From: John Burgeson (hoss_radbourne@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Oct 01 2002 - 13:40:40 EDT
>What? Even more unsupported claims ? Then it is time to challenge that
>type of
hype again. They are your friends (or so you say) , not mine. Perhaps it is
time
for you to get more aggressive and _demand_ an alternative -- or an
admission
that they are not scientists in _any_ sense of the word. (I often have the
same
complaint about some of the ASA "theologians" on this list ---- including
some of those who claim to have scientific credentials.....)>>
No "claim." I think they had not (in 1988 at least) thought very much about
the subject at all. But prior theologians, dating back to at least the
1700s, have done so. It is not at all a new topic and Christians of all
varieties have usually been comfortable with the ideas that life may very
well exist elsewhere.
They are my friends because they are, however misguided, my brothers in
Christ. And I have good reasons to think they reciprocate that friendship --
and, yes, love. As such, I suggest that you ought to so regard them also.
Ever since Ireneous started promulgating the "Christian" doctrine of
exclusivity back in -- what -- 200 AD or so -- we Christians have been all
to quick to divide the world into "us" and "them." I suggest that this is
perhaps the most serious error we make. The very word "heretic" comes from a
Greek word meaning "other choices," and that Greek word carries no
pejorative connotations. Today, of course, people vilify and hurt other
people because their beliefs differ, labeling them "heretics" and justifying
all sorts of harm to them on that basis.
I do not see Jesus doing that. And I won't either.
Burgy
www.burgy.50megs.com
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