Falling Stars, Damnable Heresy, and the Spirit of Evolution

“Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son” (1 John 2:22).

“And the fifth angel sounded the trumpet, and I saw a star fall from heaven upon the earth, and there was given to him the key of the bottomless pit." (Rev. 9:1)

In his Concise Commentary Matthew Henry identifies falling stars as tepid, indecisive, weak or apostate clergy who,

"Having ceased to be a minister of Christ, he who is represented by this star becomes the minister of the devil; and lets loose the powers of hell against the churches of Christ."

John identifies antichrists, in this case clergy who serve the devil rather than Christ, sequentially. First, like Bultmann, Teilhard de Chardin, Robert Funk, Paul Tillich, and John Shelby Spong, they specifically deny the living, personal Holy Trinity in favor of Gnostic pagan, immanent or Eastern pantheist conceptions. Though God the Father Almighty in three Persons upholds the souls of men and maintains life and creation, His substance is not within nature (space-time dimension) as pantheism maintains, but outside of it. Sinful men live within nature and are burdened by time and mortality; God is not.

Second, the specific denial of the Father logically negates Jesus the Christ, the Word who was in the beginning (John 1), was with God, and is God from the creation of all things (1 John 1). In a pre-incarnate theophany, Jesus is the Angel who spoke “mouth to mouth” to Moses (Num. 12:6-9; John 9:20) and at sundry times and in many ways “spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, last of all…” (Hebrews 1:1) Jesus the Christ is the incarnate Son of God who is the life and light of men, who by His shed blood on the Cross died for the remission of all sins and bestowed the privilege of adoption on all who put their faith in Him.

Therefore, to deny the Holy Father is to logically deny the deity of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, hence,

“…every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist . . . and even now already is it in the world” (1 John 4:3).

According to Peter (2 Peter 2:1), falling stars will work among the faithful, teaching damnable heresies that deny the Lord, cause the fall of men into unbelief, and bring destruction upon themselves:

“The natural parents of modern unbelief turn out to have been the guardians of belief.” Many thinking people came at last “to realize that it was religion, not science or social change that gave birth to unbelief. Having made God more and more like man---intellectually, morally, emotionally---the shapers of religion made it feasible to abandon God, to believe simply in man.” (James Turner of the University of Michigan in “American Babylon,” Richard John Neuhaus, p. 95)

Almost thirty years ago, two well-respected social science scholars, William Sims Bainbridge and Rodney Stark found themselves alarmed by what they saw as a rising tide of irrationalism, superstition and occultism---channeling cults, spirit familiars, necromancers, Wiccans, Satanists, Luciferians, goddess worshippers, 'gay' shamans, Hermetic magicians and other occult madness at every level of society, particularly within the most influential--- Hollywood, academia and the highest corridors of political power.

Like many scientists, they were equally concerned by Christian opposition to naturalistic evolution. As is common in the science community, they assumed the cause of these social pathologies was somehow due to fundamentalism, their term for authentic Christian theism as opposed to liberalized Christianity. Yet to their credit, the research they undertook to discover the cause was conducted both scientifically and with great integrity. What they found was so startling it caused them to re-evaluate their attitude toward authentic Christian theism. Their findings led them to say:

"It would be a mistake to conclude that fundamentalists oppose all science (when in reality they but oppose) a single theory (that) directly contradicts the bible. But it would be an equally great mistake to conclude that religious liberals and the irreligious possess superior minds of great rationality, to see them as modern personalities who have no need of the supernatural or any propensity to believe unscientific superstitions. On the contrary...they are much more likely to accept the new superstitions. It is the fundamentalists who appear most virtuous according to scientific standards when we examine the cults and pseudo-sciences proliferating in our society today." ("Superstitions, Old and New," The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. IV, No. 4; summer, 1980)

In more detail they observed that authentic ‘born again’ Christians are far less likely to accept cults and pseudoscientific beliefs while the irreligious and liberalized Christians (i.e., progressive Catholics, Protestant emergent, NAR, word faith, prosperity gospel) are open to unscientific notions. In fact, these two groups are most disposed toward occultism.

As Bainbridge and Stark admitted, evolution directly contradicts the Bible, beginning with the Genesis account of creation ex nihilo. This means that evolution is the antithesis of the Genesis account. For this reason, discerning Christians refuse to submit to the evolutionary thinking that has swept Western and American society. Nor do they accept the evolutionary theism brought into the whole body of the Church by weak, tepid, indecisive, or apostate clergy.

