> I don't want to necessarily "win" (even though I think the YEC are
> wrong), I would be happy if I were accepted by many in the Evangelical
> community as a "real" Christian even though I do not hold to their
> literal interpretation of a couple of chapters in Genesis.
Still, I do also have considerable sympathy with George Murphy's
repeated complaint about the failure of much of the church to deal
seriously with the theological implications of evolution. In
evangelical churches, in my experience, even when evolution is mentioned
as a possibility (it's generally offered as a slightly radical concession),
that possibility is immediately dropped in any further discussion of
the subject. This refusal to thnk about the implications is one of
the reasons (a similar attitude toward biblical criticism is another)
why I've stopped considering myself an evangelical.
> I've had Christians who, after reading my web pages, send me letters
> basically telling me that I'm bound for Hell if I don't come around to
> the YEC point of view. I've had people in churches insinuate that when
> I become a "mature" Christian, I'll see the error of my ways [...]
The most striking response I received, during one of my stints on
talk.origins(*), was from a fellow who addressed me as a "Judas
Christian". In real life, however, I've seldom encountered much
direct hostility, even in "conservative" churches (perhaps because I
don't spend much time in the more extreme examples). I have heard the
kind of ridicule of evolutionary "pseudo-scientists" that's been
mentioned recently, but my impression has been that it's entirely in
the abstract: it never occurs to the speaker that there might be a
real human being present who falls into that category. (Ditto, by the
way, for atheists, theological liberals, and "nominal Christians": all
are often credited with views and motivations that don't resemble
any I've encountered in real members of any of those groups. But
stereotypical thinking is hardly the exclusive preserve of American
evangelicals.)
(*) At the moment the only newsgroups I read have to do with photography.
It's remarkable how much more cheerful, mellow, and generally pleasant I
am when I'm not reading t.o; I think my hair may be growing back, too.
Still, I'll return t.o again, and again . . .
Steve Schaffner
sschaff@slac.stanford.edu