{"id":5690,"date":"2009-08-31T00:00:15","date_gmt":"2009-08-31T00:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2009\/08\/genesis-one-13.html"},"modified":"2009-08-31T00:00:15","modified_gmt":"2009-08-31T00:00:15","slug":"genesis-one-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/08\/genesis-one-13.html","title":{"rendered":"Genesis One 13"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Walton.jpg\"<\/span>In John Walton’s (professor at Wheaton) new book, The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, we have yet another proposition to discuss:<\/p>\n

The difference between origin accounts in science and Scripture is metaphysical in nature<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Many folks, Walton argues, think of the “origins” question as a pie: some pieces are “natural” and some pieces are “supernatural.” The more we learn, one needs to observe, the fewer are the number of supernatural pieces. The problem: the ancients did not distinguish between primary causes and secondary causes, between God at work and between nature at work.<\/p>\n

Instead of pie, we need to see it all as a cake with layers. Lower layer: science. Top layer: God. The lower layer then represents secondary natural causation and the top divine causation. Science cannot explain the top layer.<\/p>\n

Ultimate causes cannot be determined by science. “Empirical science is not designed to to be able to define or detect a purpose, though it may … theoretically … deduce … that purpose” (116). And “biological evolution can acknowledge no purpose” but neither can it contend that there is no purpose.<\/p>\n

Genesis is a top layer account, concerned with teleology (purpose), yet open to all kinds of explanations of the bottom layer.  In Walton’s view, what is the teleology of Genesis 1?<\/b><\/p>\n

But this is like a fish saying there is only water and that there is no such thing as mountains or air or trees. There is a difference between naturalism (natural explanation) and materialism (that only the material exists).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In John Walton’s (professor at Wheaton) new book, The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate, we have yet another proposition to discuss: The difference between origin accounts in science and Scripture is metaphysical in nature. 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