Re: A case for Christianity that does use ID or YEC arguments

Absolutely spot on. This is what I have been saying for a long time. And
that is why I give my [false] binary choice. But I do think most atheists
are far more moral than the bigoted fanatics from the YEC camp, but not the
kids I taught at Wheaton who were YEC because of bad teaching at their
churches .

Michael

> When involved with dialogues regarding creation theology, I attempt to
paint the perspective that the primary theological viewpoint is "God is
responsible for creation" and the secondary is "how God created." I further
point out that the secondary does not impact one's salvation experience
(with one exception: I did not utter these words to a co-worker who believes
that humans were initiated by extra-terrestrial beings).
>
> Some literary YEC works seem to equate creation belief with salvation--a
tactic similarly used by the KJV-only crowd. Such an approach, combined with
character assassinations and societal impact propaganda, appears to be an
attempt to frighten people into believing the defended point of view.
>
> -Phil
> >
> > --- John W Burgeson <jwburgeson@juno.com> wrote:
> >
> > Indeed, to the extent that character assassination
> > occurs at all, by anyone, it is not in concert with
> > christian teaching or our Lord's admonitions on the
> > subject.
> >
> > Michael perhaps is too quick with the witticism. At
> > least two premises inhere in his binary choice 1) that
> > atheists can be at least as ethical to the extent that
> > ideally christians can be through the transformation
> > of the Holy Spirit as a follower of Jesus (a subject I
> > will not touch with a proverbial ten foot pole); and
> > 2) that YEC and character assassination (i.e.,
> > departing from Jesus' and church teachings on the
> > subject) go hand-in-hand. As Burgy points out, they
> > do not.
> >
> > Moreoever, as I am sure everyone can agree, being
> > simply mistaken about creation makes no difference as
> > to whether one tries to be a (nonetheless unworthy)
> > servant of God. Lots of pious saints have been at
> > least partially mistaken about the how of creation.
> > Moreover, I have no doubt that we all are at least
> > *partially* mistaken about the how of creation. That
> > fact affects the extent to which we are, inter alia,
> > transformed by the Holy Spirit, "saved", or bear
> > fruit of the Spirit not one jot, iota, or tittle.
> >
> > Thankfully, we don't have to think in overly
> > simplistic binary categories which mask other *real*
> > differences between worldviews and praxis that cannot
> > be blithely dismissed.
>
>
Received on Thu Feb 5 16:42:44 2004