William Carroll, Creation and Science 1. What, according to William Carroll, is the difference between the Christian (especially Thomistic) account of “creation ex nihilo” and what modern natural scientists call “creation”? 2. What, according to Carroll, is the significance of this view with regard to our conception of the relation between natural causality and divine causality?  Are they mutually exclusive?  Explain why or why not? 3. What is the significance of this view of the relationship between natural and divine causality and modern theories of evolution? 4. What is the significance of this view of the relationship between natural and divine causality for the Christian view of freedom and moral choice? 5. How does the view proposed by Carroll (echoing the ideas of Thomas Aquinas) help us to resist the notion of a “distant” or “deistic” God who “withdraws” from creation to allow human freedom?  How does it help us to resist the temptation to look for a “God of the gaps”? 6. How does Carroll’s “Thomistic” account of creation help us to better understand the relationship between “nature” and “grace”? 7.  How does Carroll’s “Thomistic” account of creation and causality help clear the way for a “sacramental” view of creation? 8. How does Carroll’s “Thomistic” account of creation help us avoid more “fundamentalist” readings of the Genesis creation stories (in Gen 1 and 2) that (a) cause unnecessary conflicts with modern science, and (b) cause us to miss the more fundamental issues (still plenty controversial) about the world, the meaning of history, and human life.