1. I finished Henri Blocher’s In the Beginning just now. In his appendix, he discusses the creationist/evolutionist debate, presenting each side in a fair manner (in my opinion). He finds the young-earth, anti-evolution creationist arguments to be wanting, contending that one can believe in the Bible while accepting the old age of the earth and evolution. Blocher says that we don’t have to take Genesis 1 literally, and that God can use natural processes. Regarding early man, I’m not sure where Blocher stands. He talks some about when man got to the point where he was in the image of God, but he remarks that “we are not quite certain what it is we are looking for when we try to discover the first man largely in terms of incomplete skeletons” (page 231).
I was hoping that this book would focus more on how to reconcile the Bible and evolution, from an evangelical perspective. Maybe there are jewels in it that I missed. Right now, I want to move on to something else. I’m thinking of Kenneth Miller’s Finding Darwin’s God.
2. In Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lessons, I read about government price-controls, the minimum wage, and unions. Hazlitt criticizes all three as detriments to production, although he does praise unions for promoting skills in workers. Hazlitt’s argument against price-controls is that they create shortages. If a company can’t raise prices so it can earn enough money to produce stuff and make a profit, then it just won’t produce stuff. (I think that’s what he’s saying.) But why can’t the company produce more stuff, sell it at a low price, and earn more money that way? Maybe Hazlitt would say that the high prices are essential for the company to get the structure it needs in order to do that.
3. My weekly quiet time was on II Kings 24. I guess what stood out to me was the oddness of the chapter. God sends enemies against Judah in the days of King Jehoiakim, in order to remove Judah from his sight, on account of the sins of Manasseh. But Judah is not removed from God’s sight during the reign of Jehoiakim, for Jehoiakim is replaced with another king from the line of David, Jehoiachin. Under Jehoiachin, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon besieges Jerusalem and takes away her palace elite, her mighty men of war, and her smiths and craftsmen. How could Judah do anything militarily now? And yet, Jehoiachin’s successor, Zedekiah, feels confident enough to revolt, under the prompting of God, who’s setting Judah up to fail! Zedekiah may have gotten soldiers from the population of Judah, only they weren’t “mighty men”.