10 Feb '10 07:57>1 edit
Originally posted by bbarractually its not that i ignored the substance of your post, i never really understood it to be honest. You see Mr Barr i am not an intellectual nor do i profess to be an intellectual, thus when i encounter posts such as yours, through the great diversity of language the thoughts themselves are often cloaked or at best a little hazy if you do not mind me saying. Its not in any sense a deficiency on your part, i just find that when things are explained in simple terms the thoughts themselves shine through rather than having to wade through the language to find them, hold them up to reason and only then evaluate them 🙂
Since, by and large, you've ignored the substance of my post, I'll just post it again:
Second, if you claim that God exerts agency here indirectly, by creating physical laws and properties which themselves explain these phenomena, then isn't that just the strategy of accommodation you are rejecting in the case of evolution? I'm not here particularly interes ...[text shortened]... determine which strategy you should use in any particular case? I am honestly curious here.
it seems to me that i have given my interpretation of scripture in that these mechanisms that you referred to from the physical world are evidence of Gods love, for they produce phenomena which appeal to our senses making life what it is. If this is not an interpretation then i do not know what is.
the context itself is the determining factor of whether a scriptural reference is to be viewed as literal or figurative. It is as in chess relative to the context or as we are want to say, the position. Take for example water, there are many figurative and illustrative usages for water, is there not? the water of life, tumultuous seas of mankind, here is one,
(Job 29:23) . . .And they waited for me as for the rain, And their mouth they opened wide for the spring rain. . .
on the other hand there are simply descriptions of the cycle itself which require no interpretation,
(Ecclesiastes 1:7) . . .All the winter torrents are going forth to the sea, yet the sea itself is not full. To the place where the winter torrents are going forth, there they are returning so as to go forth. . .
thus if i have understood you correctly, the context is the deciding factor of a literal or a figurative evaluation.