Mike,
I agree wholeheartedly. In addition I think that the part of the reason
that it may appear that there are many position held by reformed christians
(wheich there are) is that the reformed denominations are troubled by many
of the same problems others likely familiar with. I have found that in
attending OPC, BP, and now a PCA church that many times the pastor may have
some sympathy for views other than YEC but that many in the congregation
have been brought up on ICR literature. I have been involved in quite a
few discussions with various pastors where I have been and many times they
have been troubled by the theological ramifications of a YEC view. Usually
because when one looks at their pressupositions one finds that although
they sound reformed in nature they in fact lead one away from the reformed
faith when their form of exegesis is carried though to other passages of
the Bible.
I believe it is an unfortunate situation that the IRC has
essentially got a stranglehold on the Creation/Evolution in many reformed
Churchs to the extent that it can't really be talked about. All of the
home school materials that are used here utilize science materials from the
ICR, I believe primarily by default (there just isn't much material written
on science from a reformed perspective). This has left the reformed church
exposed to materials from other perspectives.
We are to the point now where we have parents who grew up on YEC
literature teaching their kids the same things and it worries me when I
have kids come up to me and tell me about moon dust, mans footprints with
dinosaurs, (and numberous other classic YEC arguments). Even if pastors
have thought long and hard about the subject and come to just a realization
that the subject is more complex than YECs make it out to be in their
literature they often find they can't really talk about it openly.
Ultimately the YECs have made the whole topic so difficult to talk about
that no discussion takes place. Interestingly, I have been asked several
times now about what I thought of Behe's recent book and what amazes me is
that all that anyone at this church knows about this book is that it talks
about how evolution is wrong. Every person so far has inferred from this
that Behe must be a YEC (obviously because if your not an evolutionists you
are are a YEC). This just shows how the YECs have so effectively polarized
the issue.
In Christ,
Joel Duff
Postdoctoral Fellow
Department Plant Biology
Southern Illinois University
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Joel and Dawn Duff ,-~~-.___.
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Murphysboro, IL 62966 ( ) 0
e-mail: duff@siu.edu \_/-, ,----'
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