The project, in my mind, is an uphill battle. I have read the articles in
the Evangelical Theological Society journal that deal with the
interpretation of the first chapters of Genesis. They do not support YEC.
I find the same claim in the publications of IBRI and Hugh Ross. If their
message has not reached the lay audience in evangelical churches, it is
hard to envision an approach that will make the message accepted widely.
Years ago Gish addressed the Western Section of the AAAS meeting in Santa
Barbara. He was asked what evidence could possibly change his mind. His
immediate response, "There is none." We are dealing with "true believers"
who are immune to all evidence that does not support their position. As
someone remarked, the greatest hindrance to learning something is to know
it all already. YECers "know" everything about creation. This is why so
many young people in college, faced with the contradiction between "what
the Bible [necessarily] teaches" and the scientific evidence chuck their
faith.
The only way around this barrier that I see is the kind of one-on-one
psychologists and counsellors use to get through the defenses of their
clients. But this takes a lot of time and great skill, but is not always
successful. Can quantum physics, which obviously works for reactors and
bombs, and also justifies the timing of radioactive decay, be a backdoor
approach to the age of the earth? How many could follow the evidence? Is
there another approach? Exegesis and traditional interpretations have not
seemed to get through.
Dave
On Wed, 3 Jan 2001 17:17:10 -0500 "Jack Haas" <haasJ@mediaone.net>
writes:
Greetings:
I am writing to ask list members to help with a challenging project.
An ASA member has offered a five figure sum to the organization to
support a project that seeks to educate the lay Christian community
(adults/youth) on issues related to the 'young earth' movement.
His letter notes: "...The young-earth message has bitten very deeply
into the evangelical culture, and people trust this message. What will it
take to show people believably that the young-earth view is
not the only possible one, without undermining the Christianity or
sincerity of those that hold that position? [This grant is offered] to
ASA, to promote serious discussion of the feasibility of working on
publications that show the range of views that Christians have,and/or the
necessity of believing the evidence for an ancient universe and the
possibility of finding compatibility with Scripture."
He is rightly concerned with the tensions that can emerge in any
evangelical church or denomination over age and related origins
questions. PSCF and this list reflect this tension. In spite of the
diversity of views about details there is a broad consensus upon which to
base a Christian view of science - including (I think) age and origins.
The question before us is how to communicate this consensus to the
Christian public.
I am representing the ASA Council in asking for your input. What do you
think about the project? What kind of approach should we use? What kind
of materials should we use? What types of media? Are your aware of
things in print that may be useful? Writers? My role is to collect
ideas. The next step will be to present them to a committee which will
set the course of the project.
We are open to any and all ideas!
Jack Haas
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