idea that a sphere is the most perfect shape, and therefore the earth should be represented as a sphere. Aristotle developed this idea and then completed his cosmology by envisioning the earth as a fixed sphere, orbited by seven other spheres, one for each of the visible celestial phenomenon (Moon, Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the fixed stars). Beyond the sphere of the outermost stars lay the Unmoved Mover (UMM), Aristotle's conception of God. The UMM set all of the spheres in their orbital motion around the earth.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoV_dU9uVPHVXB4deLvhSWICR4EGAlnJacqWXlMK9hAKZnhd_e9tn4S1GW2MXRnrQC4jXWMIjPk8cSwViBkMsC3_rE621olFV96Uyqj2qygcJx551VA5PUTxrIcCQyDwa7xWbFkZqBgtNI/s1600/ptolemy.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoV_dU9uVPHVXB4deLvhSWICR4EGAlnJacqWXlMK9hAKZnhd_e9tn4S1GW2MXRnrQC4jXWMIjPk8cSwViBkMsC3_rE621olFV96Uyqj2qygcJx551VA5PUTxrIcCQyDwa7xWbFkZqBgtNI/s320/ptolemy.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
While the Aristotelian worldview was an improvement from that of the Ancient Near Eastern cosmology (see parts I-IV linked above), it still did not account for some celestial phenomenon, such as the retrograde motion of the wandering planets in the night sky. It was Claudius Ptolemaius, AKA Ptolemy, an Egyptian mathematician and astronomer from Alexandria, who attempted to mathematically model the Aristotelian cosmology. He accounted for the retrograde motion of the planets by positing epicycles in which the planets had smaller orbits within their specific sphere. These epicycles could explain, at least to some degree, why some of the planets seemed to move backward (retrograde) from their normal orbit around the earth.<br />
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It is at this point that Greenwood's book becomes tremendously valuable. Greenwood not only explains paradigm shifts in humans' understanding of the cosmos, but he goes on to investigate the religious responses to those shifts. For example, in this chapter, Greenwood points out that the Aristotelian cosmology caused some consternation among some early Christians in their attempts to interpret certain Bible passages. Both Augustine and Lactantius found it absurd to think of people living on the opposite side of a spherical earth. Luther and Calvin readily accepted the Aristotelian cosmology, but had difficulty reconciling that worldview with passages of scripture that spoke of the firmament or the waters above the firmament.<br />
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I do find interesting that though the authors of the New Testament post-date Aristotle and his cosmology by more than 300 years, and were largely hellenized, the cosmology of the New Testament lines up almost entirely with an Ancient Near Eastern worldview with few signs of any familiarity with the Aristotelian conception. It is as if the New Testament authors were stuck in an Ancient Near Eastern bubble with regard to cosmology, while being thoroughly influenced by Greek language and thoughts in many other respects.<br />
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I'll end with this quote from Greenwood:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The most notable trait we see among Aristotelian-era interpreters is the willingness to adapt their interpretation of Scripture in light of new understandings of the physical universe. It was assumed that the cosmos was composed of seven spheres that rotated around the earth. This had implications for all sorts of biblical interpretations. The foundations of the earth could no longer be thought of in terms of physical columns, but were conceived as a metaphor for God's sustaining power.</blockquote>
Keith Reichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10679244684706964812noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2818703174963694504.post-14462594738602742182017-01-25T11:00:00.000-06:002017-01-25T11:00:23.002-06:00Scripture and Cosmology IV<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Scripture-Cosmology-Reading-Between-Ancient-ebook/dp/B015TBK2T8/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484748484&sr=1-1&keywords=scripture+and+cosmology" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">Greenwood, Kyle. <i>Scripture and Cosmology: Reading the Bible between the Ancient World and Modern Science</i>. DownersGrove, IL: IVP Academic, 2015. </a><br />
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<a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-i.html">Part I</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-ii.html">Part II</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-iii.html">Part III</a><br />
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In chapter four, Greenwood systematically surveys every passage in the Old Testament that he views as treating the topic of creation. This of course includes Genesis chapters 1 and 2, but also many other passages that are often overlooked in the investigation of the biblical view of creation. Here is a list of passages that he treats: Gen 1, Gen 2, Ex 20:8-11, Neh 9:6, Job 38:2-11, Psa 8:3-8, Psa 19:1-6, Psa 74:12-17, Psa 95:1-7, Psa 104:1-17, Psa 136:1-9, Prov 8:22-36, and Isa 40:12.<br />
