Re: [asa] ASA Newsletter

George:

You say, "today a lot of the obstacles that keep people from coming to
Christian faith have to do with science - some real & some not. &
eliminating those obstacles is a task that ASA ought to be able to help
with."

Since I don't believe I, or anyone, outside of the Holy Spirit, has
access to how or when people "come to faith," I cannot provide
evidence for whether or against what you say.
However, I would suggest that a more conservative and more reliable
claim, and one nonetheless important, is that many today, Christian
and non-Christian know and experience a powerful tension between
science and religion.

It seems to me that such tensions are no more than those tensions
between Christianity and Culture that Niebuhr spoke famously of in
Christ and Culture. It occurs to me that the ways he spoke
of might equally well be applied to the relationship between
Christianity and Science. Are such relationships exhaustive.

bill

On Sun, 6 Sep 2009 12:17:02 -0400, <gmurphy10@neo.rr.com> wrote:
> Agreed that general apologetics is not a distinctive ASA task - i.e., one
> in which it has special competence - & thus shouldn't be our primary
> focus. But today a lot of the obstacles that keep people from coming to
> Christian faith have to do with science - some real & some not. &
> eliminating those obstacles is a task that ASA ought to be able to help
> with. That doesn't mean that it should be our main emphasis but we should
> at least be able to be a resource for others engaged in competent
> apologetics - with stress on "competent."
>
> Shalom,
> George
>
> ---- David Clounch <david.clounch@gmail.com> wrote:
>> ASA members,
>>
>> Regarding the issues raised pertaining to Africa, my feeling is those
> sorts
>> of matters really are of concern to ASA members only.
>> Probably many members will disagree with me. Its just that when it
> comes to
>> strategies for outreach and mission it seems to me you have to get you
>> ducks in a row before starting to catch grenades.
>>
>> As far as the ASA doing basic apologetics for Christianity in general,
> I'm
>> not against the ASA doing that. I'm just surprised the ASA has to do it
> at
>> all. It just seems slightly misplaced. (So if I am wrong here, please
>> tell me so.) Is it not true there are many many other venues that
> perform
>> that function? Would it not be more appropriate for someone with
> questions
>> or challenges to Christianity itself to go to a more appropriate venue?
> I
>> am ambivalent about that. I never had the expectation that it is the ASA
>> that had the answers in this area. Or the charter to develop those
>> answers. I suspect the enemies of Christianity do not really want
> answers.
>> Are they really trying to understand, or are they are just making
> trouble
>> and trying to distract?
>>
>> My personal opinion is it is far more important for us to dialog with
>> Muslims, for example, than it is to dialog with atheists. We have
> something
>> in common with Muslims, and Muslims are far more likely to ask a
> question
>> that gives them insight into Christianity than is any westernized
> atheist.
>> In fact I would suspect the entire population of China and the old
> Soviet
>> Union makes for better dialog than do western atheists. The same goes
> for
>> non-believing Africa.
>>
>> So, if we are going to have to regurgitate CS Lewis's moral argument
> for
>> God's existence, and that sort of thing, etc,
>> ad nauseum, perhaps we should do it in a form that is more likely to be
>> digested by those who are really trying to understand?
>>
>> Dave C (ASA member)
>
>
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Received on Sun Sep 6 16:28:53 2009