Re: [asa] Letter to thinking Christians (and other theists)

First, in terms of "spiritual tradition," there are different ones from
the Reformation period. But all agree that salvation is by faith. There
are the several confessions with varying emphases. The Lutheran Augsburg
Confession is like the ancient creeds, which do not present a doctrine of
scripture. But the Reformed, Anglican and Anabaptist confessions make a
specific case that scripture gives us the standard for faith and morals.
They do not mention science, history or geography. But then, neither does
II Timothy 3:16f. Regarding science, Calvin is clearly accommodationist.

Second, as to soul, one thing that should be clear is that, if it is real
and not merely a function, it is outside of the scope of scientific
investigation for it is nonphysical. But I do recall something that I
found in the "Nut file" when I was working at Moody Institute of Science.
There was a publication that claimed that, when a person died, all the
dials on the unspecified equipment in the room pegged. Seems to me I
heard of a claim that when somebody died on a scale, there was a small
weight loss. Anybody want to try to demonstrate that these are not nuts?
Dave

On Sun, 15 Apr 2007 20:40:11 EDT Dawsonzhu@aol.com writes:
Within Denyse O'Leary's screed,

What you need to ask is a much simpler
and entirely determinable question: Is this stuff compatible with your
spiritual tradition? If not, recognize the situation for what it is:
undermining from within

Hmmm, "spiritual tradition".... as in what, which
whose, where?

I don't think Calvin dwells much on what a soul is
does he? He usually seemed to have the good sense
to stay out of meddling in matters well outside his
understanding of law, scripture and theology. It seems
to me, we might do well to follow such examples.

At any rate, the one lesson we should understand by now is that
we don't know what the soul is and therefore, we are currently at
a loss on how to mesh it together with our scientific investigation
of the mind. Better that we learn to accept that we don't know how
to put it together, than to shout vociferously empty claims of such
knowledge and take the high and foolhardy road to thorough
destruction.

by Grace we proceed,
Wayne
     

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Received on Sun Apr 15 23:30:57 2007