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After systematically exploring all of these passages, Greenwood draws the following conclusions:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
First, a seven day creation week is only present in Genesis 1, although an allusion to the week is also found in Exodus 20:11. Second, aside from Genesis 1 the order of creation is more closely related to the ancient cosmological structure than it is to the structure of a week. Third, the various biblical creation accounts are poetic in nature, using metaphors, anthropomorphic language and other literary devices to convey concepts that would otherwise be foreign to human understanding. Fourth, the various creation accounts conform to the notion that God is the author of all aspects of the created order. Fifth, each of the creation accounts emphasizes God's sovereign power over the cosmos. God is not locked in an epic battle with the forces of nature, but has subdued them and commands them to submit to their assigned purpose. Finally, the general guiding principle for the authors of these creation accounts is the three tiered cosmological structure. God is the maker of the heavens, the earth, and the seas. </blockquote>
These conclusions provide several important insights. First, there is a decentralization of the 7 day week of creation. Second, the poetic nature of the creation narratives is a genre marker that informs us that we should not primarily be looking for historical/factual material in these passage. Third, the ancient three tiered conception of the cosmos was the backdrop and worldview of the all of the ancient biblical passages that treat creation. Keith Reichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10679244684706964812noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2818703174963694504.post-83166897611934338122017-01-23T13:44:00.001-06:002017-01-25T08:26:23.524-06:00Scripture and Cosmology III<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Scripture-Cosmology-Reading-Between-Ancient-ebook/dp/B015TBK2T8/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484748484&sr=1-1&keywords=scripture+and+cosmology" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">Greenwood, Kyle. <i>Scripture and Cosmology: Reading the Bible between the Ancient World and Modern Science</i>. DownersGrove, IL: IVP Academic, 2015. </a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-i.html">Part I</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-ii.html">Part II</a><br />
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In chapter three, Greenwood lays out the biblical evidence for a three tiered universe. He uses the same divisions of earth, heavens, and seas. In the end, he comes to the conclusion that the biblical writers held approximately the same view of the three tiered universe as their ancient near eastern neighbors. He notes slight differences, but ends with this quote which nicely sums up the takeaway from the chapter:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
These similarities, and even the dissimilarities, indicate that the biblical authors were not engaged in a systematic correction the the pagan worldviews. We do not see these authors writing apologetic treatises against the scientifically naive viewpoints of their uninspired neighbors. They do not speak of atmospheric pressure systems affecting weather. We do not read about the gravitational pull of planets, the solar orbit of the earth or the earth's rotation on its axis. The texts do not inform us of faraway galaxies, supernovas, comets, or black holes. In short, the biblical authors wrote according to the best scientific evidence of their time, an observational viewpoint that was best expressed through analogy and phenomenological language. </blockquote>
This gets succinctly to the point. The biblical authors assumed approximately the same physical structure of the universe as their neighbors. They had no divine revelation of the later scientific discoveries that have shaped our understanding of the universe. If they were "wrong" about the physical makeup of the universe, what else might we as modern people discount about the understanding of biblical authors? Keith Reichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10679244684706964812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2818703174963694504.post-77478718056989511382017-01-20T10:00:00.000-06:002017-01-23T13:47:37.921-06:00Scripture and Cosmology II<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Scripture-Cosmology-Reading-Between-Ancient-ebook/dp/B015TBK2T8/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484748484&sr=1-1&keywords=scripture+and+cosmology" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">Greenwood, Kyle. <i>Scripture and Cosmology: Reading the Bible between the Ancient World and Modern Science</i>. DownersGrove, IL: IVP Academic, 2015. </a><br />
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<a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2017/01/scripture-and-cosmology-i.html">See part I here</a><br />
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In chapter 2, Greenwood starts to layout the historical, cultural, geographical, and literary context in which the biblical texts should placed. He begins by defining the term "Ancient Near East," (ANE) a term used by modern scholars to describe a geographical area (roughly what is thought of as the middle east today) and a time period ending with the conquest of Alexander the Great in 332 B.C.E.<br />
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Greenwood then goes on to discuss the numerous monumental historical discoveries over the past two centuries that have opened up the ANE to scholarly inquiry. Among these discoveries were the Rosetta Stone (allowing scholars to decipher Egyptian Hieroglyphics), the discovery of cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia and the subsequent efforts to decipher the ancient form of writing, These discoveries opened the floodgates for long lost ancient literature from Israel's ancient neighbors. It was quickly noted that these ancient texts bore striking similarities to long known biblical literature.<br />
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Greenwood cautions against two extreme responses to this new treasure trove of material. On the one hand, he wants to steer clear what what he calls "parallelomania," a overestimation of the literary connection between biblical literature and other texts from the ANE. On the other hand, he warns against ignoring this material altogether. Instead, he advocates for a position that sees the literature of the ANE informing a cultural "milieu" which the ancient Israelites shared with their neighbors. Therefore, it is not that the biblical flood narrative was "copied" from the Babylonian <i>Epic of Atrahasis</i> (a Babylonian flood narrative with many similarities to the Noah epic in Genesis 6-10), but rather, that both cultures, ancient Israel and Babylon, shared the same cultural context and had similar worldviews. Therefore, this newfound material becomes invaluable for reconstructing the historical, geographical, cultural, and literary context against which one can read the biblical narrative.<br />
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The rest of chapter 2 gives the non-biblical evidence for the three tiered universe introduced in chapter one. Greenwood uses a number of primary texts and artifacts that depict this three tiered universe from Egypt, Mesopotamia, Babylon, and Canaan. He takes up the tiers in the order: earth, heavens, and seas.<br />
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For the inhabitants of the ancient near east, the earth is a flat disc surrounded by water all around, both above and below. There is also the underworld, which is the ultimate destination of all humans after death. There is no return from the underworld. The earth either floats on the cosmic ocean, or is supported by solid pillars.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQlr8S4PK3HrJtAxzUu_LXrrZmYAHZ5PiqFOsk4Ck5_HZMc0omrku4hK-57cKjNQcamufivLAJNflW18XcUZQ47RvviJgJumOn2rQgrBhqnRf07xs8t9egJUcKr2RMbM8cK4I-x24dw7o_/s1600/ancient-hebrew-conception-of-the-universe-cropped1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQlr8S4PK3HrJtAxzUu_LXrrZmYAHZ5PiqFOsk4Ck5_HZMc0omrku4hK-57cKjNQcamufivLAJNflW18XcUZQ47RvviJgJumOn2rQgrBhqnRf07xs8t9egJUcKr2RMbM8cK4I-x24dw7o_/s320/ancient-hebrew-conception-of-the-universe-cropped1.jpg" width="320" /></a>The heavens refer to everything above the earth including the sun, moon, stars, and birds. The heavens are also best described as a physical dome that acts as a roof to the earth and holds back the cosmic ocean that resides above the heavens. There are upper and lower heavens. The lower heavens are the visible heavens, the sun, moon, stars, and the firmament or dome. The upper heavens are the abode of the gods.<br />
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Finally, the seas can be divided into freshwater and salt water. All of the seas are connected to the oceans of the deep, and are often feared. Waters represent chaos and are often depicted as sea serpents. Waters also reside above the heavenly firmament, and the firmament contains gates or windows that are periodically opened by the gods, producing rain, snow, and hail.<br />