Over eighty years ago, Rev. C. Leopold Clarke wrote that priests who embrace evolution (evolutionary theists) are apostates from the ‘Truth as it is in Jesus.’ (1 John2:2) Rev. Clarke, a lecturer at a London Bible college, discerned that evolution is the antithesis to the Revelation of God in the Deity of Jesus Christ, thus it is the greatest and most active agent of moral and spiritual disintegration:

“It is a battering-ram of unbelief---a sapping and mining operation that intends to blow Religion sky-high. The one thing which the human mind demands in its conception of God, is that, being Almighty, He works sovereignly and miraculously---and this is the thing with which Evolution dispenses….Already a tremendous effect, on a wide scale has been produced by the impact of this teaching---an effect which can only be likened to the…collapse of foundations…” (Evolution and the Break-Up of Christendom, Philip Bell, creation.com, Nov. 27, 2012)

The faith of the Christian Church and of the average Christian has had, and still has, its foundation as much in the literal and historic meaning of Genesis, the book of beginnings revealed ‘mouth to mouth’ by the Angel to Moses, as in that of the person and deity of Jesus Christ. But how horrible a travesty of the sacred office of the Christian Ministry to see church leaders more eager to be abreast of the times, than earnestly contending for the Faith once delivered unto the saints (Jude 1:3). It is high time, said Rev. Clarke, that the Church,

“…. separated herself from the humiliating entanglement attending her desire to be thought up to date…What, after all, have custodians of Divine Revelation to do making terms with speculative Biology, which has….no message of comfort or help to the soul?” (ibid)

The primary tactic employed by priests eager to accommodate themselves and the Church to modern science and evolutionary thinking is predictable. It is the argument that evolution is entirely compatible with the Bible when we see Genesis, especially the first three chapters, in a non-literal, non-historical context. This is the argument embraced and advanced by mega-church pastor Timothy J. Keller.

With a position paper Keller published with the theistic evolutionary organization Bio Logos he joined the ranks of falling stars (Catholic and Protestant priests) stretching back to the Renaissance. Their slippery-slide into apostasy began when they gave into the temptation to embrace a non-literal, non-historical view of Genesis. (A response to Timothy Keller’s ‘Creation, Evolution and Christian Laypeople,” Lita Cosner, Sept. 9, 2010, creation.com)

This is not a heresy unique to modern times. The early Church Fathers dealt with this damnable heresy as well, counting it among the heretical tendencies of the Origenists. Fourth-century Fathers such as John Chrysostom, Basil the Great and Ephraim the Syrian, all of whom wrote commentaries on Genesis, specifically warned against treating Genesis as an unhistorical myth or allegory. John Chrysostom strongly warned against paying heed to these heretics,

“…let us stop up our hearing against them, and let us believe the Divine Scripture, and following what is written in it, let us strive to preserve in our souls sound dogmas.” (Genesis, Creation, and Early Man, Fr. Seraphim Rose, p. 31)

As St. Cyril of Alexandria wrote, higher theological, spiritual meaning is founded upon humble, simple faith in the literal and historic meaning of Genesis and one cannot apprehend rightly the Scriptures without believing in the historical reality of the events and people they describe. (ibid, Seraphim Rose, p. 40)

In the integral worldview teachings of the Fathers, neither the literal nor historical meaning of the Revelations of the pre-incarnate Jesus, the Angel who spoke to Moses, can be regarded as expendable. There are at least four critically important reasons why. First, to reduce the Revelation of God to allegory and myth is to contradict and usurp the authority of God, ultimately deny the deity of Jesus Christ; twist, distort, add to and subtract from the entire Bible and finally, to imperil the salvation of believers.

Scenarios commonly proposed by modern Origenists posit a cleverly disguised pantheist/immanent nature deity subject to the space-time dimension and forces of evolution. But as noted previously, it is sinful man who carries the burden of time, not God. This is a crucial point, for when evolutionary theists add millions and billions of zeros (time) to God they have transferred their own limitations onto Him. They have ‘limited’ God and made Him over in their own image. This is not only idolatrous but satanic.

Additionally, evolution inverts creation. In place of God’s good creation from which men fell there is an evolutionary escalator starting at the bottom with matter, then progressing upward toward life, then up and through the life and death of millions of evolved creatures that preceded humans by millions of years until at long last an apish humanoid emerges into which a deity that is always in a state of becoming (evolving) places a soul.

Evolution amputates the entire historical precedent from the Gospel and makes Jesus Christ unnecessary as the atheist Frank Zindler enthusiastically points out:

“The most devastating thing that biology did to Christianity was the discovery of biological evolution. Now that we know that Adam and Eve never were real people the central myth of Christianity is destroyed. If there never was an Adam and Eve, there never was an original sin. If there never was an original sin there is no need of salvation. If there is no need of salvation there is no need of a saviour. And I submit that puts Jesus…into the ranks of the unemployed. I think evolution absolutely is the death knell of Christianity.” (“Atheism vs. Christianity,” 1996, Lita Cosner, creation.com, June 13, 2013)

None of this was lost on Darwin’s bulldog, Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1985). Huxley was thoroughly familiar with the Bible, thus he understood that if Genesis is not the authoritative Word of God, is not historical and literal despite its’ symbolic and poetic elements, then the entirety of Scripture becomes a collection of fairytales resulting in tragic downward spiraling consequences as the Catholic Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation makes clear in part:

