Re: [asa] Wells and traditional Christianity

I totally agree with this post as it sums everything up

Michael
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ted Davis" <tdavis@messiah.edu>
To: <asa@calvin.edu>; <janmatch@earthlink.net>
Sent: Monday, August 28, 2006 6:12 PM
Subject: Re: [asa] Wells and traditional Christianity

>I have been off the ASA list for several weeks, since before the annual
> meeting. I intended to come back this week, and got moving on it when I
> received a copy of Janice's post, concerning Jack Haught, Ken Miller, and
> evolution/theism.
>
> I haven't been part of this thread, but having inferred a few things from
> what Janice sent I will add my two cents now.
>
> First, if Wells presents himself as a defender of traditional
> Christianity,
> that would be news. Anyone familiar with the facts knows that he is not a
> Christian, and that he joined the anti-evolution movement b/c of his
> particular religious commitment.
>
> Funny that Wells, like some other non-Christians (Dawkins would be another
> person in this category, though obviously for very different reasons than
> those that pertain to Wells), would be able to comment (apparently) on
> what
> a traditional Christian should/can believe, relative to evolution. I
> imagine he's had some help from his Christian friends in ID on this point.
>
>
> Many IDs just flat do not believe that traditional Christianity can be
> matched with evolution--esp with Darwinian evolution. Many evangelical
> theologians and many, perhaps most, ordinary evangelical Christians agree
> with that view.
>
> The important question here is, why? That is, specifically why do they
> see
> evolution and traditional Christian belief as incompatible? The answers,
> in
> my experience, are numerous and varied. I haven't time here to type them
> all in adequately and fairly--that is, giving readers an adequate
> understanding of the reasons without unfairly trivilizing or
> misrepresenting
> them.
>
> One almost invisible factor, however, is lack of discernment and
> historical
> knowledge. This particular factor is enhanced by many advocates of ID,
> who
> either do not understand the very important theological differences
> between/among various TEs, or else do not see them as the very important
> facts that they are. The IDs I speak of here are not the only people out
> there who lack this understanding/discernment and/or the will to
> communicate
> more accurately with their audiences; the same can be said of many others
> in
> other camps. But the IDs are so important here b/c of their following
> among
> evangelicals. Haught and Ken Miller are in quite different camps, as far
> I
> can tell. Haught and Collins are absolutely in quite different camps. If
> anyone lumps them together, then they do not have enough knowledge to
> comment on this issue helpfully.
>
> There is *tremendous* confusion about theology and science in our culture,
> and most of the conversation about ID, from either side, is not helping
> ordinary Christians sort this out.
>
> Ted
>
>
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Received on Mon Aug 28 15:46:13 2006