Heritage Coast, Wales
My good friend known as Chucky responded to a multi-topic blog article I posted on satire and theology.
Within the article I had posted a link from the Albert Mohler program which discussed global warming, but also Richard Dawkins. Here is the Albert Mohler link:
http://www.albertmohler.com/radio_show.php?cdate=2007-01-23
Chucky noted:
Sounds like Dawkins is kind of a scientific Jerry Springer: he is more interested in provoking, offending and getting people riled up than in seeking truth. His righteous anger toward religion makes me think of the character of Saul of Tarsus. It is hard to think that anything other than a revelatory experience would cause him to change his ways.
Re: Global warming, I simply don't understand how our governments can just keep throwing gazillions of dollars at out-of-control health care, pointless wars, ineffective gun registries, all kinds of "squeaky wheels", etc. while productive industry shifts to developing countries, never mind placing additional restrictions on businesses which may do nothing more than hasten their demise (due o inability to compete with non-Kyoto countries). Yet I believe that we ought to be good stewards of what God has given us. The dilemma we face is caused by having already gone too far down the wrong road (of fossil fuel depletion) to make things right, unless there is a concerted global effort to change. Probably only a global dictatorship would have a chance at this point. 1984 here we come...
I replied:
Philosophical truth should not be overlooked as questionable and for the most part only empirical scientific data accepted as the means by which truth can be understood. Since the universe is expanding it is likely not infinite and eternal and neither is matter. What existed before matter and what caused it to exist? If time is eternal we have a vicious regress and an infinite amount of time cannot me traversed. If time is finite, what existed before time and what caused time? These are problems that are in my view larger than the problem of evil which is my MPhil and PhD topic. My articles on first cause and infinite on thekingpin68 blog point out difficulties with rejecting some non-materialistic explanations for truth in reality. Certainly supernatural occurrences are not typical but I would conclude that the existence of finite matter required the first miracle as a supernatural first cause created the universe. This first cause would have the capability to intervene within creation when desired and this would of course have the potential to appear untypical. I reason that Biblical revelation is a result of the creator intervening within the universe..
http://thekingpin68.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_archive.html
http://thekingpin68.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_archive.html
I would add that I am no expert on Richard Dawkins or science, but I saw an interview he did on the Charlie Rose show and he basically indicated that religious people were not educated. Clearly it is not that simple or easy for scientists who rely primarily on empirical testing to dismiss religious views that are developed through rational, reasonable deduction and revelation. There are educated scientists and educated philosophers, theologians, and Biblical scholars. Rather than dismissing those of other disciplines I think it is better to admit one's own intellectual short comings with an open mind. If I need to go into a hospital for open heart surgery I do not want a theologian to attempt to operate on me with the use of the Bible and theology texts. If I am terminally ill in the hospital a surgeon's skill becomes useless to me and if a theologian demonstrates to me that God has historically revealed himself in Scripture and provided a means of salvation and everlasting life through Christ, then he is of use to me in my time of need.
Russ:)