“By denying the historical truth of the first chapters of Genesis, theistic evolutionism has fostered a preoccupation with natural causes almost to the exclusion of supernatural ones. By denying the several supernatural creative acts of God in Genesis, and by downplaying the importance of the supernatural activity of Satan, theistic evolutionists slip into a naturalistic mentality which seeks to explain everything in terms of natural causes. Once this mentality takes hold, it is easy for men to regard the concept of spiritual warfare as a holdover from the days of primitive superstition. Diabolical activity is reduced to material or psychological causes. The devil and his demons come to be seen as irrelevant. Soon ‘hell’ joins the devil and his demons in the category of antiquated concepts. And the theistic evolutionist easily makes the fatal mistake of thinking that he has nothing more to fear from the devil and his angels. According to Fr. Gabriele Amorth, the chief exorcist of Rome, there is a tremendous increase in diabolical activity and influence in the formerly Christian world. And yet most of the bishops of Europe no longer believe in the existence of evil spirits….To the Fathers of the Church who believed in the truth of Genesis, this would be incredible. But in view of the almost universal acceptance of theistic evolution, it is hardly surprising.” (The Difference it makes: The Importance of the Traditional Doctrine of Creation, Hugh Owen, kolbecenter.org)

Huxley had ‘zero’ respect for modern Origenists and received enormous pleasure from heaping piles of hot coals and burning contempt upon them, thereby exposing their shallow-reasoning, hypocrisy, timidity, fear of non-acceptance, and unfaithfulness. With sarcasm dripping from his words he quipped,

“I am fairly at a loss to comprehend how any one, for a moment, can doubt that Christian theology must stand or fall with the historical trustworthiness of the Jewish Scriptures. The very conception of the Messiah, or Christ, is inextricably interwoven with Jewish history; the identification of Jesus of Nazareth with that Messiah rests upon the interpretation of passages of the Hebrew Scriptures which have no evidential value unless they possess the historical character assigned to them. If the covenant with Abraham was not made; if circumcision and sacrifices were not ordained by Jahveh; if the “ten words” were not written by God’s hand on the stone tables; if Abraham is more or less a mythical hero, such as Theseus; the story of the Deluge a fiction; that of the Fall a legend; and that of the creation the dream of a seer; if all these definite and detailed narratives of apparently real events have no more value as history than have the stories of the regal period of Rome—what is to be said about the Messianic doctrine, which is so much less clearly enunciated? And what about the authority of the writers of the books of the New Testament, who, on this theory, have not merely accepted flimsy fictions for solid truths, but have built the very foundations of Christian dogma upon legendary quicksands?” (Darwin’s Bulldog---Thomas Huxley, Russell Grigg, creation.com, Oct. 14, 2008)

“When Jesus spoke, as of a matter of fact, that "the Flood came and destroyed them all," did he believe that the Deluge really took place, or not? It seems to me that, as the narrative mentions Noah’s wife, and his sons’ wives, there is good scriptural warranty for the statement that the antediluvians married and were given in marriage; and I should have thought that their eating and drinking might be assumed by the firmest believer in the literal truth of the story. Moreover, I venture to ask what sort of value, as an illustration of God’s methods of dealing with sin, has an account of an event that never happened? If no Flood swept the careless people away, how is the warning of more worth than the cry of “Wolf” when there is no wolf? If Jonah’s three days’ residence in the whale is not an “admitted reality,” how could it “warrant belief” in the “coming resurrection?” … Suppose that a Conservative orator warns his hearers to beware of great political and social changes, lest they end, as in France, in the domination of a Robespierre; what becomes, not only of his argument, but of his veracity, if he, personally, does not believe that Robespierre existed and did the deeds attributed to him?” (ibid)

“If divine authority is not here claimed for the twenty-fourth verse of the second chapter of Genesis, what is the value of language? And again, I ask, if one may play fast and loose with the story of the Fall as a “type” or “allegory,” what becomes of the foundation of Pauline theology?” (ibid)

“If Adam may be held to be no more real a personage than Prometheus, and if the story of the Fall is merely an instructive “type,” comparable to the profound Promethean mythus, what value has Paul’s dialectic?” (ibid)

After much thought, C.S. Lewis concluded that evolution is the central, most radical lie at the center of a vast network of lies within which modern Westerners are entangled while Rev. Clarke identifies the central lie as the Gospel of another Spirit. The fiendish aim of this Spirit is to help men lose God, not find Him, and by contradicting the Divine Redeemer, compromising Priests are serving this Spirit and its’ diabolical purposes. To contradict the Divine Redeemer is the very essence of unfaithfulness, and that it should be done while reverence is professed,

“…. is an illustration of the intellectual and moral topsy-turvydom of Modernism…’He whom God hath sent speaketh the Words of God,’ claimed Christ of Himself (John 3:34), and no assumption of error can hold water in the face of that declaration, without blasphemy.” Evolutionary theists are serving the devil, therefore “no considerations of Christian charity, of tolerance, of policy, can exonerate Christian leaders or Churches who fail to condemn and to sever themselves from compromising, cowardly, shilly-shallying priests”---the falling stars who “challenge the Divine Authority of Jesus Christ.” (ibid)

The rebuttals, warnings and counsels of the Fathers against listening to Origenists (and their modern evolutionary counterparts) indicates that the spirit of antichrist operating through modern rationalistic criticism of the Revelation of God is not a heresy unique to our times but was inveighed against by early Church Fathers.

