From: Ted Davis (tdavis@messiah.edu)
Date: Thu Oct 30 2003 - 05:21:27 EST
Michael wrote:
Back to Paul Nelson. Is he any better than a biblical flat-earther who
believes the earth is flat because of the only reasonable interpretation of
Gen 1 6-8, Ex20, 4 and Isaiah 40 22? I cant see how he can accept biblical
arguments for a young earth unless he goes for a flat earth as well. (Please
no khug-khugging!)
No, Michael, as you fully realize, Paul Nelson does not believe in a flat
earth. Now let me deal with what I believe is the *real* question here: how
can he accept a young earth? The answer, for Paul, is *not* scientific--he
admits (unlike most YEC people) that the scientific evidence does not favor
a YEC position. The answer is *moral* and *theological*, driven partly of
course by scriptural concerns but also by moral concerns. He cannot
reconcile millions of years of suffering and death in the animal kingdom,
with the love of God. I've often said, that this is the driving force
behind YEC; Paul is a perfect example of why I have said this.
As he made clear once again last evening, that concern outweighs for him the
scientific issues related to an old earth. He does not see how to put his
moral and theological world together with an old earth. It isn't because
he's stupid or ignorant--he's as bright as many other philosophers I know
and he's far better informed about the details of evolutionary biology than
I am, and perhaps even than you are (the monograph he's completing, On
Common Descent, is for a series of standard scientific studies on evolution
edited by a leading biologist at the Univ of Chicago). It's because he
can't put his moral world together in any other way.
This was precisely the same concern Bryan had 80 years ago. Bryan of course
accepted an old earth and death before the fall; but he could not put
evolution by natural selection--the "law of hate" he called it, with good
reason (this was based on what he saw in social darwinism,
worldwide)--together with the "law of love," that is the gospel of Christ.
I'm not interested in badgering Paul to accept the evidence for an ancient
earth and universe. I am interested in understanding more fully why he, and
many other Christians, cannot accept that idea.
ted
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