Re: [asa] Creation Care

On 1/26/07, Dawsonzhu@aol.com <Dawsonzhu@aol.com> wrote:
> Reason, wisdom, experience, common sense, faith, and revelation, in varying
> proportions as the circumstances dicate, is the basis on which we need to
> evaluate truth claims and make decisions. A recapture of the classicle
> virtue of phronesis and the Biblical virtue of wisdom is what we need. The
> last thing we need is to abrogate our duty to think for ourselves to some
> supposedly authoritative community. Most people are not as stupid as other
> people think they are.
>
> Since this is a matter that would become that of public policy, it is
> certainly
> something that needs to be explained clearly enough that most of the
> people with a high school education can understand what is being discussed
> at some reasonable level.
>
> On the other hand, if they don't want to listen, then what?
>
> Also, whereas it is part of the duty of a scientist/expert in
> a field to explain the concepts clearly, the tendency for the layman
> to expect some polished AV show in executive summary form is
> more than a small inconvenience for people devoted to doing their
> job as scientists. When you have only 5 minute to explain years
> of careful, detailed research, a polished straight to the point
> performance is more than a small Herculean accomplishment.

Thomas Acquinas classified thinking into three categories: rational,
irrational, and suprarational. In the third category he put faith.
Faith may be above reason but it doesn't operate against it. When
scientists have to explain over and over and over and over and over
and over and over and over and over that which is patently obvious and
well-supported by evidence it starts to wear on them. To add insult to
injury the scientists are then falsely accused of operating a cabal! I
am not at all surprised that our secular colleagues wrongly believe
that Christian faith is irrational because they see all the time that
Christians believe things not in absence of the evidence but in the
very teeth of it. Even that can be overlooked because we are all
ignorant about many things, but when the evidence is ignored and the
scientist is blamed for the lack of persuading the unpersuadable then
this bad stereotype of faith as baseless credulity gets reinforced.

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Received on Fri Jan 26 08:43:43 2007