From the scholarly writings of the Eastern Orthodox priest, Fr. Seraphim Rose, to the incisive analysis, rebuttals and warnings of the Catholic Kolbe Center, creation.com, Creation Research Institute, Rev. Clarke, and many other stalwart defenders of the faith once delivered, all are a clear, compelling call to the whole body of the Church to hold fast to the traditional doctrine of creation as it was handed down from the Apostles, for as God spoke and Jesus is the Living Word incarnate, it is incumbent upon the faithful to submit their wills to the Divine Will and Authority of God rather than to the damnable heresy proffered by falling stars eager to embrace naturalistic science and the devil's antithesis--- evolution. But if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord,

“…you have your choice: choose this day that which pleases you, whom you would rather serve….but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15

Aquinas was a Christian theologian, but he was also an Aristotelian and an Empiricist, and he substantially influenced these two streams of Western thought. He believed that truth becomes known through both natural revelation (certain truths are available to all people through their human nature and through correct human reasoning) and supernatural revelation (faith-based knowledge revealed through scripture), and he was careful to separate these two elements, which he saw as complementary rather than contradictory in nature. Thus, although one may deduce the existence of God and His attributes through reason, certain specifics (such as the Trinity and the Incarnation) may be known only through special revelation and may not otherwise be deduced.

That is the complete paragraph from the linked site Aquinas from which your statement at Reply #1243 was abstracted. I would love you to help me analyze it.

But first, may I note that you are submitting "evidence by Authority." So, who is this "authority?" The person who holds the copyright on this philosophy website goes by the name of Luke Mastin. He seems to be the same person who holds the copyright on yet another website devoted to explicating all of physics. Evidently, he is a prodigious individual: If he had any help from other people, he doesn't mention it.

Just saying. Since I wasn't able to find out anything more about this person, I doubt I will accept him as a bona fide authority.

Now to the analysis of the statements at the top of this reply.

As already pointed out in an earlier post, I reject the idea of "special revelation" as being the exclusive province of "people of the Book": Plato for example never heard of the Holy Scriptures, nor of Jesus Christ. Yet he managed to infer a unitary cosmos that was ruled by Logos, which to me dovetails very well with my understanding of Genesis 1. He did not accomplish this merely by means of a process of deductive reasoning. He did not do this merely by sorting out external evidence, trying to find some sort of explanatory pattern for observed phenomena. Plato worked "from the inside out" — so to speak — from apperceptive, subjective mind (nous) in direct response to "pulls" from "outside," which are not of material, but of divine origin and character (Nous).

Of course it is true that "the Trinity and the Incarnation ... may be known only through special revelation and may not otherwise be deduced." Well, certainly they can never be "deduced." They are articulations of the greatest story ever told that exists at the very foundation of Western culture and civilization. [No wonder you and spirited irish have been in such a tizzy lately....]

As to what can be "deduced" from "natural revelation": Natural revelation does not reduce to "computability" concerns — as it would be according to the present method of science. I have been subject to "natural revelation" regarding the very order of the universe from a young age, just from stumbling around in nature in my childish gambols, and "exploring" it. The upshot being: I could never doubt subsequently that the universe has a divine origin and purpose.

Anyhoot, Plato makes it clear that he sensed an "outside correspondent" participating in his meditations. This may be represented by his great symbol of the Demiurge of Timaeus. But I, a Christian, would simply call it: the Holy Spirit, conducting the Light of Christ Logos.

You continue to claim that science is all about "natural explanations for natural processes"; indeed, is so defined. And then make it clear that if I disagree with you about this, then there is something seriously wrong with my reading comprehension, or general level of intelligence.

My childhood epiphany about God and His Order (before I was "theologized") was a perfectly "natural process," at the lowest level of description. After all, I am a human being, a natural living organism, not a member of the Angel community; nor am I a unicorn or some such other fantastic creature.

I think that what is most wrong about your "definition" of science is that it presupposes that the natural world is entirely material, physical, always directly observable in all its most important phenomenological aspects.

At the root of this expectation is the utter confidence that many scientists continue to have in "classical physics" — that is, Newtonian physics — as the tool for the job of explicating the ever-persistent mysteries of biology. It seems to me that Newtonian physics is just dandy at handling problems involving closed, inorganic systems in nature. It essentially specifies and then reifies a "machine model" whose activities are driven by local causation exclusively.

But biological systems in nature are not machines. And given their organizational structure — which is the most fascinating thing about them, and which is, if anything, a "super-natural" property (in that it cannot be reduced to an observable, but whose absence would quickly translate a living organism into a dead one).

