Bill wrote on October 24
> Russ Maatman quoted David Tyler
>
> >In my opinion, David Tyler said it exactly right:
> >
> >> I look forward to the time when harmonisers use Biblical data to
> >> GUIDE our understanding of the archaeological data. Do we
> >> really believe that the Bible brings light to our scholarship? Much
> >> of what passes for harmonisation today seems to lose sight of a
> >> positive view of the Bible as a resource.
> >>
> Then he wrote
> >
> >When some paleontologists maintain that the Bible does indeed put limits
> >on our scholarship, and they assume that those limits must be fit into
> >their conclusions, we will be on our way to better conclusions and
> >better thinking on many origins problems.
> >
>
> This may be a quibble, but I think it's important. It seems to me that the
> correct statement is that our human finiteness puts limits on our
> scholarship. The Bible tells us we are finite and reminds us that God's
> ways are higher than ours. But _is_ it specific enough about the exact
> nature of our limitations to be a definitive source of known constraints on
> our scholarship? I'm not so sure.
>
> It seems to me that we are in a sense in the same position as the
> inhabitants of Edwin A. Abott's _Flatland_ (you can get it on the web at
> http://wiretap.spies.com/ftp.items/Library/Classic/flatland.txt). There is
> a dimension or dimensions in which God and his agents act that we cannot
> see. But it's more than that: we cannot, in our natural mekeup, even
> conceive that such dimensions may exist. What we know of them is revealed
> to us by the Scriptures and by the Holy Spirit.
Yes, I have read *Flatland*. And I agree that in a certain way we cannot
think in other "dimensions."
But we really cannot have two independent starting points to develop ideas
and, in general, our worldview. So I suggest that we Christians begin with
the idea that God redeems/transforms his people and, in fact, since there
will be a new heaven and a new earth, the whole creation.
Doesn't the Bible link Christ, the redeemer, to Adam? And so, is not our
entire Christian faith linked to both Christ and his relation to Adam?
Wasn't Eve the mother of all living?
Surely many parts of the Bible are a polemic against then-current heathen
ideas, ideas which included the evolution of man from gods or something
in creation. If we say that yes, it is indeed true that man evolved from
animals, aren't we giving in to ancient errors and saying that the Bible
was not always correct in its polemics?
So, I reiterate: let's pray for paleontologists who start out with the
idea that that man is unique and that Adam and Eve were indeed
the father and mother of all living. It seems to me that that is a
better place to start out than to hold that scientific discoveries
are to be considered first. The latter approach, even when Christians
use it, is the approach of methodological naturalism.
Thanks for responding to my earlier remark! It's good when brothers
and sisters in the Lord can discuss these things.
Russ
e-mail: rmaatman@dordt.edu Home address:
Russell Maatman 401 Fifth Ave. SE
Dordt College Sioux Center, Iowa 51250
Sioux Center, Iowa 51250 Home phone: (712) 722-0421