[389.1] NOT SO WELL DESIGNED

Thanks for those who sent notes to me following the Heaven and Earth show on BBC1 this morning. I did a 20-minute interview on the subject of what's wrong, theologically as well as scientifically, with 'intelligent design' creationism. Only a very brief snippet got used, and sadly many key points were overlooked in the feature as a whole. For example, the presenter kept referring to ID as "a theory" and the segment referred to it as "an alternative to Darwinism". It is neither of these things. It offers no testable hypotheses, as a scientist from the Wellcome Foundation (Professor Mark Walport, a leading expert on immunology and genetics) pointed out - but without being given time to explain why. ID accepts some features of evolutionary theory, but rejects others, on grounds which have been thoroughly taken apart by experts in the field as well as at the 2005 Dover trial. Incidentally, the main proponent of ID on the programme was not a scientist but Alistair Noble, an educationist who works for a Scottish Christian lobby group, CARE. His odd claim that ID is science because it starts by making claims about it could, of course, be said of many other dubious and discredited ideas - astrology, for example.

One of the things I had done (though you didn't get to see it) was explain why the so-called 'intelligent designer' of ID is a caricature of God as traditionally understood by Christians. God gifts the whole world process (not allegedly 'unexplainable' bits of it) ex-nihilo rather than through manufacture. What God 'creates' ('lets-into-being' is a better term these days) is potentiality and self-generativity. It is the resulting freedom of the world in relation to the essence of the divine that allows the possibility of truth, beauty and wisdom to develop uncoerced in the direction of relationship. Love requires contigency, in other words, not manipulation from without. ID also undermines the essential message of Genesis, which is not a hypothesis about life-mechanics, but rather a powerful, figurative, multi-layered affirmation that the world is good and fruitful, despite our marring of it - a notion directed against Ancient Near Eastern myths which said otherwise.

What ID does, as with creationism, is to create an inherent opposition between nature and the divine, so that the more you have of one, the less you have of the other (as if they were competing 'things') - exactly the kind of antithesis that the Jewish and Christian narrative is trying to overcome. It is also based on flawed metaphysics and the basic philosophical category error which takes absence of evidence to be an evidence of absence: viz "we're stuck with this limit, so an extra terrestial must have done it". This isn't science, and it's terrible god-of-the-gaps theology in spite of its (oft-refuted) claims to have found an end-point not a gap.

Nor did 'Heaven and Earth' point out that the UK Department for Education and Science has already rejected ID and creationism as inappropriate for inclusion in school biology lessons on scientific grounds; that the major Christian denominations have no problem with evolutionary biology and oppose creationism; and that many of those promoting ID, and claiming it as a scientific proposition, are actually Young Earth Creationists who don't even accept what they are putting forward. Rather, it is part of a political 'wedge' strategy. Get the distant cousin in and he'll bring all his relatives, essentially. In introducing Philip Johnson, an ID creationism advocate, the programme could also have mentioned that he denies the predominant scientific view that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is causally central in giving rise to AIDS.

Altogether, less than satisfactory. But for many people, not least popular TV producers, the issues are dense and complex. So one simply has to go on communicating. My agenda includes a couple of popular pieces on the theological contradictions of ID, one for The Guardian CIF and one for my Ekklesia column. When I get the time, as I keep saying.

See also the excellent talk.origins archives and NCSE's review of creationism around the world (including the UK) and the Vatican response to ID. Thoroughly recommended, for those who want to know more, are these titles; and Not In Our Classrooms: Why Intelligent Design is wrong in our schools. Theologian Ted Peters has also co-authored with scientist Martinez Hewlett a very good primer for local congregations, Can You Believe in God and Evolution? A Guide For the Perplexed (2006).

Also: Blair accused of complacency on classroom creationism; Christians and humanists call on government to rule out 'creationism' in science classes; Creationism distorts truth in science, says vicar; UK anti-evolutionists seek to lure parents with new website; US churches celebrate 'Evolution Sunday'; Churches urged to challenge Intelligent Design; Theologians and scientists welcome Intelligent Design ban; Schools minister says creationism has no place in classroom science; Exam Board rules out creationism in UK classrooms; Vatican astronomer says creationism is superstition; Archbishop of Canterbury criticises teaching of creationism; Creationists target schools and universities in Britain; Dawkins attacks creationist plans; Faith schools may allow extremists in, say critics; Creationists plan six more schools; Christians to explore values in science and technology; New Christian academy rejects creationism as 'rubbish'.

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[10.20 GMT] New Irish Anglican primate favours C of E disestablishment and an end to anti-Catholic ban (full story)
Simon Barrow, co-director of the UK religious think tank Ekklesia, which has in the past said that disestablishment is desirable for the health of both the church and a plural society, welcomed Bishop Alan Harper's remarks."It would be good if the thoughtful, forward-looking position of the new Irish Primate could re-open a proper debate among the churches in England, not just the Church of England itself," said Barrow. He continued: "Binding the church to the state through the crown restricts the freedom of both, and mortgages the Christian message to a reliance on governing authority rather than Jesus, the Prince of Peace, who was actually put to death by a religion-state alliance."