BTW, I do agree with you that natural and supernatural revelatory experiences are "complementary."

Which is why I find it so odd that, nowadays, so many popular defenders of science — e.g., Richard Lewontin, Richard Dawkins, "the usual suspects" — want all investigations of "super-nature" to be killed in the cradle....

You can't just segregate one unified Whole — which is the Universe of Nature itself, including human nature — into abstract categories according to personal taste — e.g., "natural vs. supernatural" — and then expect Nature to comport with your abstraction. Indeed, this would be a fine example of A. N. Whitehead's "Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness."

I think that what is most wrong about your "definition" of science is that it presupposes that the natural world is entirely material, physical, always directly observable in all its most important phenomenological aspects.
At the root of this expectation is the utter confidence that many scientists continue to have in "classical physics" — that is, Newtonian physics — as the tool for the job of explicating the ever-persistent mysteries of biology. It seems to me that Newtonian physics is just dandy at handling problems involving closed, inorganic systems in nature. It essentially specifies and then reifies a "machine model" whose activities are driven by local causation exclusively.

True.... admitting that there Can be an "invisible friend"(Holy Spirit) transcends mechanics..

Most scientists seem to be "shade tree mechanics"..
Fumferring over timing, drive belts, gears and fuel and such..
even aerodynamics, genealogical dynamics and function of design...

What "LIFE" IS seems to be illusory.. magical.. and overlooked..
When what life IS, is the point..

No life.. then science becomes silly..
Life comes from "somewhere" but nobody knows "where"..
It comes from other than the machine..

If it came from the machine whats broken could be deduced maybe fixed..
Life obviously comes from somewhere "ELSE".. than the machine..

But "WHERE?"....... the answer to that can and usually does shape one's world view..
----------------------------------------------------------

click-> One VIEW......

betty boop: "That is the complete paragraph from the linked site Aquinas from which your statement at Reply #1243 was abstracted.
I would love you to help me analyze it."

I quoted two complete sentences.
Your third sentence is irrelevant to our present discussion, FRiend.

betty boop: "But first, may I note that you are submitting "evidence by Authority."
So, who is this "authority?...
...I doubt I will accept him as a bona fide authority."

The opinions expressed there equate to those I've read in numerous other places over many years.
So they represent "conventional wisdom" on this subject.

betty boop: "I reject the idea of 'special revelation' as being the exclusive province of 'people of the Book'."

Sure, that's fine, but it's not the subject under discussion or debate.
The issue here is whether any such "special revelation" qualifies as "natural science"?
The answer is: obviously not, and that is pretty much the only major point I've been hoping to make.

betty boop: "Of course it is true that "the Trinity and the Incarnation ... may be known only through special revelation and may not otherwise be deduced."
Well, certainly they can never be "deduced."
They are articulations of the greatest story ever told that exists at the very foundation of Western culture and civilization.
[No wonder you and spirited irish have been in such a tizzy lately....]"

Whatever else the Trinity doctrine may or may not be, however much the Trinity may or may not have been revealed or "deduced" from scriptures, whatever "articulations" it expresses at the foundations of Western culture and civilization, the Trinity doctrine is still not, never was and never will be "natural science".

Also, I don't assume that spirited irish is in some kind of "tizzy" lately, or ever.
Rather, I conclude that somewhat like yourself Ms boop, Ms irish has an agenda, namely to use this "news/activism" forum as a vehicle for expressing her religious beliefs.
Those beliefs, not surprisingly, include a strong condemnation of "the world" as we know it, and a call to come home to the sanctuary of her religion.

This hypothesis explains virtually every spirited irish post, and is not contradicted by any.

betty boop: "Natural revelation does not reduce to "computability" concerns — as it would be according to the present method of science."

The "present methods of science" are the only methods of natural-science, period.
Of course, you are free & welcome to adopt whatever other methods for understanding truth you might wish, just so long as you don't call those other methods by the name, "science".

betty boop: "The upshot being: I could never doubt subsequently that the universe has a divine origin and purpose."

Nor do I, but I never call such theological and religious beliefs "scientific".
So can such simple distinctions possibly be so difficult for you to grasp?
I'm beginning to think not, and that your apparent "incomprehension" is a matter of obstinate refusal, not stoopidity.

betty boop: "You continue to claim that science is all about "natural explanations for natural processes"; indeed, is so defined.
And then make it clear that if I disagree with you about this, then there is something seriously wrong with my reading comprehension, or general level of intelligence."

Before I could ever ask you to agree, I must first see some small sign that you even comprehend & understand the basic distinction between what is science, and what is not.
So far, I've yet to see even a small acknowledgement that such distinctions can be made.
Instead, you consistently insist on using the word "science" as a proxy for "reality" or "truth", if not "Truth".
So, you are dead-set and determined, come h*ll or high water, to keep blurred the distinction between what is "natural" and what is not.

