[Vision2020] Abortion and the Bible

[nickgier at adelphia.net]

Dear Keely:

As always, I stand in awe of the elegance and clarity of your expression and your eminently civil way of engaging in argument.  

I am a little distressed, however, at your final sentence, in which you imply that I will somehow disown you from my "camp."  First, I don't have a "camp" even though Kirkers want all of their critics to belong to a camp of intolerants.  Second, I don't disown people because they disagree with me; and neither do I somehow have the power to deny free speech, certainly not to some tough guy down the hill.

Your theological acumen turns me on, Keely, but I just want to remind you that the wonderful terms "omnipresence," "omnipotence," and "omniscient" are not biblical terms.  The attributes of the Christian God have just as much to do with Greek theology as the Bible.  For example, the Hebrew Scriptures state that Yahweh repented or regretted at least 33 times. Both of these actions make sense only on the basis of incomplete knowledge, so an omniscient being could not repent or regret.  

If divine repentence and regret are just figures of speech, then it destroys the dyanamic nature of God that one gets nicely from process theology, which I embrace.  Process theology is eminently biblical in that it rejects divine immutability, a Greek attribute unwisely given to a very dynamic biblical God.

Yes, I grant that Yahweh appears to be omnipotent, but I, and many others, argue that divine omnipotence undermines the freedom of the will.  I gifted you a copy of my "Theology Bluebook," and I write much more about the divine attributes there and at www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/attributes.htm.  Divine omnipotence also means that God is the author of evil, as I argue at www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/dp3.htm. 

On the issue of abortion, you have the most reasonable and tolerant position of any person I know who claims that the fetus is a person from conception on. Would that your grace and forbearance were found among more abortion opponents.

Thanks for the illuminating dialogue,

Nick