Re: Personal Friendship Witnessing
David Campbell (bivalve@mailserv0.isis.unc.edu)
Mon, 11 Oct 1999 11:07:41 -0400
> A hundred years ago, believers and unbelievers in Western culture agreed
>about most of the basic issues of life. Almost everybody believed God
>existed, was a Person, had created the world, and had established certain
>moral standards reflected in the Bible. But about a century ago a cultural
>gap began to crack that consensus, and it's been widening ever since.
>
> First, Darwin and other scientists challenged the idea that a God
>created the world. Believers and unbelievers began to differ over a basic
>question of life: "How did I get here?" Science became so chic that people
>started applying the scientific method to just about everything, including
>God. Since He wouldn't stand still to be weighed and measured, He was erased
>as a theory.
This is not especially historically accurate. Origin of Species appeared
almost 150 years ago, and Hutton's claim of "no vestige of a beginning" is
closer to 200. Additionally, the claims of "scientific" approaches to
Biblical study or to God are generally wrong.
Crediting evolution as the start of decline is perhaps a more serious
error. In its extreme form, antievolutionary literature suggests that the
fall of man was due to Darwin, not Adam. The Enlightenment is much closer
to the root of modern philosophical evils (including the naturalism that
claims to be scientific) than Darwin. Such misinformation plays into the
efforts of unbelievers to claim scientific justification. Richard Stead's
point is good- this is the perception of much of the public.
David C.