Tim Keller: Creation, Evolution, and Christian Laypeople

The white paper written by Tim Keller for the November workshop "In Search of a Theology of Celebration" is posted on the BioLogos web site: Creation, Evolution, and Christian Laypeople (or direct link). (via Scot McKnight)

Comments

[Steve]

Tim, like all theistic evolutionists, you ignore an absolutely fundamental premise of the theory of evoution, which is that its foundation is NATURALISM, the notion that everything in the world came about exclusively through NATURAL means - random, natural events, in other words. To put it succinctly, the theory of evolution is an attempt to explain how the world came into being WITHOUT ANY SUPERNATURAL INTERVENTION. The theory, in other words, excludes God BY DEFINTION.

Because you ignore this fundamental premise, your entire argument is irrelevant. In its effort to harmonize Scripture with evolution, theistic evolution is critically flawed, because the two are IRRECONCIABLE.

A good example of the absurdity of your argument is your support of the idea that Adam and Eve were the offspring of non-human parents, some sort of "ape," in other words. That should be embarrassing to you. Also, the questions you raised about Cain's wife, etc. have very simple and logical answers from a young-earth perspective. It makes me wonder, have you EVER investigated this position?? If not, there are several wonderful oprganizations that you would find very helpful - such as AIG (Answers in Genesis), ICR (Institute for Creation Research), CMI (Creation Ministries Int'l) and Creation Moments. They all have sophisticated and extremely informative Web sites.

[Jonathan McIntosh]

Who wrote the above comment? Is that Steve you, McCoy? And who is he talking to - Tim Keller?

Dude - does Tim Keller come by this site? If I knew that, I would've started commenting a lot sooner.

[Steve McCoy]

Haha. Dr. Keller has been known to stop by from time to time, but I doubt he'll respond here.

[Chaz]

Thanks so much for posting Keller's paper! (Well, it's not a great Amazon deal on an excellent indie album, but it'll do ;)

A few weeks back, I had a discussion with a good friend of mine...he's a recent reformed seminary graduate...and I asked him about his thoughts on the Creation account,evolution, etc... After he succinctly relayed his young earth stance, I kinda felt like the conversation was pretty much shut down. This paper has helped me understand why our conversation didnt' sit well with me, and to re-engage with him. This is the end of an email I just sent his way:
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"i was pretty discouraged after our last discussion at my house about this topic. you seemed to present your stance in such a matter-of-fact fashion...and maybe a step beyond that...that you relished your position as the "high ground." it just bothered me a little bit....i guess because I'm concerned about where (in society) the Church has a voice in the matter...or will we not have one at all because we're debating "lesser" issues amongst ourselves.

Keller: "Many orthodox Christians who believe in [evolutionary biological processes] often find themselves attacked by those Christians who do not. But it might reduce the tensions between believers over evolution if they could make common cause against [the Grand Theory of Evolution]. Most importantly, it is the only way to help Christian laypeople make the distinction in their minds between evolution as biological mechanism and as Theory of Life. "

and at the end of his paper: "My conclusion is that Christians who are seeking to correlate Scripture and science
must be a ‘bigger tent’ than either the anti-scientific religionists or the anti-religious scientists."
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i'm interested on anyone else's thoughts on the matter,
C

[Jonathan McIntosh]

Well said, Chaz.