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In all, Greenwood makes an impressive case from ancient texts and artifacts, that the inhabitants of the ancient near east viewed the universe as a three tiered cosmos made up of the earth, the heavens, and the seas. This, then is the context in which the ancient biblical texts should be placed in order to engage in responsible biblical interpretation. It is also a context that is vastly different than our modern conception of the universe. This can cause problems for modern interpreters who think that the bible describes the world "as it is."Keith Reichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10679244684706964812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2818703174963694504.post-25197647021367757642017-01-18T12:00:00.000-06:002017-01-25T08:26:16.245-06:00Scripture and Cosmology I<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Scripture-Cosmology-Reading-Between-Ancient-ebook/dp/B015TBK2T8/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484748484&sr=1-1&keywords=scripture+and+cosmology" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">Greenwood, Kyle. <i>Scripture and Cosmology: Reading the Bible between the Ancient World and Modern Science</i>. DownersGrove, IL: IVP Academic, 2015. </a></div>
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In chapter 1, "Scripture in Context," Kyle Greenwood attempts to frame the discussion of biblical cosmology as one that can only be treated properly when placed in context. In fact, this whole chapter is an argument designed to point out what is so blatantly obvious to biblical scholars and literature scholars alike: context matters. Greenwood points out that while context is important to understanding any communication, it is all the more so for literature that is over 2000 years old, the context of which is so distant from the present.<br />
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Greenwood lists four areas of context that are necessary for understanding a text: 1) Cultural Context, 2) Historical Context, 3) Geographical Context, and 4) Literary Context (under which he discusses the topic of genre). Together, these contexts contribute to what Greenwood calls a "worldview" coming from Immanuel Kant's <i>Weltanshauung.</i> Greenwood notes, "In the classical sense, worldview entails the implicit and explicit presuppositions with which one processes information." Worldview is the basic assumptions we make about the world and how me make sense of the world in which we live.<br />
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Greenwood concludes the chapter by giving a brief overview of the ancient Israelites' worldview of the universe, or cosmological worldview. In that worldview, the cosmos has three levels or tiers, the top tier, heavens (above the earth), the middle tier, the flat earth, and the bottom tier, the seas.<br />
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In each section, Greenwood gives numerous examples from the biblical text that illustrate his point. the main goal of the chapter is to argue that the worldview, the context, of the ancient biblical writings with regard to the cosmos are spectacularly distant from our own worldview of the cosmos. The quote he uses from John Walton's book <i>The Lost World of Genesis One, </i>nicely illustrates this point and is the main takeaway from the chapter:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The Israelites received no revelation to update or modify their "scientific" understanding of the cosmos. They did not know that stars were suns; they did not know that the earth was spherical and moving through space; they did not know that the sun was much further away than the moon, or even further than the birds flying in the air. They believed the sky was material (not vaporous), solid enough to support the residence of the deity as well as to hold back waters.</blockquote>
Keith Reichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10679244684706964812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2818703174963694504.post-10566087073487842172017-01-17T09:09:00.003-06:002017-01-17T09:09:32.923-06:00Religion and Science<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggjhnZiByYglMZghDDXdlXfxOnNMNDucIVj8FsW7qhYOBhHfjilG1annc-gdIVq41V3n3WcTm8yFjzPjpFZEqiBpTnuWIFQikvshQEO-4ne_wTP3zsU2C562VSp-EMFGpQDtaxezLfvi7A/s1600/Scripture+and+Cosmology.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggjhnZiByYglMZghDDXdlXfxOnNMNDucIVj8FsW7qhYOBhHfjilG1annc-gdIVq41V3n3WcTm8yFjzPjpFZEqiBpTnuWIFQikvshQEO-4ne_wTP3zsU2C562VSp-EMFGpQDtaxezLfvi7A/s200/Scripture+and+Cosmology.jpg" width="133" /></a>This spring, for the first time, I will be team-teaching a Religion and Science course with Dr. Corina Wack. Dr. Wack teaches Biology here at Chowan and I am excited to learn from her as well as to have critical discussions about the relationship of these two fields.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwyvIyD1l99MhJaSNe3O0oR349A8uClj1Or5Z7ffwMXvWsRlUonX6E0SN0rzFgIQ4x7alyxs8cJx_F5txUMio2prYiZLFNbdae5d45F1UzKvLvsyZmSVCayeHtNrTB10sm5kd255-VOFcA/s1600/Finding+Darwin%2527s+god.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwyvIyD1l99MhJaSNe3O0oR349A8uClj1Or5Z7ffwMXvWsRlUonX6E0SN0rzFgIQ4x7alyxs8cJx_F5txUMio2prYiZLFNbdae5d45F1UzKvLvsyZmSVCayeHtNrTB10sm5kd255-VOFcA/s200/Finding+Darwin%2527s+god.jpg" width="131" /></a>Upcoming on this blog, I will be giving serial reviews of the two textbooks that we have chosen for the class. I will be doing this in small chapter reviews to go along with the assigned readings for the course.<br />
