Category Archives: Creation

If you’re going to review a book, it helps to read it first

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Interested in seeing what has been published recently on the relationship between science and Christian faith, I chanced upon some reviews on Amazon of Andrew Parker’s The Genesis Enigma (Black Swann, 2010).

Some of the reviews were favourable, others not.  Among the latter, one individual informed us:-

[This] book is not worth reading.

Another opined:-

[This book has nothing] interesting to say at all.  [It is] candy for believers, a comforter which has nothing relevant to contemporary discourse.

…

The new heaven and the new earth

Walking With Giants Posted on by

We do not subscribe to the myth of progress – the idea, popular in earlier evolutionary thinking, that the world will get better and better.  Nor do we believe, with Plato, that we are souls in transit, passing through this illusory world on our way to to something beyond space, time and matter.

The shape of things to come is determined, in biblical thinking, by the threefold story of creation, rebellion, and redemption.  We can tell the story of Jesus as the moment all creation has been waiting for:-

Humans were made to be God’s stewards over creation; so the one through whom all things were made, the eternal son, the eternal wisdom, becomes human, so that he might truly become God’s steward, ruler over all his world.
…

‘Darwin’s Struggle: The Evolution of the Origin of Species’ – BBC Four

Walking With Giants Posted on by

I’ve just got round to viewing a recording of this BBC documentary, which  was broadcast on 28th September.

It covers much of the same ground as the recent film ‘Creation’, although giving less attention to biographical details and more (in true BBC style) to the presentation of gorgeous images that supplement Darwin’s account of the ‘struggle for survival’ in the world of nature.

We are not surprised to be told, at some length, of a parallel struggle – the struggle between science and religion. …

Psa 104 – Did Darwin kill God? (sermon notes)

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Here is a Powerpoint presentation used as the basis for a sermon preached in the light of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, the 150 anniversary of the publication of his Origin of Species, and the recent release of the film ‘Creation’ which documents some of the events in Darwin’s life leading up to the publication of that book.

Psalm 104 was read during the service.

…

Genesis or evolution: do we have to choose?

Walking With Giants Posted on by

‘What About Genesis?’, ask Denis Alexander, in his book Creation or Evolution: Do We Have To Choose?  What follows is based on Alexander’s discussion.

Two preliminary points.  The final authority of Scripture in all matters of faith and conduct is fundamental.  Although modern science can shed light on the interpretation of the Bible, the relationship between the Bible and science is not such that we should relying on science to determine the meaning of the biblical text, or vice-versa.…

God’s ‘two books’

Walking With Giants Posted on by

The habit of referring to God’s ‘two books’ – the book of Scripture and the ‘book’ of nature – goes back at least to Francis Bacon (1561-1626).  Michael Faraday (1791-1867) spoke in the same terms, as did Galileo (1564-1642).  Charles Darwin quoted Bacon in the preface to his Origin of Species:-

‘To conclude, therefore, let no man out of a weak conceit of sobriety, or an ill-applied moderation, think or maintain, that a man can search too far or be too well studied in the book of God’s work, or in the book of God’s word; divinity or philosophy; but rather let men endeavour an endless progress of proficence in both.’…

‘The Troubled Waters of Evolution’

Walking With Giants Posted on by

The title of this post is borrowed from that of a book by the late Henry M. Morris.  He, and other (mainly North American) apologists have argued for a literal reading of the early chapters of Genesis as a scientific account of origins, and for this to be taught in schools alongside, or even in place of, evolutionary theory.

It is certainly true that Darwinism has deeply affected many aspects of life, not only in science but also in philosophy, literature and politics.…

Some thoughts on ‘Intelligent Design’

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Although the teleological argument, or ‘argument from design’, for the existence of a Creator has a long history, going back at least as far as William Paley, the ‘Intelligent Design’ (ID) movement is of much more recent development.

In contrast to young-earth creationism, which is willing to privilege the (supposed) teachings of the Bible in questions of origin over against the (supposed) teachings of modern science, ID proponents accept the conventional scientific view on the age and origin of the cosmos, and on evolutionary processes generally, but postulate that direct divine intervention is required not only at the beginning of the process but at particular points during it as well.…

Creationism in Britain

Walking With Giants Posted on by

We tend to associate Creationism (that is to say, Young Earth Creationism) with American fundamentalism.  However, it is alive and kicking in Britain too.  According to a recent survey carried out on behalf of Theos think-tank, 17% of Britons take the Young Earth position (compared with 11% for Intelligent Design, 28% for Theistic Evolution, and 37% for Atheistic Evolution).

Not long ago, The BBC website carried this article about British creationists.  It discusses, among other things, the Genesis Expo museum, set up in Plymouth by the Creation Science Movement.…

Darwin: a story of origins

Walking With Giants Posted on by

The story of Charles Darwin and his discovery of evolution has become as much a part of our culture as the story of Adam and Eve before it. It has become ‘common knowledge’ that living beings have evolved over millions of years, and that we occupy no privileged place in the animal kingdom.

The story of Darwin, together with that of Galileo, marks the turning-point when science dispelled the superstitions of religion and ushered in the modern world.…