Re: WWYD - What Would You Do to make evolution work??

From: Ralph Krumdieck (ralphkru@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU)
Date: Tue Sep 19 2000 - 02:40:04 EDT

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    >Welcome to the Reflector to Ralph.
    >
    Thanks.
    >
    >RK>The last sentence again intrigues me. You say death and extinction (that
    >>seems to be the same thing) were "necessary additions"(?). Christian
    >>thought says that the world was initially created without death, which
    >>came into the world as a result of sin. ...
    >
    >This is YEC doctrine. It is not "Christian thought" in the sense that all
    (or
    >even most) Christians believe it. The Bible does not teach it and AFAIK no
    >Christian creed states it.
    >
    >The historic Christian position has AFAIK always been that it is only
    >*humans* who would not have died if Adam had not sinned. The "no
    >death before the Fall" doctrine is AFAIK a YEC invention in the
    >20th century. (This is not meant to be a slur on YECs BTW, just a
    >statement of fact).

    Thanks for the interesting information. I did not realize that this
    position originated with the YEC people. I have certainly heard it
    espoused by people who are not YEC, so it has spread.

    The position had always puzzled me because it seemed that Adam was
    being threatened with something (death) that he knew nothing about.
    On the other hand, as the Ross quote makes clear, what Adam was
    really being threatened with was spiritual death, which he probably
    knew nothing about, either. So, go figure.



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