Re: Student perceptions re evolution

From: Dr. Blake Nelson (bnelson301@yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Aug 22 2003 - 10:16:32 EDT

  • Next message: Charles Carrigan: "facts, was Re: Student perceptions re evolution"

    I agree. I was going to write a reply to one of the
    comments you had made about the poll of students and
    point out that I think the reason why evolution is so
    misunderstood in certain denominations is that those
    christians who see no problems with evolution
    scientifically or theologically (the second of which I
    think is the main point that should be emphasized) are
    simply being out hussled and out gunned by very active
    interest groups like ICR that seem to have a very good
    PR campaign going and go to great lengths to peddle
    their wares wherever possible.

    Ultimately, with one group going around and saying
    things like that if evolution and is true then things
    like Jesus' action on the cross means nothing (which I
    recall hearing Duane Gish say something to that
    effect), it clearly sets up a dichotomy that someone
    who takes Jesus seriously cannot accept. Of course,
    it is a false, theologically and practically flawed
    dichotomy. But if one group is out there saying it
    with a simple message every chance they get, people
    will tend to believe it, especially when Dawkins, et
    al. back that position up.

    The problem, in part, is you have two groups of people
    finding lots of personal satisfaction (be that money,
    whatever) in stridently pursuing creationism and
    science shows atheism is true alternatives. It is
    like interest group politics. There is no strongly
    motivated middle group that competes well with either
    of these two camps, perhaps because the rewards
    (however defined), are not there for the middle of the
    raod group... then, of course, there are all sorts of
    other institutional barriers to getting such a message
    out (e.g., the nature of media coverage, etc.)

    --- "Howard J. Van Till" <hvantill@chartermi.net>
    wrote:
    > >From: "Dr. Blake Nelson" <bnelson301@yahoo.com>
    >
    > Skip 2 paragraphs...
    >
    > > My point? Those with the biggest axes to grind
    > > generally shout the loudest... it is academia's
    > > version of interest group politics. Additionally,
    > > those who get the press are the vocal atheists and
    > > antireligionists. They perhaps are also more
    > likely
    > > to be science popularizers for the same reason
    >
    > Perhaps one could make a parallel assessment re
    > popularizers of biblical
    > literalism and YEC interpretations of Genesis 1-3.
    > The combination of these
    > two assessments would help us understand why the
    > popular version of the
    > science/theology dialog is the strident shouting
    > match known as the
    > creation/evolution debate -- represented by such
    > familiar shouters as
    > Richard Dawkins and Kent Hovind.
    >
    > Howard Van Till

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