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The first textbook is <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Scripture-Cosmology-Reading-Between-Ancient-ebook/dp/B015TBK2T8/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484665418&sr=1-1&keywords=scripture+and+cosmology">Scripture and Cosmology</a></i> by Kyle Greenwood. Greenwood teaches Old Testament at Colorado Christian University.<br />
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The second textbook that I will be reviewing is <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Darwins-God-Scientists-Evolution/dp/0061233501/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484665448&sr=1-1&keywords=finding+darwin%27s+god">Finding Darwin's God</a></i> by Kenneth Miller. Miller is Professor of Biology at Brown University. <br />
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Stay tuned for the serial reviews.Keith Reichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10679244684706964812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2818703174963694504.post-86116325886932596172016-03-16T08:49:00.001-05:002016-03-16T08:49:09.264-05:00Did Paul Just Go All Plato on Me?In a recent series on this blog (<a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-resurrection-and-plato.html">Part I</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2016/03/resurrection-and-plato-part-ii.html">Part II</a>, <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2016/03/resurrection-and-plato-part-iii.html">Part III</a>), I discussed the fact that Paul's teaching on the resurrection in I Corinthians 15 (See also I Thess. 4 and Rom. 8) does not conform to a platonic worldview with its corresponding dualism of reality (material vs. non-material), and its human dualism (body/flesh vs. soul/spirit).<br />
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When, however, one turns to other passages in Paul, it may seem like he does embrace this sort of platonic dualism. For example, here is what Paul writes in II Corinthians 3:18:<br />
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"18 And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit." (NRSV). </blockquote>
Here, Paul may be opening the door to a human dualism. In I Cor. 15, transformation is instantaneous at the resurrection. Here the transformation is gradual and is taking place now. Is this a "spiritual" or non-material transformation? Shortly after this verse, II Cor. 4:16 reads:<br />
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"16 So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day." (NRSV). </blockquote>
This verse seems to be even more clearly embracing a platonic dualism, expressed here by the terms "outer nature" and "inner nature." Paul goes on to write in II Cor. 4:18:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"18 because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal." (NRSV).</blockquote>
And here we might have an embrace of platonic dualism of the material vs. non-material. As I continue to read E. P. Sanders' latest work on Paul, I found his comments on these verses informative. Here is what he has to say about II Cor. 4:18:<br />
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"This sentence constitutes what I call 'Paul's most platonic moment': Platonic theory held that the eternal 'forms' are <i>real</i>, while their 'shadows' or 'imitations,' which are perceived by the human senses, are not real. What can destroyed is not real, what is real cannot be destroyed. Again, this suggests body/soul dualism." (emphasis original)(E. P. Sanders, <i>Paul: The Apostle's Life, Letters, and Thought, </i>(Minneapolis: Fortress, 2015), 411). </blockquote>
Add to these verses in II Corinthians Paul's words from Phillipians 1:21-23 which read:<br />
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"21 For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which I prefer. 23 I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better;" (NRSV). </blockquote>
Here, what is it that departs to be with Christ? Is it Paul's immortal (platonic) soul? And what is it departing? The body? It appears, if you read these verses that between the writing of I Corinthians, which clearly battled against a platonic worldview, and the writing of II Corinthians and Philippians, that Paul has changed his mind and embraced a platonic worldview. I (and Sanders) will have more to say on this in future posts, but for now, what do you think?<br />
<br />Keith Reichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10679244684706964812noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2818703174963694504.post-43739201545437488852016-03-04T12:31:00.001-06:002016-03-04T12:31:33.190-06:00Resurrection and Plato Part IIIIn <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-resurrection-and-plato.html">Part I</a> and <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2016/03/resurrection-and-plato-part-ii.html">Part II</a> of this series, I have been discussing Paul's worldview as expressed in I Corinthians 15 in relation to the very common "Platonic" worldview. In a nutshell, I argued that Paul does not hold to a Platonic dualistic worldview which splits reality in two: material (earth) and non-material (world of forms) reality, and the corresponding dualistic view of the human with a material body/flesh and a non-material soul/spirit.<br />
