From: george murphy (gmurphy@raex.com)
Date: Mon Sep 15 2003 - 20:20:25 EDT
Richard.Kouchoo@firstdata.com.au wrote:
> >>>It's the postmodernists who say science has proven the religious texts
> are scientifically incorrect and then proceed to create a new morality out
> of whole cloth without looking more closely at the old religion before
> abandoning it that do great harm to Christianity.<<<
>
> Couldn't agree with you more. It's not the YEC's who bring harm to
> Christianity. It is the postmodernist-relativist interpretation of the Word
> that causes the greatest harm and creates masses of ex-Christians.
>
> Most harm that YEC's can do is to infuriate the likes of Dick Dawkins and
> other post-modernist-relativists - which is probably a good thing!
Whether or not Ham /et al/ say formally that one must accept a YEC
position to be a Christian, the inference that many people naturally make from
their statements that the truth of scripture requires a YEC interpretation of
Genesis is that if the earth is old & evolution is true then Christianity must
be false. When young people get this idea & then find out that there's a great
deal of evidence for evolution, they may quite easily draw the conclusion that
Christianity is false. Mt.18:6 applies here.
Which is not to endorse the views of Dawkins, post-modern relativists
&c. The notion that only 1 of the 2 extremes can be dangerous is of course
nonsense.
& frankly it's hard for me to understand why anyone who cares an iota
about science can still be debating this. I agree with Walt that a Christian
who just doesn't care about science & quietly believes that Genesis is literal
history isn't hurting anyone - as long as they don't give that idea to
impressionable young people. But the scientific evidence for an old earth & an
old universe is overwhelming, & to try to make a scientific case for a young
earth today is just a joke.
One reason this makes a difference to me is that I hate to see the ASA
embarassed by continued discussions about this in either Perspectives or on
this list. Of course the organization doesn't take an official stance on it.
But I hesitate a bit to recommend either the journal or the list to mainstream
Christians in science because I'm afraid they'll think we're nuts for still
entertaining debates about the age of the earth. Let's get a life!
Shalom,
George
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