Re: RATE Vol. II

At 08:53 AM 5/22/2006, George Murphy wrote:

>Various views on the age of the earth, including
>objections to an old earth based on radioactive
>dating, have long since been given a fair
>hearing. Just because some diehards can get
>enough money to publish & promote material
>promoting YEC doesn't mean that it should be
>given _another_ fair hearing. If we take that route then it never ends.

@ Kurt Wise knows that those are true statements.

So, in addition to various other ideas suggested
for publication in the PSCF on this topic,
I think publishing all the comments in the links
noted below would make the point quite powerfully.

Imitating the "infallible" mortals in the RCC
back in the days of Galileo, Kurt Wise, et.
al., are deliberately rejecting one scientific
(so-called) stance in favor of another
scientific stance, strictly on the basis of how
they "interpret" the Scriptures.

Kurt Wise: "Given what we currently think we
understand about the world, the majority of the
scientific evidence favors an old earth and
universe, not a young one. I would therefore say
that anyone who claims that the earth is young
for scientific evidence alone is scientifically ignorant. "

Towers Online - The News Service of the Southern
Baptist Theological
Seminary http://www.towersonline.net/story.php?grp=news&id=344
April 13, 2006 By Jeff Robinson

Excerpts:

"Trustees at The Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary on April 11 unanimously approved the
creation of two new theological study centers­the
Center for Theology and the Arts, and the Center
for Theology and Law, during the board's annual spring meeting.

Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. said the
new study centers aim at equipping pastors and
church leaders to think biblically about pivotal
issues which dominate contemporary culture.

"One of the ways we want to lead Southern
Baptists is through helping evangelicals and
Southern Baptists in particular to engage some of
the most critical issues of our day," Mohler said.-

"This is not a time for Christians to be
out-thought by the world, but in general that is
what happens. We find the church behind the times
in thinking about some of the most crucial issues of our day."

Mohler also announced the appointment of two new
faculty members to lead the centers. [snip] ...

...Mohler also named Kurt Wise as the new
director for Southern's Center for Theology and
Science, and professor of theology and science.
Wise currently serves on the faculty of Bryan
College in Dayton, Tenn., where he is also
director of the Center for Origins Research.

Wise earned both a doctor of philosophy and
master of arts in paleontology from Harvard
University. He and his wife Marie have two daughters.

Wise replaces William Dembski, who is leaving
Southern Seminary to join the faculty at
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary so he can be closer to his family.

"With the addition of Kurt Wise, we are
recognizing that creation is a ground zero
theological crisis point right now in American
culture and even in our churches," Moore said. [snip] ..

*

A couple of interesting items on the web regarding Kurt Wise:

[1]
7/3/2003
http://www.christianforums.com/t43741&page=12
"Ok, I just got a email from Dr. Wise. This is what he said:

"I am a young-age creationist because the Bible
indicates the universe is young. Given what we
currently think we understand about the world,
the majority of the scientific evidence favors an
old earth and universe, not a young one. I would
therefore say that anyone who claims that the
earth is young for scientific evidence alone is
scientifically ignorant. Thus I would suggest
that the challenge you are trying to meet is unmeetable." ~ Kurt Wise

[2] December 19th 2004
http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/showthread.php?t=44017 Theologyweb.com

Post # 7:

"...there is new breed of YEC out there, of which
Kurt Wise is an example, who recognize that there
are scientific problems with their
Weltanschauung. I knew Kurt was exceptional, but
there are more of his stripe. Affectionately, I'd
like to refer to them as neo-YECs, as opposed to
the Wieland-Ham-Morris-Safarti-Jorge YECs for
which I would propose the oxymoronic moniker paleo-YECs."

*

Of course, that sort of stance rightly invites
articles such as this from snickering, rabid atheists like Richard Dawkins:

Sadly, an Honest Creationist - by Richard
Dawkins
http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=dawkins_21_4

More:

[1] What were Galileo's scientific and biblical conflicts with the Church?
http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/galileo.html

[2] "..In many ways, the historic controversy of
creation vs. evolution has been similar to
Galileo's conflict, only with a reversal of roles..."
   http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-c007.html

Quote: "Conflicts between Science and the Bible
arise from either a lack of scientific knowledge
or a defective understanding of the Bible." ~ Moses Maimonides

~ Janice
Received on Mon May 22 11:41:14 2006