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

George, does it not boil down always to the question of how God
interacts with His creation, which is the apex of all
theological/philosophical questions?

Moorad

________________________________

From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On
Behalf Of George Murphy
Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 3:23 PM
To: David Opderbeck; John Walley
Cc: _American Sci Affil
Subject: Re: [asa] E.O. Wilson "Baptist No More"

Of course it's not just "Church: bad; Wilson: innocent." But our
concern should not just be to absolve the church from blame. Churches
in general haven't done a very good job over the past few centuries of
dealing with issues raised by science and technology - especially
biological evolution. Even "liberal" churches in which most clergy have
no problem with evolution usually haven't said anything about these
issues unless people ask explicit questions about them. & people often
don't ask pastors &c the questions they have because they're afraid of
the response they'll get. & the reason clergy don't have any problems
with evolution is often because they don't really understand it & don't
take the trouble to learn.

Churches - & clergy in particular - need to be pro-active about these
matters, bringing them up in appropriate & sensitive ways in educational
settings & sermons. They need to create an atmosphere which conveys an
openness to issues raised by science & technology & which encourages
people to voice the questions & concerns that they have. Clergy &
others involved in Christian education can't be & needn't be expert in
all scientific areas (who can?), but should be interested in them & have
some tentative ways of dealing with the major theological issues which
are involved. There's nothing wrong with responding to a question with
"I don't know but I'll try to find out" or "I'll try to see where you
can get an answer."

Shalom
George
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/

        ----- Original Message -----

        From: David Opderbeck <mailto:dopderbeck@gmail.com>

        To: John Walley <mailto:john_walley@yahoo.com>

        Cc: _American Sci Affil <mailto:asa@calvin.edu>

        Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 1:25 PM

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

        I suppose the point here is that the Church was at fault for not
giving Wilson other options. Perhaps there is a fair point there given
the particulars of Wilson's upbringing. But what if Wilson's response
had been to continually ask God to help him better understand the truth.
Would Wilson then have found organizations like the ASA that existed at
the time? Would he have found friends and mentors to help him work
through the questions everyone faces when they grow out of a childish
fundamentalism into a more mature faith? Would he have felt freer to
question some aspects of "evolution" as a metanarrative while at the
same time broadening his understanding of theology and scripture? In
short, do we really have to buy hook, line and sinker the story:
"Church: bad; Wilson: innocent?"
        ..................

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Received on Tue Nov 27 15:46:30 2007