[01.02 GMT] Being suspicious of Christian unity. Ekklesia, Jan 21, 2007. Simon Barrow suggests a different understanding and pattern of ecumenism for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2007 ... more

[09.51 GMT] TUBE CORN. If you are watching TV on Sunday 21 January 2007 in the UK you can catch Ekklesia's Simon Barrow on the 'Heaven and Earth Show' (10.00 am BBC 1) talking about science, theology, creationism and the problem with 'Intelligent Design'; and colleague Jonathan Bartley on 'The Moral of the Story' (11.20pm ITV) discussing the rise in interest rates, global warming and the racism row in Big Brother.

[17.26 GMT] GOVERNMENT BACKS STUDENT MEDIATION CALL. A UK government minister, education chief Bill Rammell, has given his backing to the recommendations of a report from the think-tank Ekklesia which proposes the resolution of conflicts between a number of Christian Unions and university Students' Unions, through mediation rather than court battles. Full story here. Also: Full text of the letter from Bill Rammell here (*.PDF file). Ekklesia's report on Christian Unions and their complaints is here.

[388.1] CARELESS TALK COSTS GOD

"We have to be careful about the level on which we place the infinite. If we put it on a level which is only suitable for the finite, it does not matter much what name we give it". Simone Weil, quoted by D.Z. Philips in The Problem of Evil and the Problem of God (SCM Press, 2004). Good God-talk is generative, imaginative and life-reforming, but is also careful not reduce the infinity of the divine to a superannuation of human being, its conceptions and fantasies. One of the challenges of theology at the moment (confronted with popular non-sense such as anti-Darwinian Intelligent Design, which I have to talk about on TV this weekend) is that it needs to aspire to creativity, to enable us to be surprised by God, so to speak; but it also has a regulative function in requiring us to discipline our speech, so that it does not reduce God to - in the case of ID - a projection of our own understanding of reality which is somehow in competition with the natural processes of the world, rather than donative of them (which is what is meant by 'creation'). This is put well in a recent Times article about God-talk (sadly mis-titled by an editor) from the redoubtable Brian Davies, an English Dominican and Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University, New York, USA. Also worthwhile is 'emerging chuch' scholar Peter Rollins on How (Not) to Speak of God (SPCK, 2006). I've had a brief look at this, and read a few reviews. I want to give it more serious attention when I get some time.

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[07.06 GMT] The bridge-building path By Simon Barrow: The legacy of Martin Luther King reminds us of our tendency to turn 'the other' into a threat rather than a source of potential enrichment. Profile; all SB articles. Guardian Unlimited: Comment is free - http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/.

[387.2] ESTRANGED BEHAVIOUR

Absurdity as the theatre of war. Simon Barrow contemplates Bush, Camus, Iraq, oil, and the perversity of hope - Ekklesia, Jan 14, 2007:

“Don't wait for the last judgment - it takes place every day”, remarked Albert Camus, the existentialist philosopher of life in the face of the absurd. An atheist himself, he also once challengingly declared: “What the world requires of the Christians is that they should continue to be Christians.” You don’t get much more theological than that.

Since George W. Bush made the unlikely assertion, via his press secretary Tony Snow, that his Summer 2006 vacation reading had included Camus’ famous novel L’Etranger (‘The Outsider’ - better 'The Outside-Insider'), one has to wonder what the US President would make of these observations – especially in the light of his own current plans concerning the future of Iraq. Continued.

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[387.1] THE TERROR OF GRATUITY

"It is hard to believe in [Christ’s love] because it is a devouring love. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of a living God. If we do once catch a glimpse of it we are afraid of it. Once we recognize that we are [children] of God, that the seed of divine life has been painted in us at baptism, we are overcome by that obligation placed upon us of growing in the love of God."
~ Dorothy Day, from 'To Die For Love', The Catholic Worker, September 1948.

"Ultimately, we are reborn to love because in this expanding, gracious space within us, we arrive at the astonishing presence of God at the core of our life. We blunder into the heart of God and find our own."
~ Sue Monk Kidd, from Firstlight

"Humanism was not wrong in thinking that truth, beauty, liberty, and equality are of infinite value, but in thinking that [we human beings] can get them for [ourselves] without grace." ~ Simone Weil, Inspiration Occitanien

[Pic: Dorothy Day, (c) Catholic Worker]

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[01.22 GMT] SOUND ADVICE. “If malevolence be spoken of you and it be true, correct yourself, if it be a lie, laugh at it.” (Epictetus)

[01.14 GMT] "There are just some activities that there are no Christ-like ways of doing....All attempts today to justify violence from the life of Jesus or his teachings are devoid of spiritual and intellectual merit." ~Bishop Emmanuel Charles McCarthy (1992 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee and former U.S. Marine pilot)

[00.12 GMT] SCM joins calls for mediation not legal action in Christian Union student row (Ekklesia).

