Re: Student perceptions re evolution

From: John W Burgeson (jwburgeson@juno.com)
Date: Thu Aug 28 2003 - 14:20:08 EDT

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    I had written:
    >
    > That comment was academic here in Durango until yesterday. The Durango
    > Christian Church, just a block south of my church, First Presbyterian,
    is
    > advertising a three day symposium, "Origins, Creation and You,"
    September
    > 19, 20 and 21st. Speakers will be Joe Sebeny and Roger Heyden;

    Wally wrote, in part:

    I know Joe Sebeny personally and he is one of whom I speak when i say
    that
    some YECs do NOT (correction to orig post) consider the alternate view to
    be non-christian. I have
    discussed these things with Joe and his statement is simply that he feels
    that my logic is not consistent. At the same time he welcomes me as a
    brother in Christ. If his attitude has changed I would be surprised. And
    if
    we treated YECs with the same attitude that Joe treated me, there would
    be
    little cause acrimony.

    I hope that you will tell us about the talk and how you come to view
    Sebeny."

    Unsure at the moment if I will go. Maybe to part of it though. The church
    is just a block from my house.

    "At least Joe does not appear to me to be a charlatan like some. I wish I
    could go to the talk. Where is Durango?"

    Durango Colorado is a small town in SW Colorado. At 6500 feet altitude,
    it is the gateway to some of the finest mountain jeep trails in the
    country. Come see us. Bring two things, rain and $$ (we are a tourist
    town).

    I sent the following email to the two speakers, as well as to the pastor
    (Mike Williams) of the church. Sebeny's was returned -- the brochure
    apparently had the wrong email address for him. If you know it -- you can
    forward this post to him.
    -------------
    Mike Williams just sent our church a flyer on the Sept 19-21 symposium.

    You may find page 2 of my web site (link below) of interest.

    Here are sections 4 and 5 of its content.

    4. On the "young earth" position

    An Evolving Creation, by Keith Miller(external link)

    Organizational sites promoting views on origins with which I have little
    sympathy:

    Institute for Creation Research (ICR) (external link)
    Answers in Genesis (AIG) (external link)

    Bluntly speaking, it is my position that the people who are involved in
    these two organizations do grevious harm to Christianity. Their assertion
    that a trust in Jesus the Christ and a belief in a "young earth" are
    necessarily linked together has caused many young people to throw away
    the former when they encounter the overwhelming evidences that the earth
    is old. They do less harm to science, for it is not too difficult, as a
    scientist, to see the fallacies in their thinking.

    Review of ICR's primary text (internal link)

    A particular perspective on Answers in Genesis:
    Open Letter to Ken Ham, by Paul Mason (internal link)

    Clark Pinnoch and Langdon Gilkey each wrote a book exposing the
    pseudoscience of the Creationists.
    Click here for a review which appeared on Metanexus. (internal link)

    There IS one young earth view which is coherent. The two links below
    discuss it:
    A review of Gosse's OMPHALOS (internal link)
    Notes on Gosse's OMPHALOS (internal link)

    5. Links I have found useful in studying origins questions:
    The following links are to websites maintained by scientists who are
    Christians. They have varied positions, including "Evolutionary
    Creationist," "Theistic Evolutionist," "Progressive Creationist," etc. I
    recommend them all as responsible sources.

    Robert Schneider's SCIENCE & FAITH website at Berea College Added 5-4-03
    (external link)

    George Murphy, physicist & clergyman (external link)
    Loren Haarsma, physics professor, Calvin College (external link)
    Allan Harvey, chemical engineer (external link)
    Glenn Morton, geophysicist (external link)
    Keith Miller, professor of geology (external link)
    Edward Davis, professor of the history of science (external link)

    The ASA web site home page maintains a facility for ASA members and
    "friends" to put links to their home pages. Some of those sites are quite
    good; there are some which I would not recommend as responsible, however.
    Click here to go to that part of the ASA site (external link)

    Responsible Organizational sites:

    The American Scientific Affiliation (external link)
    CTNS (external link)
    The Science and Medical Network (external link)
    Metanexus List (external link)
    The Templeton Organization (external link)
    The Access Research Network -- Intelligent Design (ID) (external link)
    After a 1997 ID conference in Austin, Texas, I published this article in
    ORIGINS & DESIGN, their Fall, 1997 journal:
    On the NTSE Conference, by John Burgeson (internal link)
    A site in Australia which promotes the ID movement:
    Steve Jones' web site (external link)

    In both Christian love and sincere disagreement:

    Burgy

    www.burgy.50megs.com

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