Accurate Understanding & Respectful Attitudes
in Our Search for Truth about Origins Questions,
about Evolution, Intelligent Design, and Creation
Accurate Understanding & Respectful
Attitudes
Monday and Tuesday: In
high school we learned valuable lessons about understanding
and respect from my favorite teacher. During a Monday debate,
he convinced us that "his side of the issue" was
correct, but on Tuesday he made the other side look just as
good. We
soon learned that — if we wanted to get an accurate
understanding — we
should not be satisfied with the representation of a position
that has been constructed by its opponents. Instead,
we should get the best information and arguments that all sides
of an issue
can claim as support. When we did this and we understood
more accurately, we usually recognized that even when we have
valid reasons for preferring one position, people on other
sides of an
issue may also have good reasons for believing as they do,
so we learned respectful attitudes.
But respect does not
require agreement. You can respect someone and their views,
yet criticize their views, which you have evaluated based on evidence,
logic, and values. The intention of our teacher, and the
conclusion of his students, was not a postmodern relativism. The
classroom goal was a rational exploration and evaluation of
ideas in a search for truth.
And helping you search
for truth is the goal in this educational website. Therefore,
you won't find one-sided "Monday without Tuesday" indoctrination. Instead,
you'll get accurate information about a wide range of positions.
The
overall result may not be perceived by everyone as being NEUTRAL,
due to perception (because some people want a website to
be biased in favor of their own views, and they consider a website
to be "neutral" only
if it is biased in this way) and reality (because it is
impossible to say anything substantial in a way that is totally
neutral). But
we will try to be FAIR by letting representatives of each perspective
clearly express their own views and criticize other views, and
by treating their views with respect.
Exploring this area will
be an exciting adventure for you, because the awesome creation of God
is wonderful and exciting, and because there is "intellectual
drama" in the conflict of ideas. We won't always agree,
and this will make it interesting for you. But we can make the
process of agreeing (about many things) and disagreeing (about a few
things) more enjoyable and productive. Consistent with our Christian
worldview, we want to use productive communication — in an effort
to achieve our goals of improved understanding and mutual respect — in
our search for truth and in our personal interactions.
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A "Multiple
Views" Website
A page about A
Quick Education explains our educational philosophy and strategy:
This website will
help you learn quickly, on two levels: introduction and exploration.
INTRODUCTION: First,
we'll quickly provide a coherent overview of important ideas, to help
you understand the ideas and their relationships.
EXPLORATION: And
to help you explore more deeply, we'll provide links to pages that
examine the ideas and relationships in more depth.
In both phases we'll adopt
a "multiple views" approach by explaining the views of people with different
perspectives, so you can be well informed while you develop your own
perspectives. ...<snip>...
We have searched the web
and have selected pages — for introduction and exploration — that
will help you learn quickly and well, because you'll be reading only
high-quality pages. This also makes it easier to use the website
because you won't be overwhelmed with too many choices, so you can
more easily decide what to do first and what to do next.
But our selectivity is
not censorship, and — for controversial issues, when views differ
among Christians — in our website the range of views will be
wide. In this "multiple positions" website, our goal is to give
you accurate information about a wide range of positions. We
will try to be fair by providing an opportunity for representatives
of each perspective to clearly express their own views and criticize
other views, and by treating their views with respect. Since
a wide range of views will be cited, our disclaimer is important: "citing
a page does not imply an endorsement by the ASA."
A multiple-positions
approach is consistent with the policy of the American Scientific
Affiliation: "As an organization, the
ASA does not take a position when there is honest disagreement
between Christians on an issue. We are committed to providing
an open forum where controversies can be discussed without fear
of unjust condemnation. Legitimate differences of opinion
among Christians who have studied both the Bible and science
are freely expressed within the Affiliation in a context of Christian
love and concern for truth." {from the ASA
Statement of Faith}
As explained in the homepage,
we don't claim to give you The Origins
Answer, but
we will
help you explore Origins Questions.
Why
don't we all agree?
Even when scientists have
the same evidence, sometimes they won't all reach the same conclusion. Does
this show that "it's all opinion and prejudice" so you can
ignore what they say? Some Christians assert that in historical
science the evidence is always inadequate, so the conclusions of scientists
must be determined by their nonscientific beliefs. Most scholars,
including myself and most other members of ASA, think these "radical
relativist" assertions are exaggerated, and the basic foundation
of science — the logical evaluation of evidence — provides a reliable way to
learn about the fascinating world created by God. We
encourage you to explore the evidence and the claims made for various
conclusions, and decide for yourself the extent to which different
claims are scientifically supported.
What should we do when
we disagree?
Sincere, respectful
truth-seekers from all viewpoints, not just that of the Access
Research Network, will agree with the ARN
Approach for truth seeking, critical thinking, open minds,
humility, and kindness.
This page describes some basic
principles about understanding
and respect in our search for truth. But the real
challenge is to actually DO IT in this emotionally charged
area that is
filled with intense controversy because people have strong
views about important ideas.