>Good morning, Reflector:
>
>At 12:15 PM on the 2nd of August, 1996, we recieved a post from Brian D.
>Harper in which he defends TE. In the process, he favorably quoted Brian
>Goodwin, author of _How the Leopard changed Its Spots_. The quote compares
>the principles of Darwinism to the "story of the fall and redemption of
>humanity", a "myth with which we are all utterly familiar."
>
>The focus of my response is this. Would Jesus have been the least bit
>familiar with the "story of . . . redemption" Brian D. Harper appears to
>endorse?
>
Neal, you are either lying or your reading comprehension skills are
very poor (or maybe you didn't even read what I wrote). Nowhere did
I endorse or even appear to endorse Brian Goodwin's "story of
redemption".
Here's what I wrote:
=========================================================
You might want to do some more reading. You might be surprised to find that
many scientists (many of whom are atheists or agnostics) oppose Gould and
Dawkins et.al. just as much as you do. I have posted many examples of this
to the reflector. Perhaps you missed them since you are new here. I'll
repeat a few, apologies to those who have seen them already.
==========================================================
and then right before giving the Goodwin quote I wrote:
"Next, here is an example of Brian Goodwin beating up
on Richard Dawkins:" --BH
The purpose of the Goodwin quote was to give an example of someone
who opposes Dawkins. From what he wrote I really doubt Goodwin is a
Christian, probably not even a Theist. For him, about the best way to
ridicule Dawkins is by making the comparison that he does. Get it now?
[...]
>If you're in the TE camp, and you profess Christianity, I'm not going to
>question the authenticity of your faith. But I am going to ask you to
>compare the marks of your Christianity to the Biblical marks so that you
>can decide for your self if your marks are authentic or counterfeit.
>
>I realize that bringing the discussion to this level may make some angry
>(I've already recieved a private e-mail expressing the hope that my form of
>Christianity will die--Truth generally has this type of effect on people.)
>But I'm convinced that confusion about the definition of authentic
>Christianity is an underlying issue for at least a large minority in the TE
>camp.
>
What gets me angry is your [deliberate ?] distortion of what I wrote.
[...]
>
>Do you bear most or all of the biblical marks Christianity? If so, then
>the Bible assures you you're a Christian; let's move on to the debate over
>TE. If you do not, then the TE discussion is only a smoke-screen. Let's
>discuss the real issues.
>
>
>Brian D. Harper writes:
>
>>I'll tell you what, I'll be gracious and allow you your
>>interpretation of scripture without ridiculing it. Will you do the same?
>
>I've adopted the following philosophy from philosopher Samuel Johnson:
>
>"The supreme end of education is expert discernment in all things. The
>ability to discern the good from the bad and the genuine from the
>counterfeit and to _prefer_ the good and the genuine to the bad and the
>counterfeit."
>
Oh yes, your discernment is really tremendous.
========================
Brian Harper | "People of that kind are academics, scholars,
Associate Professor | and that is the nastiest kind of man I know."
Applied Mechanics | -- Blaise Pascal
Ohio State University |
========================