And my response to your obstinacy is: of course, you are entitled to such opinions, but they are irrelevant to the scientific mission to, find natural explanations for natural processes.

betty boop: "I think that what is most wrong about your "definition" of science is that it presupposes that the natural world is entirely material, physical, always directly observable in all its most important phenomenological aspects."

My definition of the word "science" presupposes no such thing.
It only posits that anything outside the natural world is also outside the purview of "science".
Please tell us why you so obstinately refuse to acknowledge such a simple distinction.

betty boop: "But biological systems in nature are not machines.
And given their organizational structure — which is the most fascinating thing about them, and which is, if anything, a "super-natural" property (in that it cannot be reduced to an observable, but whose absence would quickly translate a living organism into a dead one)."

Your assertion (without supporting evidence) that "biological systems are not machines", may or may-not be true, but is irrelevant to science, which can only examine biological systems as if they were "machines".
Any examinations or hypotheses of super-natural aspects of biology fall outside of science.

betty boop: "nowadays, so many popular defenders of science — e.g., Richard Lewontin, Richard Dawkins, "the usual suspects" — want all investigations of "super-nature" to be killed in the cradle...."

Like tacticalogic, I've never heard of these people outside the context of anti-evolution screeds.
I care nothing about them, and don't know why I'm invited to defend them.
But the obvious truth about them is that: when they cross the line from methodological naturalism to philosophical naturalism, they are also, in effect, crossing the line between science and their atheistic religion.

As such, however much they may wish to cloak their atheism in scientific terms, we can still understand them as expressions of religion which will be meaningless to those who don't share such beliefs.

betty boop: "You can't just segregate one unified Whole — which is the Universe of Nature itself, including human nature — into abstract categories according to personal taste — e.g., "natural vs. supernatural" — and then expect Nature to comport with your abstraction.
Indeed, this would be a fine example of A. N. Whitehead's 'Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness.' "

But of course, you can, and science does exactly that.
Beginning (so far as I know) with the, ahem, distinctions first pointed out by Aquinas, the scientific enterprise has focused its attention on: natural causes for natural processes, period, and none other.

You know, just the other day I saw a wonderful bumper-sticker which said:

"If you can't fix it with a claw-hammer, then you've got an electrical problem"

Seems to me that pretty well sums it up.
"Science" is a claw-hammer, which cannot, will not ever "fix" every problem.
"Electrical problems" (spiritual matters) require a different set of tools than science provides.
So, we never blame a claw-hammer which won't fix an electrical problem, any more than we should blame science because it cannot address matters which are beyond the natural realm.

So I ask again, why do you so obstinately refuse to grasp such a simple idea?

bro: So they represent “conventional wisdom” on this subject.

Spirited: They represent ‘conventional wisdom” only so far as they speak to what sophistical naturalists— rebels against our Lord—want to believe and require others to believe as well.

Though BroJoeK has been doing his best to disguise his real stance behind a mask, rather than opaque his mask is both transparent and porous, meaning that telling statements keep slipping through:

“The issue here is whether any such “special revelation” qualifies as “natural science”?

No, the real issue, the truth of the matter implied by BroJoeK’s clumsy sophistry is that, like a long line of evolutionary materialists (naturalists)before him, he is in rebellion against the God of Revelation.

As one who prefers the word of fallen man over the Revelation of God, BroJoeK is the intellectual heir of a way of thinking that from the beginning,

“... has been characterized by a desire to be free from the burden of Christianity...As a rebellion against Christianity, its negative goal defined its positive form: the desire to remove the church and replace it with the state gave liberalism its structure, beliefs, and goals.” (Worshipping the State: How Liberalism became Our State Worship, Benjamin Wiker)

Wiker writes that as far back as the Renaissance the strong impulse to throw off the restraints of the personal God and Christianity was already at work in certain Churchmen and intellectuals, hence their eventual embrace of materialism
(naturalism, Darwinism, empiricism, methodological naturalism, reductionism):

“The desire to be liberated from the constraints of Christianity was the original reason for modern liberalism’s embrace of a world defined entirely by materialism—the view that there are no immaterial entities like God of the soul, but only physical entities. This embrace of materialism began as far back as the Renaissance. And the same impulse was behind the nineteenth-century enthusiasm for scientific materialism, and it remains a staple of liberalism today.” (ibid, Benjamin Wiker)

Rebels against the personal God are in league with antitheists such as Karl Marx, who though not the devil, did his work for him.

Our war is against God and the world created by Him,
declared Karl Marx, father of the Communist Manifesto. In his poem, “The Pale Maiden” he admits that he has willfully opted for Hell:

“Thus heaven I’ve forfeited; I know it full well; My soul, once true to God; Is chosen for hell.” (Marx & Satan, Richard Wurmbrand, p. 22)

“The Evil One is the satanic revolt against divine authority....Socialists recognize each other by the words, “In the name of the one to whom a great wrong has been done....Satan (is) the eternal rebel, the first freethinker and the emancipator of worlds.” (Mikhail Bakunin, comrade of Marx, ibid, p. 27)

“We do not fight against believers (or) even clergymen....We fight against God to snatch believers from Him.” (Vetchernaia Moskva, a Communist newspaper, ibid, p.77)

The Satanic revolt, like supernatural Christian faith is a movement of spirit having its taproot and energy in Satan, the father of naturalism, heresy, lies, sophistry and envy, the author of rebellion, and the revelator of secrets contrived to damn unto hell.

