fruitful faith » creation

the mighty chorus

Dale — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 07:02:53 +0000

Just making preparations for song-leading at Carey graduation, and spotted this gem of a line, which opens the fourth verse of Henry van Dyke’s hymn (to the tune of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Hymn to Joy), Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee:

Mortals join the mighty chorus, which the morning stars began…

I love the thought of all of the vast ages upon ages of ‘chorusing’ that the stars have sounded. And that we humble and small and relatively quiet humans get to ‘join’ (not lead!!) it.

creation & redemption

Dale — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 21:15:25 +0000

Genesis & Exodus | Creation & Redemption.

Gospel of Jesus | New Genesis & New Exodus >>> New Creation & New Redemption.

patient haste

Dale — Mon, 24 May 2010 10:19:24 +0000

Six days to create heaven and earth? What took so long, God?

13.73 billiion years of creative work? Aren’t we being a bit hasty?

Day, thousand years and all that…

a rocha

Dale — Tue, 18 May 2010 22:22:51 +0000

It was great to hear Richard Storey share at ‘after dinner mints’ at Carey Tuesday lunch yesterday. “Richard is a freshwater biologist for the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA). He spent two years with A Rocha in Lebanon and now chairs the board of A Rocha NZ. This Christian organisation is focused on science, research, practical conservation and environmental education.” (from Carey website)

Not only was it refreshing to hear a thoughtful, patient, pro-science Christian who is applying their faith to all of life, but I was particularly impressed to learn of an upcoming climate-change conference being planned. So often, the ‘sides’ tar and feather each other, never really patiently engaging with each other (certainly the blogosphere is overflowing with such politicised ranting – on both sides), but it was wonderful to hear that a conference is in the works which (apparently) will be inclusive of and patient enough to dialogue with even people like Ian Wishart (author of ‘Con Air’). It is this spirit of patient dialogue, taking the time to hear one another that will help make any progress. It avoids making the mistake of not taking the other person seriously enough to actually engage with them.

pre-fall death

Dale — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:15:13 +0000

On the 5th day, God filled the skies and seas with all kinds of sky-life (‘every sort of winged bird’) and sea-life (‘swarms of living creatures’). Everything that flies through the sky. Everything that lives in the sea. A few points:

Someone a lot more biologically inclined than myself could (probably? if indeed such short-lived organisms exist?) give examples of fast-reproducing organisms (microbes, gnats, etc.?) whose life-spans are only a few hours, and thus would have died on the same day of their creation.
According to ‘mature creation’ theory (creation created ‘mature’ – light already in transit from distant stars, trees with [very misleading!] annual rings only moments old, etc.), there would have been very, very ‘mature’-slash-about-to-die birdies and fishies created, some of which – conceivably – would have died on the same day of their creation.
Also, unless not one, single, fish-eating bird dipped down and tasted of the delicious bounty of the shimmering little fishies below, at least some fish would have died on the same day of their creation.

Beyond conceivable doubt, even given a 24-hour day understanding of creation (with 6, successive acts of ‘spontaneous creation’), there would have been physical death before the events of Genesis 3.

((note: I see no reason to doubt that the text of Genesis 1 was originally a poem/song expressing theological truths, as opposed to being a play-by-play, moment-by-moment, fact-by-fact account of the ‘how’ of creations’ origin. Thus, the nit-picking-ly detailed exercise above ought to be unnecessary – but is merely noted in reference to those who insist that there could have been no death before the Fall.))

uncreated thing

Dale — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:36:07 +0000

Those who hold that all things (the universe/multiverse/whatever) began to exist and were created (by an ultimate Creator or First/bottom Cause), and those who hold that all things (the universe/multiverse/whatever) ‘have always existed in some form/state’ agree on (at least) one point…

…namely that there is indeed an uncreated ‘thing’ which cannot be questioned, caused, created, ‘got behind’, etc.

The . . . → Read More: uncreated thing

‘big question’ essays

Dale — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 09:44:55 +0000

Cheers to Bryson for directing me to an essay, which I discovered was one over several over at The John Templeton Foundation.

The essays are comprised answers to ‘big questions’ from a variety of perspectives – theist, atheist and agnostic. They make for interesting reading whatever your beliefs are.

Two of the ‘big questions‘ essays were of particular interest to me: “Does the Universe Have a Purpose?” and “Does Science Make Belief in God Obsolete?“.

Some other bits which may be of interest to some readers include:

“Does Evolution Explain Human Nature?“
Debates between contributers to the Science/Belief essay (Christopher Hitchens v. Ken Miller; Jerome Groopman v. Michael Shermer; and Steven Pinker v. William D. Phillips).
A Brief interview with (physicist/cosmologist) Paul Davies concerning multiverse theory
assorted video content (look for it)

mixed responses

Dale — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:00:36 +0000

The Christian response to the ‘Faithful Science’ day-conference have been mixed.

Most of the appreciative and complementary feedback has been email or verbal. As for the less-appreciative feedback, unfortunately it’s been more public.

First, the Christian newspaper “Challenge Weekly” published a (to say it kindly) selective and less-than-inaccurate piece entitled “Conference fuels Controversy” (which can be viewed here – scroll down about half way), which, among other things, made the bizarre and out-of-left-field claim that some of the presenters held views more like Deism (which was anything but the case).

Predictably, the “letters to the editor” section in subsequent issues have been spotted with a handful of readers who were concerned/shocked by the conference. And, also not a surprise, a fresh write-up by CMI (Creation Ministries International) was subsequently published (here), entitled “Genesis not a Myth”, warning against a roadway to “spiritual disaster”.

The CMI article is also up here at their own website in very similar format, though more specifically targeting the Faithful Science conference.

I’ve offerred a couple of responses to Challenge, hoping to a) correct factual errors, b) help to clarify relevant issues, and c) challenge (no pun intended) readers to be more patient, and not assume what “those christian evolutionists” actually believe. Also, I’ve responsed to the CMI article and am hoping for some positive interaction there.

Also, I’ve had some dialogue (which is absolutely exemplary in terms of tone, patience, etc.) with an I.D. advocate who is a member of my church and attended the conference.

Here’s to (hopefully!) fruitful dialogue and interaction in the next… however long.

god is not a ‘thing’…

Dale — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:28:14 +0000

…and that is one of the first ‘things’ I believe about God.

faithful science

Dale — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:41:11 +0000

Announcing “Faithful Science“…

A one-day Science & Faith conference – coming August 1.

Speakers and topics:

DALE CAMPBELL – Science & Faith: Key Issues
YAEL KLANGWISAN – Reading the book of Genesis
NICOLA HOGGARD CREEGAN – Evolution and Evil
MYK HABETS – A Scientific Theology
JEFF TALLON – Physics and Faith
MATT FLANNAGAN – Does Evolution Make Belief in God Untenable?
GRAEME FINLAY – The Glorious Ape
NEIL BROOM – Is there Transcendence in Nature?
GRAHAM O’BRIEN – Evolution & Purpose

Organised by TANSA…

Hosted by Northcote Baptist.

PDF flyer here.

Y’all come now ya hear?