AIG Weakly News, 2/20/04

For some time now, I've been analyzing the weekly mailings from Answers
in Genesis and posting those analyses on TheologyWeb and also in
Compuserve's RELIGION FORUM.

Some of the moderators at TW (who are YEC) are not altogether pleased
with these posts. Some have been zapped; others moved to the so-called
"Locker Room," where they languish and die alone.

They do a little better in Compuserve.

I'm going to post a few of them here for possible comments.
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AIG Weakly News, Feb 20, 2004

Q: A supporter from Canada wrote us recently on how the book of Genesis
changed his life. What is his testimony?

A: Art Wanuch is a native North American Indian from Canada. His father
was a hunter and trapper, who raised 11 children. Although the family was
very religious, and Art studied the Bible as a youngster, when he went to
school, he was forced to mix both God and evolution.

He heard the false belief that the earth and dinosaurs were millions of
years old. But Art realized that the Bible couldn’t be reconciled with
that time frame. So he had to choose one or the other—both couldn’t
possibly be true. He got ‘trapped’ by evolution, and decided to reject
the Bible.

A few years ago, AiG conducted a seminar in Canada. In a 90–minute talk
about dinosaurs, Art was convinced that God’s Word was true after all. He
became a Christian!

Art recognizes that dinosaurs were a huge stumbling block for him. Now,
he conducts his own Genesis seminars, and has even built a scale model of
Noah’s Ark as a teaching tool.

Art, the former trapper, concluded his letter to us by asking us to pray
that others wouldn’t be trapped as he was.
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Comments:

First, I think it is great Art is a Christian, even if he was "converted"
by accepting scientific nonsense. Even a blind pig finds an acorn
sometimes, and it is Art's relationship to Jesus the Christ that really
matters, not whether that relationship began on false premises.

Second: Art was never "forced" to "mix God and evolution," at least not
if his teachers were doing their job in a professional manner. Of course,
maybe they were not doing so; in such a case they, not "evolution," is
the culprit.

Third: Art, with presumably an inadequate education, "... heard the false
belief that the earth and dinosaurs were millions of years old. But Art
realized that the Bible couldn’t be reconciled with that time frame. So
he had to choose one or the other—both couldn’t possibly be true." He did
not, of course, "have" to chose between them. This is called the fallacy
of the binary choice. "Either God -- or evolution." There are more than
two possibilities here, of course. Something YECs hardly ever mention,
for keeping the choice binary makes their debating points easier. As a
matter of fact, generations of Christians, some of them fundamentalists
(such as Warfield), quite easily could see that God and evolution could
logically both be true, and have concluded that, indeed, both of them ARE
true. I have yet to see a YEC even mention Warfield, or Asa Gray, or
other Christians who early one (in the late 1900s) were able to come to
terms with the new science of evolution and found in it a support for
their Christian faith.

Fourth: "In a 90–minute talk about dinosaurs, Art was convinced that
God’s Word was true after all. He became a Christian!" I think that is
wonderful. But I suspect that if Art ever studies science seriously, or
tries to debate a knowledgeable person on YECism, his faith may be in
serious jeopardy.

Fifth: "Art... concluded his letter to us by asking us to pray that
others wouldn’t be trapped as he was."

My prayer is that Art never find out the sand his house is built upon;
better still when he does find out, he will be able to find his faith is
not dependent upon such nonsense.
------------
Burgy

Today's quip: Protons have mass? I didn't even know they were Catholic!
                                                                         
                                                 www.burgy.50megs.com

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Received on Sat Jun 5 11:02:10 2004