Re: A profound disturbance found in Yak butter.

PHS: But, so what? The accommodation [in religious accounts] does not prove
that Varuna or Elohim or any other named creator-god did not create the sky.
It leaves open the true answer to Who made the sky?

GRM: OK, but that is the point I am trying to make. Without some form of
concordism (reality) in the mix, the accommodationalist position takes one
into a totally fideist and circular system, as I showed with George’s
statement that God accommodates to the point of not interfering with the
theology. The ‘so what’ is that, like a house without a foundation, one is
left in epistemologically floating without a foundation
based in reality.>>

PHS: Not so fast. Accommodationalists believe that Christianity is based in
part on the actual historicity of Jesus Christ and particularly his
resurrection; and I think the objective evidence for both is strong enough
to warrant faith without fideism, that is, without saying, "I believe
regardless of the facts, or worse yet even though the facts are contrary to
the claim." So, there is an objective base for the accommodationalist's
epistemology.

Secondly, your nearly positivistic epistemology does not completely comport
with NT Christianity. As it is written in 1 Cor 2:4,5 "And my message and my
preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of
the Spirit and of power, that your faith _should not_ rest on the wisdom of
men, but on the power of God."

Thirdly, there is no necessary logical connection between the proposition
"Genesis 1-11 is objectively true science and history" and "Christianity is
the true religion." You still have to make a jump by faith.

Finally, in exchange for a basket of religions contradicting each other and
each claiming to be the true one, Concordism offers a basket of imaginative
scenarios (Ramm, Newman, Ruest, Fischer, Hill, Morton, et. al.)contradicting
each other and each claiming to be the true one. So, one is still left in
subjectivism without a foundation based in reality.

Concordism thus offers no advantage over Accommodationalism, and has the
disadvantage of IMO substituting private interpretations for the
historical-grammatical meaning of Genesis 1-11.

Paul

 
Received on Fri Jun 9 20:20:09 2006