Re: ASA's "neutrality policy"

Several things come to my mind here

(1) It's fine to say "we want to include everyone under our tent", but
another thing to decide how and to what extent we even _can_ do it.

How do we include YEC within ASA when most of us (at least on the
list) have concluded that it borders on madness to believe that
stuff (at least when it is called "science")? What could they publish
in the ASA journal that any of us would allow should we ever be asked
to referee something? And how long would one of those ideologues
last on this list before they would either have to be "moderated"
(by our greatly appreciated and long suffering moderator) or ganged up
on. Most all the ideologues who have posted here seem to wear some
kind of mask that obscures any rational discussion about the integrity
of their views.

<grin>We, of course, __always__ practice what we preach.</grin>

So how or where do we really obtain this dialogue? It seems like
something much clearer is required to not have this mere words
on a page.

(2) The flip side to this is that making people feel unwelcome is not
likely to make anyone better: neither "us" nor "them". We cannot
change the Ken Hams of this world, but if others can see that
a Christian's chose is not limited to creation pseudo-science
or atheism, maybe they will at least walk away realizing that the
issue is more complicated than these ideologues on both sides
have made it.

So how do we catch hold of people who are in the middle and help
them at least realize that their faith is not in the hands of people
thoroughly lost in the darkness of scientism?

A good part of the answer, in the final analysis, is, I realize, by grace
and by pray, but anyway..... that is my two yen.

Wayne
Received on Fri Dec 16 22:04:43 2005