The YEC movement sponsors speakers who travel to local churches to present
creationism and to recruit members for their organizations. In the past year
or so, there have been at least 4 separate YEC speakers who've come through
churches in the Urbana-Champaign, Illinois area. I attended several of these
lectures and, quite frankly, I'm of the opinion that they were grossly
misrepresenting science and scientists. They also tell people that one can
not be a Christian and believe in an old earth or evolution. The YEC
organizations also take an active role in publishing and distributing books
and pamphlets from a YEC point of view for the general public.
It's clear that the YEC movement wants to win the hearts and minds of the
average evangelical Christian.
What is the ASA doing to convey to evangelical Christians that there are
Christians in the sciences who are not YECs? That there is a diversity of
opinion among Christians in the sciences (real, working scientists with
legitimate PhDs in science unlike many YEC authors) about origins issues.
Does the ASA do anything to educate the average non-scientist Christian
about science (i.e. sponsoring church speakers, publishing and distributing
books or pamphlets aimed at average Christians, etc.)? The only thing I'm
aware of (and it may just be that I'm ignorant of other material that does
exist) is a soon to be released pamphlet on radiometric dating. It's a
worthy project but it kind of pales next to what's put out by the ICR or the
Answers in Genesis organization.
- Steve.
-- Steven H. Schimmrich KB9LCG s-schim@uiuc.edu Department of Geology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 245 Natural History Building, Urbana, IL 61801 (217) 244-1246 http://www.uiuc.edu/ph/www/s-schim Fides quaerens intellectum