Burgy,
The reason why this is important is because it is a foundational issue in
our understanding of human nature and life after death. I grant that this is
not quite up there with core doctrines of the faith (Trinity etc), but
neither is it too far down below those. And I agree that Christians have
gotten lots of things wrong, but if we admit that our basic understanding of
human nature could also be wrong, what confidence do we have that our
understanding of say, the nature of Christ is correct, or of our
resurrection? Is the Holy Spirit guiding the church, and how much? I think
there is more at stake here than what is immediately obvious.
Adrian,
-----Original Message-----
From: John W Burgeson [mailto:burgytwo@juno.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2002 6:57 AM
To: ateo@whitworth.edu
Cc: asa@calvin.edu
Subject: Re: Do animals ever "sin" (was something else)
Adrian wrote: "This position (of dualism) has been held by Christians
since the earliest days, and to claim in the 20th century that these
folks got it wrong all along (i.e. for 20 centuries)on such a major
theological issue is to call into serious question the role of
the Holy Spirit in guiding the church."
I don't know that the HS gives a fig leaf's care whether or not we get
something so esoteric as dualism vs monism "right." It is clear that
"over the centuries" we Xtians got a lot of other things wrong.
John Burgeson (Burgy)
http://www.burgy.50megs.com
(science/theology, quantum mechanics, baseball, ethics,
humor, cars, God's intervention into natural causation, etc.)
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