[386.1] KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY?

I haven't read it yet, but this book looks right up my street. Very topical, too, given the arguments currently raging in the churches on both sides of the Atlantic. It's written by a family friend with whom I've just reconnected - indeed, connected for the first time, as far as my adulthood goes. Deirdre Good is Professor of New Testament at The General Theological Seminary (Episcopal Church) in New York City. A widely published author and lecturer, she is also a programme consultant to television on religious history. Her most recent book is Mariam, the Magdalen, and the Mother, a collection of essays on the Mary figures of the Bible.

"Many people claim to know what Jesus would say or do in the kinds of ethical dilemmas we face today, but applying "traditional" Christian values out of context actually sells Jesus' teaching short. What are Christian family values, Deirdre Good asks in Jesus' Family Values, why are there so many interpretations of what Jesus actually taught and said, and which of these biblical values should guide our lives?

"She begins by setting this conversation in the context of the Greek, Roman, Jewish, and first-century sectarian world, and criticises the attempts to use biblical texts literally in advocating for marriage and the family. Other chapters take up the meaning of house and home, marriage and divorce, and biological ties vs. extended families and communities.

"Through careful attention to the words and stories of Matthew, Luke, Mark, John, and the letters of Paul, Good provides an ideal method for studying the Bible to find out what it actually says to our communities and households today. " (From the publisher's blurb)

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[02.01 GMT] SORs UPDATES: Anti-gay rights activists do not represent most religious opinion, say critics; Parliamentary challenge to UK equalities regulation fails. See also the ongoing coverage on Thinking Anglicans.

[385.1] A GENTLE BLOW FOR EQUALITY

Given the extraordinarily negative and depressing reaction of many Christian groups to the UK government's incoming Sexual Orientation Regulations (SORs) on goods, services and facilities, it is heartening that at least one significant service agency (and an evangelical one, to boot) has called time on this nonsense in no uncertain terms. I don't agree with FaithWorks on everything, but this is a bold and necessary statement. Good on them. In other respects, the churches are sadly gaining a reputation not for a liberating Gospel, but for a message which requires fear, prejudice and discrimination to sanction it. More strong but temperate voices to the contrary are needed. Incidentally, the legislation that outlaws discrimination in the public realm against lesbian and gay peope does the same for members of religious, ethnic and other groups. See also: Faith groups are misrepresenting sexual equality rules, say critics 09/01/07, and my colleague Jonathan Bartley's probing of the emerging 'persecution complex' among some Christian groups at the end of Christendom. Christian Today, who otherwise have given solid backing to the nay-sayers, have (happily) reproduced Malcolm Duncan's excellent 'open letter', which is to be found in its orginal form here.

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[384.1] GLIMPSES OF LIGHT

An epiphany of love in a suffering world? January 8, 2007. Simon Barrow reasons with the mystery of incarnation (Ekklesia).

"[T]he One who we meet in Christ this Epiphany is not a God whose coming-in-the-flesh begins and ends with the history of Jesus. It is, says the tradition, an eternal condition of the divine to be given within the limits of our humanity – rather than in some esoteric knowledge or proposition. This is actually what the strange language in St John's Prologue seeks to convey by picturing for us the ‘pre-existence’ of the Logos (divine reason), and later by proclaiming that the one who was crucified is now ‘risen’ – in other words, that the tortured love we meet in the person of Jesus is finally recovered in the hidden and un-containable life of God. This claim, experienced through forgiveness and restoration-in-community, is what Christian hope is all about." More.

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[383.1] LONGING NOT POSSESSION

"The community of faith is a community of longing, not possession. It is for those who have glimpsed something of the divine, as well as for those who have not, but long to. It is for those who have achieved some level of discipline and control in their lives and for those who have not, but long to. St Augustine once described the Church as a school for sinners, not a museum for saints. It should be as wide as humanity; it should include all who wish to be attached to it; it should welcome their desire to explore the mystery that besets us."

From Dancing On The Edge by Richard Holloway, former Bishop of Edinburgh and Primus in the Scottish Episcopal Church

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[382.1] 2007? JUST SAY NO!










Only kidding (wonderful story, though)... a very happy New Year to you!

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[15.37 GMT] Reshaping our democratic debate Jan 1, 2007 Simon Barrow looks at how to put people before political posturing.

[381.1] THE SHOCK OF THE NEW

"Christian hope is not based on which political party is in power. Nor is based on being purpose-driven, as some have written, or cajoling ourselves toward happiness, as some have preached. Our Christian hope is based on an Easter reading of the world. In the resurrection of Jesus Christ God overturns the world. God does a whole new thing. Easter is not the result of gradual progress. It does not signify a military victory. It is not the destruction of all that is evil. Rather, it is a breaking through to a whole new future. It is a letting go of what has been in order to grasp what is given in Jesus Christ." (Phil Edwards)

[Artwork: Penelope Aitken]

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