Satanic revolt is war against the supernatural Trinity...the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which in Bakunin’s words are the “cursed and fatal principle of authority.”

Thus it proclaims the reign of negation (of God’s Revelation, His Truth, His Moral Law, soul/spirit, Heaven, and hell), though a negation nevertheless pregnant with the expectation of fulfillment in the revelation, and finally the actual presence, of evil personified....the dark Lord of this world.

The sentiment of the revolt is Satanic pride:

” which spurns subjection to any master whatever, whether of divine or human origin.” (Bakunin, Nihilism: The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age, Fr. Seraphim Rose, p. 63)

The nature of the Satanic revolt is the antithesis of the supernatural Christian faith. Whereas Christian faith is joy, patience, love, truth, humbleness, perseverance, submission in all things to the Will of God, and blessed eternal life, the Satanic counterfeit is negation, skepticism, lies, sophistry, revulsion, burning envy, impatience, seething hatred, jealousy, rebelliousness, blasphemy, and eternal life in Hell.

BroJoeK: I conclude that somewhat like yourself Ms boop, Ms irish has an agenda, namely to use this “news/activism” forum as a vehicle for expressing her religious beliefs.

Spirited: An “agenda?” Yes. My “agenda” consists in opposing lies and sophistry, be it clumsy or otherwise, with truth to the best of my ability in the hope that readers of this thread will not be led astray by sophistical liberal naturalists in their unholy quest “to snatch believers from Him.” (Vetchernaia Moskva, a Communist newspaper, ibid, p.77)

By your own admission BroJoeK, you prefer the damning errors and sophistry of naturalism to the Revelation of God. This is why you insist on God’s “so-called” Revelation being subordinate to natural science:

“(does) ‘special revelation” (qualify) as “natural science”?
The answer is: obviously not, and that is pretty much the only major point I’ve been hoping to make.”

Beware your choice, your abuse of free will, ‘FRiend,’ for at some unknown, unperceived moment it will become eternal. Heaven is real. So is hell.

Your unrelenting denials are fully expected. Marx was full of denial as well. Nevertheless, in his poem Pale Maiden he confessed the truth beginning with a tacit admission that the God of Revelation exists; a clear admission that heaven exists, that he is Imago Dei, and further, that he knows hell exists but that eternal damnation is his willful choice:

“Thus heaven I’ve forfeited; I know it full well; My soul, once true to God; Is chosen for hell.” (Marx & Satan, Richard Wurmbrand, p. 22)

What this means is that Marx did not believe in Darwinism and materialism or any of the naturalistic canon except as they served him in his war against God and the world He created. In company with Hegel, Comte, Nietzsche, Darwin, Teilhard, et al, Marx was a swindler. A Big Liar.

Like a long line of evolutionary materialist (naturalists) before him, Marx was in rebellion against the God of Revelation as He revealed Himself to man in Jesus Christ:

“Christianity is the most complete and perfect revelation we know of the nature of God and of God’s will for man.” The basic insights of the Christian faith “provide the best insights we have into the nature of man and of the crisis in which we find ourselves.” (John Hallowell, 1950, Intellectual Conservative Movement in America, George H. Nash, p. 53)

It is the living, personal God Who revealed Himself to man in Jesus Christ that evolutionary theistic naturalists are in rebellion against.

Marx knew hell exists-—and he chose it. Not only that, but through his swindle he led an unknown number of immortal souls to hell as well. And his eternal punishment will reflect his perfidy.

Beware you do not do the same.

A nonliving God without Will that they can mold, shape and speak for is just fine, as is a mortal Christ, a mere man who is the conscious product of evolution.

“I find it so odd that, nowadays, so many popular defenders of science — e.g., Richard Lewontin, Richard Dawkins, "the usual suspects" — want all investigations of "super-nature" to be killed in the cradle....”

I don’t take Evolution to be a big issue. I think some of the Theory’s more ardent advocates give it a mystique greater than it merits, but science is not the object here. Propaganda is.

What I take exception to is the indifference Darwinians have for the takeover of the schools by a regime of Socialist thugs who regard education as nothing more than their ministry of information. I object to Darwinian militants coming on this forum, to attack and disparage Christianity, justifying their behavior as a defence of Holy Science. I object to their indifference to the concept of government by consent of the governed and to the consequences when violence is done to that concept.

What I also take exception to is the pretense that issues not in dispute somehow answer issues avoided (for example, see post # 1275).

