Dick,
While every Christian must share your concern regarding those who are
either ignorant of, or refuse to accept, the gospel of Christ, I believe
your approach to the matter is seriously flawed.
First, you appear to be claiming some kind of divine authority for
evolution. Indeed, it seems you regard it as an integral and essential
part of the gospel! Whilst I believe this notion to be complete
nonsense, I am nevertheless intrigued by the claim, and invite you to
substantiate it.
Then there is the matter of the closing paragraph of your last email in
which you say of Phillip Johnson, "... at the very least he is an
opportunist. He takes uninformed Christians and makes them misinformed
Christians. Armed with misinformation, they muddy the waters, obscuring
the truth from those who might otherwise seek it."
I really think you should explain what you have in mind here. Some
examples of his 'opportunism' and 'misinformation' would help.
When I last wrote to you I quoted a few lines from his 'The Wedge of
Truth'(pp.128-129). Here's how it opens, "Science should never fear
honest intellectual tools such as precise use of terms, unbiased
investigation of evidence and refusal to accept unjustified
extrapolations." I'm sure most of us would say 'Amen" to that. But what
about you? Don't you think PJ should be applauded for drawing attention
to some of the more unsavoury tactics of those of your persuasion?
Vernon
Dick Fischer wrote:
>
> A couple of months ago I attended a Buddhist funeral. The deceased
> was a 43-year old father of two little boys who escaped from Cambodia
> with his mother, father, brothers and sisters during the reign of the
> Kmer Rouge. The eulogy was delivered by a retired bureau chief for
> the New York Times who was one of the characters in the film, The
> Killing Fields. He had been stationed in Cambodia during the Viet Nam
> war and knew the family there. He also arranged for their relocation
> to this country when he learned they were in a Thai refugee camp.
>
> I know the family well, and at the funeral I talked with Steve who
> married into the family. Steve and Mom (that's her name) have three
> beautiful (half American and half Cambodian) children. A few weeks
> prior to the death of his bother-in-law, Steve and Mom were remarried
> in the Catholic church. Even though Steve was raised Catholic, they
> had a Buddhist ceremony when they married the first time, and only
> when one of his younger children asked: "Dad, if you are Catholic and
> Mother is Buddhist, what am I?" did it occur to him that the subject
> of religion needed to be addressed. That got Steve to thinking, and
> it culminated in the conversion of his wife and their remarrying in
> the Catholic church. His brother-in law, now deceased, took the
> pictures.
>
> I asked Steve about the untimely death of his brother-in-law. He had
> a cancerous growth removed from his colon months earlier and it was
> suspected that the cancer had returned. He was given a berium test to
> see what the extent of the cancerous growth was. He had an adverse
> reaction apparently, and after a day or two, he died. And died a
> Buddhist.
>
> Neither Steve nor his recently converted wife thought to witness to
> him even though they knew he was in danger of dying. I was shocked!
> Was being a Christian nothing more than a ceremony? Had they learned
> nothing in the classes they were required to take? How could they let
> him die a nonbeliever?
>
> There were many tears shed at the funeral that day. But those there,
> friends and family, monks in orange robes, all cried at the loss of a
> physical life, for the children now fatherless, for the widow with no
> husband. I cried at the loss too. The loss of a loving soul to whom
> nobody bothered to bear witness to Christ before it was too late.
>
> As far as physical death is concerned - a hundred years from now we
> are all dead - so who cares? If I treat the subject more callously
> then you, please forgive me - that's just me. My tears are reserved
> for the truly lost, those who die without knowing Christ.
>
> As for PJ, at the very least he is an opportunist. He takes uniformed
> Christians and makes them misinformed Christians. Armed with
> misinformation, they muddy the waters, obscuring the truth from those
> who might otherwise seek it.
>
> Dick Fischer - The Origins Solution - www.orisol.com
> "The answer we should have known about 150 years ago"
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