Re: [asa] Book TV on C-SPAN 2

But the original question had to do, if I remember correctly, what could be
taught in public schools. & in that setting it's certainly all right (& in
fact I would strongly encourage this) to tell students that some religions,
& some parts of the Christian religion, are OK with evolution, while some
aren't, & to say briefly why. But to state the matter in an ambiguous
fashion to young people who may know little or nothing about the teachings
of different religious traditions, in a setting in which positive evidence
is going to presented for evolution, is implicitly to favor religions with
which evolution is compatible. At the least it's misleading.

Of course students who have been taught at home & in church that evolution
is contrary to their faith will see a problem with such a claim. What's the
teacher to do if they voice their objections? The teacher should then come
clean & say, Yes, that's true, only some but not all Christians are willing
to accept evolution. But some teachers will just try to dismiss objections.
& in either case the effect will be to suggest that religious objection to
evolution is just a fringe phenomenon, not worthy of much discussion. We
might wish that were the case but it isn't.

In any case, why not come clean at the start? Do what I said at the
beginning - say that some see evolution as compatible with their faith &
some don't & describe, as briefly & objectively as possible, their reasons.

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

----- Original Message -----
From: "j burg" <hossradbourne@gmail.com>
To: "George Murphy" <gmurphy@raex.com>
Cc: "David Opderbeck" <dopderbeck@gmail.com>; "PvM" <pvm.pandas@gmail.com>;
"ASA list" <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2008 9:41 AM
Subject: Re: [asa] Book TV on C-SPAN 2

> On 2/27/08, George Murphy <gmurphy@raex.com> wrote:
>> I've resisted the temptation to get into this but now yield. The
>> statement
>> "evolution is compatible with religious faith" is ambiguous. If it means
>> "There is at least one member of the class of religious faiths with which
>> evolution is compatible" then it's true. & if it means "Evolution is
>> compatible with every religious faith" then it isn't."
>
> Yes, George. You are correct. But in some sense, every statement is
> ambiguous (including this one). The first meaning is the most
> charitable one to assume; that's what I was doing. I think that is the
> biblical position.
>
> jb
>
> Baseball spring training games begin TODAY! In honor of the event, I
> have written a series of baseball puzzle articles for the Rico Bugle.
> These can be seen at
>
> www.burgy.50megs.com/bb.htm
>
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Received on Thu Feb 28 10:55:28 2008