And finally, I ask of Darwinians as I have before: Which do you consider the greatest threat: Christians on this forum with whom you disagree? or the Socialist louts who so obviously intend to hijack America? With whom do you contended? With whom do you at least ignore if not pretend their complete absence? Simple questions, requiring nothing more than the most simple of answers. Yet all this forum gets is subject changing and attempts at intimidation.

Thank you betty, for the genuine issues you’ve highlighted and so thoroughly explained in this thread.

Indeed, dear sister in Christ. And yet the "constraints of Christianity" are designed to help man, to protect his liberty, and to preserve his immortal soul as he traverses the "valley of the shadow of Death" in his mortal life....

Dear spirited, I think the "rejection" you so wonderfully describe in this essay/post may have an even deeper root: It is rejection of the human condition, even of human nature itself. Deep down, these rejectors resent God for making them as they are — i.e., as not-gods. That is to say, they resent being subject to limits.

BroJoeK uses the term "special revelation" in a manner differently than I do. I think he means the transmission of a doctrine. But when I use this term, I am pointing to the "immediate experiences" sphere of apperceptive reality.

The immediate experiences presupposed in Aristotelian metaphysics are not difficult to find in the classic sources, if one looks for them; but ... I am afraid, they will come as an anticlimax because of their apparent simplicity. For we find ourselves referred back to nothing more formidable than the experiences of finiteness and creatureliness in our existence, of being creatures of a day as the poets call man, of being born and bound to die, of dissatisfaction with a state experienced as imperfect, of apprehension of a perfection that is not of this world but is the privilege of the gods, of possible fulfillment in a state beyond this world.... — Eric Voegelin, "On Debate and Existence," 1967.

I do believe there are some people who resent the fact that they are not, and cannot be, the "maker" of themselves. Nobody asks to be born. Nobody asks to die. And in-between,

At the level of common sense, it is evident that human beings have experiences other than sensory perceptions, and it is equally evident that philosophers like Plato and Aristotle explored reality on the basis of experiences far removed from perception. The Socratic "Look and see if this is not the case" does not invite one to survey public opinion but asks one to descend into the psyche, that is, to search reflective consciousness. Moreover, it is evident that the primarily nonsensory modes of experience address dimensions of human existence superior in rank and worth to those sensory perception does: experiences of the good, beautiful, and just, of love, friendship, and truth, of all human virtue and vice, and of divine reality. Apperceptive experience is distinguishable from sensory perception and a philosophical science of substance from a natural science of phenomena. Experience of "things" is modeled on the subject–object dichotomy of perception in which the consciousness intends the object of cognition. But such a model of experience and knowing is ultimately insufficient to explain the operations of consciousness with respect to the nonphenomenal reality men approach in moral, aesthetic, and religious experiences. Inasmuch as such nonsensory experiences are constitutive of what is distinctive about human existence itself — and of what is most precious to mankind — a purported science of man unable to take account of them is egregiously defective. — Ellis Sandoz, 1990

I gather that when BroJoeK defines science as "natural explanations for natural phenomena," all non-sensory experiences are banned. But a consistent application of this principle would mean that all products of non-sensory experience — such as the very idea of physical or natural law, or the various scientific theories — must also be banned.

(What does that do to Darwin's theory?)

For it seems that "the human mind" is not detectible by means of sense perception: It "naturally" belongs to the "non-sensory realm" — which BroJoeK seems to suggest is none of science's business.

No wonder we have such difficulty trying to understand one another!

...[W]e all have had occasion at one time or another to engage in debates with ideologists — whether communists of intellectuals of a persuasion closer to home. And we have all discovered on such occasions that no agreement, or even an honest disagreement, could be reached, because the exchange of argument was disturbed by a profound difference of attitude with regard to all fundamental questions of human existence — with regard to the nature of man, to his place in the world, to his place in society and history, to his relation to God. Rational argument could not prevail because the partner to the discussion [that would be you, dear BroJoeK and dear tacticalogic] did not accept as binding for himself the matrix of reality in which all specific questions concerning our existence as human beings are ultimately rooted; he has overlaid the reality of existence with another mode of existence that Robert Musil has called the Second Reality. The argument could not achieve results, it had to falter and peter out, as it became increasingly clear that not argument was pitched against argument, but that behind the appearance of a rational debate there lurked the difference of two modes of existence, of existence in truth and existence in untruth. The universe of rational discourse collapses ... when the common ground of existence in reality has disappeared....
[This situation reflects] well-propagated errors which threaten to disintegrate the order of society by disintegrating the order of existence in everyman personally. [Voegelin, op cit.; Emphasis added.]

Sounds like the Devil's work to me!!!

Thank you so very much, dear spirited, for your deep, ongoing investigation into the phenomenon of the Second Reality. I think you are entirely right to find at the basis of any Second Reality some form of gnostic thinking.

It seems to me that gnostic thinking is the perfection of solipsism.... FWIW

Thank you so very much for your splendid essay/post, dear spirited irish!

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