Re: ICR - Jan 2005

----- Original Message -----
From: "Either Carol or John Burgeson" <burgytwo@juno.com>
To: <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 1:52 PM
Subject: ICR - Jan 2005

> ICR Vol 34, #1 -- Jan 2005
>
> CAn it be true? 33 years of disseminating YEC nonsense! 33 years of a
> slow -- but steady -- gain in YEC views among US citizens.
>
> My good friend Gordon Brown asks "HOW" we afford these guys "room at the
> table."
>
> We do so by including in science courses an acknowledgement of their
> scientific (not religious) views, along with appropriate refutations.
> That's all.

Sounds good but it won't hold up. This assumes that "we" - i.e., those who
don't buy the anti-evolutionists' arguments - get to formulate how things
like YEC & ID will be presented in science classes. (& that means not just
textbooks but teachers' presentations.) Once the door is opened for
presentation of - among other things - YEC in the curriculum, who's going to
enforce the rule in 1000s of cases that it can only be presented as
"science" rather than religion? If a student asks, "Isn't this just like
what the Bible says?" is the teacher forbidden to say "Yes"?

Do you think anti-evolutionsist are going to accept a plan under which
students would be taught various theories of origins but with the provision
that evolution must be presented as the correct one? If you tried to put
together a lesson plan in which evolution, ID & YEC were compared, to the
advantage of evolution, all the supporters of the other ideas - with their
political clout - would claim that it was unfair. Once various theories are
allowed as scientific, can you really keep a teacher from arguing for the
one he or she thinks is right? The sort of thing you suggest could be done
only if school boards, those who formulate curricula, & were agreed that
evolution is the best theory. The problem is that they aren't.

& this will also give non-Christian teachers the opportunity not only to
show the scientific flaws of things like YEC but do it in such a way as to
undermine belief in the authority of the Bible.

Again, you are quite right about the seriousness of the problem but your
solution is wrong. If it is not dealt with in a theological context it
can't be solved at all. I know that that's hard to do but it's reality.

Shalom
George
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
Received on Tue Feb 1 15:01:13 2005