At 05:43 PM 9/13/98 -0400, Howard J. Van Till wrote:
>The question then becomes, how well-informed is our folk science? Do we
>allow it to be informed by the most appropriate sources, or, on the other
>hand, do we depend upon sources not well suited to the task? Here is where
>your repeated call for Christians to become well-informed by empirical data
>is extremely important. On this you and I are in hearty agreement.
The lack of correspondence of most Christian apologetics with observational
data is important because of the need for our apologetics to match reality,
i.e. what we teach must have a concordance with reality. Unfortunately, too
often it has no relationship with reality.
>
>Where you and differ is on the matter of Scripture's relevance to beliefs
>regarding the particulars of the Creation's formational history. We also
>differ on the hermeneutical principles that we employ in judging what a
>faithful reading of the biblical text requires of us today. These differing
>hermeneutical principles follow from several other factors, including
>differing concepts of literature, differing concepts of 'truth', differing
>concepts of the nature of divine inspiration, and differing concepts of the
>consequent character of the biblical canon.
While you and I disagree on the correct road to take in the areas of
hermeneutics, concepts of truth etc, I am in total agreement of your
analysis of our differences. We differ on epistemological and metaphysical
grounds.
>
>Back to an area of agreement: Yes, we all employ some form of folk science.
>In itself, that's not bad. What we need to do, then, is to construct our
>folk science self-consciously and to draw from resources that are both
>appropriate and adequate to the task. At the same time, of course, we
>should be open to the ongoing reevaluation of the other parts of our belief
>system as well.
And I will agree with you here. Having altered my views from YECism to my
present evolutionary beliefs, I would agree with your last sentence whole
heartedly.
glenn
Adam, Apes and Anthropology
Foundation, Fall and Flood
& lots of creation/evolution information
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm