emerton & polkinghorne on the continuing value of natural theology ~ slide 1 emerton on...

Emerton & Polkinghorne on the continuing value of natural theology ~ slide 1

Emerton on arguments for God from nature & science

Norma Emerton. “Arguments for the Existence of God from Nature and Science.” In Science and Theology: Questions at the Interface. Eds. Murray Rae, Hilary Regan, & John Stenhouse. Grand Rapids, MI: William Eerdmans, 1994.

There is a long tradition in Western Christianity of appealing to nature for reasoned support for God. And there is scriptural support to this appeal.

Psalm 19:1Romans 1:20



Emerton offers a brief history -- the Church Fathers, Augustine, Moses Maimonides, Aquinas, among many others.

The Scientific Revolution brought a new attitude toward nature, that it is worthy of study.The immense popularity of the two-book

metaphor -- Francis Bacon, Galileo, Newton, Robert Boyle



The new sciences enhanced arguments for the existence of God from nature by adding precision & accuracy to the evidence for design.

For Bacon, Boyle & others, the exploration of nature using the new sciences was a way of glorifying God.

• Boyle: “When with the help of anatomical knives and the light of chymical furnaces I study the book of nature . . . I find myself exclaiming with the psalmist, How manifold are thy works, O God, in wisdom hast though made them all!”



For Newton, natural theology (arguments for God from nature & science) did not complement revelation, but supplanted it (79).

• Comments on Newton’s unorthodox theology.

The Enlightenment criticism of design arguments. David Hume’s classic challenge

Yet natural theology remained popularPaley’s Natural Theology of 1802



But Darwin’s Origin (1859) severely challenged design arguments.Yet even Darwin ended the Origin with a

statement which expressed the ongoing hold of the design argument. See p. 82.

But Darwin’s appeal to the design argument seems to have faded over time. See his 1976 statement about Paley’s argument (83).



Does this history give us some guidance about the uses of natural theology today?The “pure cosmological argument” seems

to still have standing. Emerton claims that it will never be challenged by science (83).

What about the argument from design? It is powerful on an emotive, non-intellectual level & this is not to be despised (84). The argument brings out the value of beauty as a pointer to God.


Polkinghorne’s comments on Emerton

John Polkinghorne’s comments on Emerton’s paper 1. Arguments from nature & science for God

are limited. They may lead us to a cosmic architect or great mathematicism, but not to the God of scriptures.

2. These arguments are always vulnerable to alternative explanations. There is a risk in tying theology too closely to science.

3. Most design arguments fail to take into account the dark side of nature.



Yet there is a value in these arguments. People are struck by the rational beauty of the universe & by its delicately balanced fruitful history in a way which “suggests” some intelligence behind it all.” (98)

And the new natural theology claims less; it claims intellectually satisfying understanding, not proof. Theism explains more than atheism.

The new design argument based on the anthropic principle explains the “fabric of the universe, not specific processes in nature.”



Finally, the new natural theology acknowledges that creation involves a kenosis of divine power. An evolutionary universe is one which is allowed

by its creator to make itself. This view of God’s relation to universe gives

chance a proper role. Also gives us a glimmer of an answer to the

problem of theodicy (99). • World is allowed to make itself and such a

world will have blind alleys & ragged edges.

emerton & polkinghorne on the continuing value of natural theology ~ slide 1 emerton on...

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