Glenn wrote: "To claim that the individual lay follower of
either position is exempt from blame is like saying the German citizens
who
lived through the holocaust but did and said nothing were blameless.
They
weren't. The laity on one side or the other isn't entirely blameless.
To
act as if they are sheep denies them their humanity and ability to think
for
themselves. They choose not to think."
I'll have to take issue with both the comparison and the conclusion.
The German civilians, at least those who lived near the ovens, knew (1)
something horrible was happening and (2) it was an important thing to
notice & study. They also knew that (3) their very lives were in danger
should they become so curious.
The Christian laity who accept YEC have none of the above characteristics
to deal with. (1) They recognize t hat there is controversy, but, if
their interests, jobs, etc. are in other fields, all they are aware of is
a few scientists squabbling over arcane details; nothing "horrible"
going on. (2) Suppose your job is clerking at a department store. Or
working in the accounts receivable office. Or building houses, Or even
doing aircraft engineering (one of my own dear YEC friends). The question
of origins is not very important. Let the experts quibble. Just believe
the gospel and go on. (3) Nobody dies when Ken Ham spouts forth his
nonsense.
So I do not fault my aircraft engineering friend for "not thinking" about
origins. And he does not fault me for not spending more time
understanding aircraft engineering, even though I was once on his board
of directors. I was there because I understood computer programming, not
aircraft engineering -- he did not want to think about computer
programming either.
Burgy
www.burgy.50megs.com/h4h.htm (A Habitat for Humanity story)
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Received on Thu Feb 12 22:41:58 2004
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