Let me recommend another book that does a good job with just about all these
objections, without going quite so far as Ted might be willing concerning
the pre-Abrahamic narratives: David Snoke's "The Biblical Case for an Old
Earth." Snoke's book is particularly good for your home-schooled students,
because it is firm but not disrespectful concerning YEC views while not
giving up on any historical basis for the texts. (There is some ID emphasis
in the book but that is minor). Also, Walton's NIV Application Commentary
does a good job trying to contextualize the flood narrative. Again, huge
problems remain, but these are at least good efforts towards mediating
positions.
On 1/31/07, Freeman, Louise Margaret <lfreeman@mbc.edu> wrote:
>
> *My comments inserted and italicized below.
> *
> __
> Louise M. Freeman, PhD
> Psychology Dept
> Mary Baldwin College
> Staunton, VA 24401
> 540-887-7326
> FAX 540-887-7121
>
>
> T: Exactly. Anyone who pays attention to my posts here knows this is my
> view. For a great rejoinder from the early 19th century, check out Edward
> Hitchcock on my webpage. http://home.messiah.edu/~tdavis/texts.htm
>
> Several nerdy friends of mine (it takes one to know one) are planning a
> book on just this issue. I hope it comes to be.
>
> *I am rapidly approaching the point where I don't trust scholarship by
> non-nerds!*
>
> 3. No literal world-covering, most-life-wiping-out flood (
>
> The Dinosaurs in Africa thing is another hoot, generally, though we do
> know of course that some really old animals are out there, like coelocanth
> and crocodiles and some other stuff.
>
> *I thought it was a hoot until I heard a brilliant, homeschooled boy in my
> class say, in all seriousness, that his career goal is to go to Africa and
> find the critters so he can disprove evolution. (It's either that or a
> career on stage. I had to tell his mother that I thought the showbiz career
> was far less risky.)*
> *Pulling an occasional thought-to-be extinct, deep-sea fish up from the
> depths of the oceans is one thing, T rex tromping around Africa is another.
> Is this boy's faith going to crumble if he ever gets a half-way decent
> science education (he's been homeschooled with Hovind material) and realizes
> these things he's been taught are cannot possibly be true?*
>
> the relation between canonical and
> non-canonical literature -- is also likely to bother many YECs. It's
> extraordiniarly rare, IMO, for conservative churches to talk about this
> type
> of thing in a serious way. It's as though the decisions made about
> canonicity were given to the Pope on stone tablets.
>
> *Well, no, not to the Pope, he's Catholic :) but the Bible has been
> supernaturally protected throughout history and is therefore inerrant in the
> original manuscripts. (which we don't have... I guess that part of the
> protection ran out.*
> *Every summer we have theological fellowship discussions which spring from
> questions people submit to the pastor. Next year I'm going to ask if the
> miracle celebrated at Channakah is a historical event.*
>
> 5. No special creation of Adam from dust.
>
> The deepest, rock-bottom objection, I think. A bright student once told a
> colleague in one of our humanities departments, "I refuse to believe I'm
> nothing but pond scum."
>
> *My mom (a highschool AP biology teacher) once had a student ask to
> transfer out of her class because she "just couldn't believe we all came
> from cells." She wanted to take physics instead. Wonder what happened when
> she was taught there that we all come from atoms created by supernovae
> explosions.*
>
> I'm fine with my students all believing in special creation of
> humans (as most of them do, if not all), since it's a lot easier for them
> to
> see value in that, and value is more important than scientiifc truth in
> any
> case.
>
> *As you know, my school, although church-affiliated is not as explicitly
> Christian as yours. On one level, I have to be "fine" with students
> believing anything that is essential to their faith. On the other hand, if
> there is no scientific evidence that that belief is true, and indeed much
> evidence suggesting it is not, I'd be remiss in not teaching that truth.*
>
> Louise
>
>
>
-- David W. Opderbeck Web: http://www.davidopderbeck.com Blog: http://www.davidopderbeck.com/throughaglass.html MySpace (Music): http://www.myspace.com/davidbecke To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with "unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.Received on Wed Jan 31 12:21:15 2007
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