Re: "Hidden" Theological Issues with Theistic Evolution (was Re: [asa] E.O. Wilson "Baptist No More")

 You know, My wife used to be an atheist.  And I figured out that it wasn't God that she was fighting all her life. It was other men's pathetic diminishment of God that had her turned off.  She swore she would never feed that insanity a morsel of her life.  The problem as I see it, is that some people are not shown the glory of God as it sustains and enlightens the lives around them so much as they are shown the tortured distortions of God that fills their hearts with guilt, fear and damnation, which we all know exists at the margins of faith. 

After I asked her whether or not she felt that she herself was the greatest thing in the universe and questioned her closely about how she derived her sense of what is right and wrong, and what is good for a human to do and what is bad, she began to see what I was on about.  I don't think anyone in this list would call what she now holds in her heart as her spiritual compass the God of Abraham, but it's not atheism anymore, either. 

-Mike (Friend of ASA)

-----Original Message-----
From: John Walley <john_walley@yahoo.com>
To: 'D. F. Siemens, Jr.' <dfsiemensjr@juno.com>
Cc: dopderbeck@gmail.com; bernie.dehler@intel.com; asa@calvin.edu
Sent: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 7:47 am
Subject: RE: "Hidden" Theological Issues with Theistic Evolution (was Re: [asa] E.O. Wilson "Baptist No More")

Just like with Flew, ultimate conversion doesn’t
matter and it doesn’t matter that he was a pagan either.

The important point was that in spite of
either a theological or human reason based epistemic foundation, he had a
spiritual encounter and recognized it as being from a god, whether the
Christian God or not. This was my point all along.

Everybody but fools knows this and believes
in some God. The atheists are just deniers.

John

-----Original Message-----

From: D. F. Siemens, Jr.
[mailto:dfsiemensjr@juno.com]

Sent: Sunday, December 02, 2007
10:14 PM

To: john_walley@yahoo.com

Cc: dopderbeck@gmail.com;
bernie.dehler@intel.com; asa@calvin.edu

Subject: Re: "Hidden"
Theological Issues with Theistic Evolution (was Re: [asa] E.O. Wilson
"Baptist No More")

This interpretation is common, but the definite
articles are not in the Greek text in Matthew 27:54 and Mark
15:39. Therefore, a proper translation is "Surely this man was a son of a
god," the remark of a pagan. Luke 23:47 says that the centurion praised the
God, but records his statement: "Surely this was a righteous man." It
is difficult to establish that this language demonstrates conversion.

Dave (ASA)

On Sun, 2 Dec 2007 16:56:48 -0500 "John
Walley" <john_walley@yahoo.com>
writes:

David,

,snip>

The Centurion at the
cross is another good example. “Surely this man was the Son of God”
is another non-theology and non-reason based conversion simply because he
witnessed the forgiveness of Jesus to the thief on the cross with him and the
sky turning black after His death. There is no other way to describe this other
than spiritual instinct.

<snip>

Thanks

John

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Received on Mon Dec 3 10:42:09 2007