RE: [asa] E.O. Wilson "Baptist No More"

The environment plays a fundamental role in any evolutionary theory. We know that the sun will engulf the earth when the sun becomes a red giant. Perhaps, it is in this sense that we have to understand the eschatology in the Book of Revelation.

Moorad

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From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu on behalf of Jon Tandy
Sent: Tue 11/27/2007 12:04 PM
To: '_American Sci Affil'
Subject: RE: [asa] E.O. Wilson "Baptist No More"

I think this gets back to the long-standing discussion over whether evolution = "change over time" or something more specific. I don't think the process of history from Genesis to Revelation (though representing a change over time) could be classified as evolution in any but a vague sense, certainly not the biological sense that Wilson has in mind.
 
What I think is sad that as a Baptist, or even as a former Baptist, he thought (thinks) that biological evolution is "the most important revelation of all". This certainly might be true in a small sense for a person who makes his living as a biologist, but this is really the core of the dilemma. Wilson either never apprehended, or has summarily dismissed, the most important revelation of all time, certainly of all scripture, which is a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ.
 
It seems the height of arrogance to suggest that the most important issue for one 21st century biologist should have been the most important revelation for people throughout Biblical history, nay, for God himself to have made (or omitted making) as a key component of the narrative. When it comes down to it, this elevation of science and modern rationality as being more important than what God himself chose to reveal as the primarily important revelation, is truly idolatry. Dare I say it, after some weeks of discussion about Romans 1 on this list? Is this not changing God "into an image made like to corruptible man", by thinking that God should think the things important that we 21st century intellectuals think?
 
 
Jon Tandy
<http://www.arcom.com/>

        -----Original Message-----
        From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On Behalf Of Alexanian, Moorad
        Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 10:42 AM
        To: John Walley; _American Sci Affil
        Subject: RE: [asa] E.O. Wilson "Baptist No More"
        
        

        One cannot say that the Bible does not bring up the notion of an evolving universe. Surely, there is a beginning in Genesis and a clear end in the Book of Revelation. Thus, I do not know what Wilson means by "But most of all, Baptist theology made no provision for evolution. The biblical authors had missed the most important revelation of all!" Perhaps Scripture skipped over details but certainly, there is "evolution."

        Moorad

        
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        From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On Behalf Of John Walley
        Sent: Monday, November 26, 2007 11:01 PM
        To: '_American Sci Affil'
        Subject: [asa] E.O. Wilson "Baptist No More"

        Here is a relevant and chilling quote from E.O. Wilson from "Consilience".

        http://www.cnn.com/books/beginnings/9805/consilience/index.html

        On a far more modest scale, I found it a wonderful feeling not just to taste the unification metaphysics but also to be released from the confinement of fundamentalist religion. I had been raised a Southern Baptist, laid backward under the water on the sturdy arm of a pastor, been born again. I knew the healing power of redemption. Faith, hope, and charity were in my bones, and with millions of others I knew that my savior Jesus Christ would grant me eternal life. More pious than the average teenager, I read the Bible cover to cover, twice. But now at college, steroid-driven into moods of adolescent rebellion, I chose to doubt. I found it hard to accept that our deepest beliefs were set in stone by agricultural societies of the eastern Mediterranean more than two thousand years ago. I suffered cognitive dissonance between the cheerfully reported genocidal wars of these people and Christian civilization in 1940s Alabama. It seemed to me that the Book of Revelation might be b!
 lack magic hallucinated by an ancient primitive. And I thought, surely a loving personal God, if He is paying attention, will not abandon those who reject the literal interpretation of the biblical cosmology. It is only fair to award points for intellectual courage. Better damned with Plato and Bacon, Shelley said, than go to heaven with Paley and Malthus. But most of all, Baptist theology made no provision for evolution. The biblical authors had missed the most important revelation of all! Could it be that they were not really privy to the thoughts of God? Might the pastors of my childhood, good and loving men though they were, be mistaken? It was all too much, and freedom was ever so sweet. I drifted away from the church, not definitively agnostic or atheistic, just Baptist no more.

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Received on Tue Nov 27 13:01:27 2007