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At the end of the last post, I posed the following question: "if Paul was not talking in I Corinthians 15 about a move from material (physical) to non-material (spiritual) existence, then what distinction is he making?"<br />
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The specific verses that I have been dealing with are I Corinthians 15:44-46, which in the NRSV read as follows:<br />
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44 It is sown a physical [<i>psychikon</i>] body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical [<i>psychikon</i>] body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being[<i>psychen</i>]”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the physical[<i>psychikon</i>], and then the spiritual.</blockquote>
As I pointed out, the NRSV, and virtually all modern English translations are misleading here as they translate the Greek word <i>psychikos</i> as "physical" (NRSV, CEB) or "natural" (NIV, KJV, NKJV, NASB, HCSB, ESV). Both of these words, physical and natural, play into a Platonic worldview bias and render what Paul says as essentially mirroring the dualistic reality of Plato. This makes it almost impossible to see the distinction that Paul is making here, and it is not a distinction between material and non-material reality, but rather the distinction is between corruptibility and incorruptibility, between mortality and immortality. <br />
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This distinction between mortality and immortality can be clearly seen if one doesn't let vv. 44-46 and their misleading translations drive the issue. Rather, vv. 42-26 list four contrasts between life before and after the resurrection. The controlling metaphor here is that of sowing a seed (i.e., before resurrection) and what grows from the seed (i.e., after the resurrection). This metaphor was introduced in v. 37. So, what is sown in death is transformed through the resurrection. But once again, this is not a move from material to non-material. Look at the four examples:<br />
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So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a "soulish" body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a "soulish" body, there is also a spiritual body. </blockquote>
So, what are the four pairs? They are:<br />
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<ol>
<li>perishable vs. imperishable</li>
<li>dishonor vs. glory</li>
<li>weakness vs. power</li>
<li>"soulish" vs. spiritual</li>
</ol>
We can follow this with one last pair: First Adam vs. Last Adam (Christ). Adam died (and stayed dead), Christ died, but was raised to life.<br />
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Once again, the distinction here is not between material and non-material but between mortality and immortality.<br />
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One can see this same thought, the contrast between mortality/decay/death and immortality and life in Romans 8:18-23 where it is not only humans that will partake in this new form of existence, but the entire material creation will undergo a transformation. The verses are as follows:<br />
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18 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; 20 for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; 23 and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. (NRSV)</blockquote>
So, Paul thinks that all of creation will take part in this transformation and will not longer be in "bondage to decay." It is not material vs. non-material for Paul, but perishable vs. imperishable. If there is a dualism in Paul on this matter at all, it is a dualism of time: this present age vs. the age to come, before the resurrection vs. after the resurrection. What do you think? <br />
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Keith Reichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10679244684706964812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2818703174963694504.post-50599545526048850882016-03-01T13:24:00.000-06:002016-03-01T13:24:02.786-06:00Resurrection and Plato Part IIIn <a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-resurrection-and-plato.html">Part I</a> of this series I discussed the difficulty of squaring Paul's teaching on the resurrection found in I Corinthians chapter 15 with Plato's dualistic worldview. Specifically I pointed out that Plato clearly divides between a material body(<i>soma</i>)/flesh(<i>sarx</i>) and a non-material soul(<i>psyche</i>)/spirit(<i>pneuma</i>). Thus, in a Platonic view, earthly/material life is lived in a body made of flesh, and after the death of the body, the non-material soul/spirit lives on in a non-material reality (heaven/world of forms). The problem is that Paul does not split reality this way. Instead of material/non-material, Paul seems to have a dualism of time: before and after the resurrection. Moreover, before the resurrection life is lived in a "soulish" (<i>psychikos</i>) body, and after the resurrection it is a spiritual (<i>pneumatikos</i>) body. This does not square with Platonic reality in two ways. 1) It characterizes life on earth with the <i>psyche</i> and 2) it has a body in both realities.<br />
