Re: RATE Vol. II

With regard to the ongoing discussion about whether the ASA should
take an official stand on the age of the Earth, I will relate some of
the past thinking of the Affiliation of Christian Geologists (ACG)
on this. One important distinction is between making official
statements as an organization and making those positions part of our
membership requirements.

The ACG has had this debate on a number of occasions in the past. So
far we have not made the age of the Earth a part of membership
requirements. There are a number of YECs who are members of the ACG.

The basis for this decision, which has continued since the founding
of the ACG, is that the professional geological organizations such as
the Geological Society of America (GSA) do not make any restrictions
on membership based on scientific positions. The YECs who are ACG
members are also active GSA members and give presentations at GSA
meetings and submit papers to professional journals. So if the ACG
were to make acceptance of an old Earth a membership requirement we
would actually be more restrictive than the GSA. At the same time,
the presence of YEC proponents in the ACG probably has the effect of
limiting our effectiveness in being a respected voice in the
professional community. We have attempted to overcome this by
personal conversations with colleagues about science/faith issues and
participation in sessions on public science literacy and geoscience
education. We also try to show that there is more for Christians in
the geological sciences to discuss than "Creation/Evolution"

Concerning the ACG issuing an official position statement on the age
of the Earth. I'm not really sure what use it would be. It would be
merely stating the obvious to the geological community, and would
probably make us sound just quaint and irrelevant. If the ACG had
more of a visible presence in the evangelical Christian community
then perhaps such a statement might serve a purpose. It might also
prevent us from getting a listening ear -- we do regularly get
inquiries to the ACG website by individuals looking for "Creation
Science" type answers.

Some of the same issues are present with the ASA. The ASA needs to
pursue intellectual integrity in our disciplines and be seen by our
professional colleagues as worthy of respect. We also need to reach
out to the Christian community and be able to have their listening
ear on matters of science and faith.

I think that we can stress academic integrity and increase the rigor
of our reviews of papers for the journal, and of presentations at
annual ASA meetings. I think that we can also provide resources and
focussed responses to the lay Christian public on science questions.
However, I am not sure that making something like acceptance of an
ancient Earth part of our membership requirements would be the right
path.

Keith

Keith B. Miller
Research Assistant Professor
Dept of Geology, Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66506-3201
785-532-2250
http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~kbmill/
Received on Sun May 21 19:19:19 2006