Re: Challenges to teaching biology

Sigh... I know! Since Gish claims to have absolute knowledge then he
must be god. Either he is god or else there is a problem with his
humility (IMO). As finite human beings I fail to see how we can have
absolute knowledge of anything, except that thinking is. On any given
day the probability that the sun won't rise is less than about 1/(4.5 *
365 *10**9) which is so low that no one worries about it. Hume was
right induction does not work absolutely wrt nature and human
knowledge. Even YEC does not have probability zero. Since I have no
idea of how to figure its 's probability I think of it as something on
the order of 1/goggle-plex and certainly not worth worrying about. The
only tactic I know is to try to force them to accept the logic of their
beliefs. But even that, often does not work. My mother inlaw claims to
know absolutely the will of God to the point of contradicting scripture
and that my wife is only chronically sick due to lack of faith or
because of sin in my wife's life. My question to my mother in law has
been then why is she herself sick and does she expect to die one day?
In fact as I write my mother in law is in a hospital bed and if we
visited and she started down that path, I would ask the question yet
again and then taking my wife I would leave. Somehow the fruit of the
spirit seems to be lacking, love, joy, peace... But as you say, if I am
saved, it is as by fire. Undermine their belief in all in the
consistency of all of God's laws and especially in technology, push them
to open theology... Maybe some will change.

Dave Wallace

D. F. Siemens, Jr. wrote:
> I heard Gish reply, when he was asked what evidence could change his
> mind, "There is none." When one is RIGHT, nothing can change the
> position, for it would be WRONG. The fact is that human beings can hold
> contradictory views, sometimes by twisting them somewhat. For example, I
> have encountered the claim that God is not lying in the difference
> between YEC Bible interpretation and what is evident in the world: he is
> merely testing our faith. On this basis, you failed the test. But it's
> impossible to tell definitively whether you are damned or will be saved
> "so as by fire." I trust you'll fit Zechariah 3:2.
>
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Received on Sun Apr 2 08:56:59 2006