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I am currently reading through Sanders' recent volume on Paul (E. P. Sanders, <i>Paul: The Apostle's Life, Letters, and Thought, </i>(Minneapolis: Fortress, 2015).) and he notes this very same thing. He even happens upon the same awkward word "soulish" to translate <i>psychikos</i>. Sanders notes, as I have also in the past, that Paul's use of <i>psychikos</i> to describe life before the resurrection is almost certainly dictated by his proof text which is Genesis 2:7, which reads:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man [adam] became a living being. (NRSV).</blockquote>
Paul uses this verse to bolster his argument, and quotes it as follows in 15:45:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“The first man, Adam, became a living being”</blockquote>
In the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures, which is most likely what Paul was familiar with as his Bible), "living being" is the translation of the Greek "<i>psychen zosan</i>" or "living soul). So, Adam was a living <i>psyche, </i>who of course would die, so the second Adam (Christ) was a "life giving spirit" (<i>pneuma</i>).<br />
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It is this verse, Paul's proof text from Genesis 2:7, that has controlled Paul's terminology and dictated his contrast between the "soulish" (<i>psychikos</i>)<i> </i>body and the spiritual (<i>pneumatikos</i>) body. It is clear that Paul is not using the Greek terminology in the Platonic sense, because his terms do not line up with Plato's division of reality into material and non-material realms. But, if he is not operating from a Platonic worldview, then what worldview was controlling his thought?<br />
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I would argue that Paul's controlling worldview, his controlling view of reality is a predominately Jewish worldview as displayed in the Old Testament. That Jewish worldview rejects most Greek dualisms. The Old Testament worldview does not split reality into material and non-material. Rather, Creation, both the heavens (read sky) and earth are part of material creation. Nor does the Old Testament split humans into material and non-material parts. Rather, the human is a whole, a living being (see Gen 2:7) who is given life by the breath (spirit) of God. In Genesis 2:7, a living being is a living <i>nephesh</i>, which is a Hebrew word meaning self, person, life, etc. The word is often translated into Greek as <i>psyche</i>, as is the case in Gen 2:7, and thus is sometimes translated into English as soul. But we are not talking about Plato's non-material soul that lives on after the body dies. In Hebrew thought, the <i>nephesh</i> encompassed the whole person.<br />
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Here are E.P. Sanders words on the non-dualistic nature of Judaism, because I think they are instructive here:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"In general, Judaism is fundamentally against dualism, though some forms of Judaism accepted some forms of dualism. But at the root of Judaism is the belief that there is only one true God, who is good, and who created the world, declaring it to be good too (e.g., Gen. 1:31). Christianity inherited this view, and the Jewish view of creation helped it fight off some of the worst aspects of dualism (especially the denigration of bodily pleasure), though it also accepted some. The battle between dualism and monotheism went on for centuries, and resulted in a stalemate; to this day there is no final solution of the problem. (Sanders, <i>Paul,</i> 407). </blockquote>
I would say, with Sanders, that what Paul writes in I Cor. 15 represents his predominately Jewish worldview and rejection of both dualistic reality and dualistic humanity. But, a<a href="http://keithreich.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-resurrection-and-plato.html">s a comment on my last post stated:</a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I can't guess what Paul meant by that distinction [<i>psychikos vs. pneumatikos, </i>before and after resurrection], if it wasn't the distinction between spiritual and physical.</blockquote>
Or, to rephrase, if Paul was not talking in I Corinthians 15 about a move from material (physical) to non-material (spiritual) existence, then what distinction is he making? That will be the topic of my next post. Stay tuned. <br />
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<br />Keith Reichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10679244684706964812noreply@blogger.com4