More Process - Evolution

"If someone’s notion of God

does not allow for evolutionary

history as it has actually unfolded, that person’s notion

of God is mistaken."

-Philip Clayton

How can I have a faith that honors both science and the Bible?

Know the Bible. Know science. Think hard.

SCIENCE RELIGION

"You cannot shelter theology from science, or science from theology; nor can you shelter either of them from

metaphysics, or metaphysics from either of them. There is no short cut to truth."

-A.N. Whitehead

SCIENCE RELIGION

a more subtle

science a deepe

r

religion

One, unified worldview must be consistent with the

"Darwinian context"

WORLDVIEW

Biblical inerrancy

The complexity of life proves that life is the product of “intelligent design” or that a God exists.

Human uniqueness

God is an omnipotent being

Clayton's "4 Eggregious (Christian) Errors"

“loftier” theology must be a theology without literalism

without anthropomorphism without omnipotence

It must not offer a God who sets aside natural laws,

but a God who works with these regularities.

RELIGION

natural selection adaptation

population genetics and genetic drift molecular and systems biology

fitness landscapes macroevolution

evolutionary psychology neurobiology

mathematical game theory evolutionary developmental biology

ecology biodiversity

SCIENCE

There are no meaningful human questions that science cannot answer.

When non‐scientific questions do arise, no particular expertise or study other than a good science education is needed to pronounce upon them.

Clayton's "2 Erronious Assumptions made by

Interpreters of Science"

"The central question is: when and how does a scientific topic undergo that

subtle metamorphosis into philosophical reflection? Evidently, this transition is the Achilles’ heel for many scientists,

even great ones, judging by their popular books and off‐hand comments

at conferences. Non‐scientists, by contrast, are well able to discern when

an eminent scientist has wandered onto speculative terrain and begun to make pronouncements outside his or her actual area of expertise." -PC

Why such debate?

Griffin's analysis

World, no God

World

God

God World

Supernaturalism or Deism

Atheism

*Panentheism

VS.

Naturalism ppp Subjectivity

Divine lure towards beauty, novelty,

complexity Persuasion Purpose

Emergence

Philip Clayton Emergent Evolution, Spirituality and God

Part 5: Spirit or Spirituality Claremont, CA - January 2012

Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden

Next week: Trinity

Process theology sees the universe as creative,

interrelational, dynamic, and open to the future. In process theology, God is relational,

present in every moment of our lives and in all entities and levels of being. The world is

interconnected, in effect a giant ecosystem where what harms or

blesses one, harms or blesses all.