From: Don Winterstein (dfwinterstein@msn.com)
Date: Fri May 02 2003 - 03:15:42 EDT
Burgy wrote in part:
> >
> > I have several very fine friends who are YEC and by no means trained in
> any
> > of the sciences. I have really little reason to try to "persuade them"
> > otherwise.
Iain responded in part:
>
> I agree 100%. My mother has always taken a literal view of Genesis. ...I
>used to tell her that
> science had proved we were descended from apes and that Adam & Eve was
just
> a parable. It used to upset her. What was the point of doing that?
As a rule I also make minimal efforts to enlighten YECs in my circle of
acquaintances. Yet something needs to be done. The young--especially those
who will attend college--are the ones most likely to suffer adverse
consequences of YEC beliefs. Somehow these people need to get the word.
Older YECs, especially those with no training in sciences, will themselves
rarely benefit from enlightenment on origins. Their case is closed.
But these older adults are often the ones who control school curricula in
church-run elementary schools and thus directly prevent enlightening the
young. Often parents send their kids to such schools partly to keep them
from such enlightenment, which they regard as teaching of the devil or some
such thing.
To approach such adults on these matters can be like arguing with
a hornets' nest. To them, these are salvation issues; and some of these
people get instantaneously worked into a frenzy. Then--if it goes that
far--they call in big guns from Creation Research.
To take such teaching upon oneself in a YEC environment would require
something like devoting your life to the cause.
Don
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