Re: [asa] Youth leaving churches because of old earth

I believe another component to the problem is the rigid, doctrinaire
approach of fundamentalism. The emphasis is to teach children what
to believe rather than how to think.

Most of us would probably agree with Ham that many children who grow
up in conservative church environments later leave the faith, and
that this is a growing problem. Where we differ with him is in our
analysis of the causes of and the solutions to the problem.

I suspect Ham wants to address the problem with more indoctrination,
which will only make it worse.

Kirk

On Aug 6, 2009, at 9:19 AM, Ted Davis wrote:

> I entirely agree that the real issue here isn't the YE part of the
> YEC position; it's a certain view of biblical authority. If
> someone is fully convinced that (a) the fundamental truth of
> biblical revelation is tied up with the YE position and (b) there
> is "no stopping point" on the slippery slope to atheism (either
> real atheism or a moral view that functions as a form of practical
> atheism), once a YE view is abandoned; if (as I say) someone
> believes these things, then it's understandable why Ham and others
> are so vociferous about this.
>
> IMO, the history of religion and science in the 20th century shows
> that one need not hold the YE view in order to be a fundamentalist
> (pace Ham). However, accepting biol evolution is another matter
> entirely: it's virtually impossible to remain a fundamentalist if
> you take that route. The highly important larger question, of
> course, is whether fundamentalism is the only genuinely Christian
> and genuinely biblical option. I think we know Ham's answer to
> that one.
>
> If I were a social scientist (in case anyone hasn't noticed, I'm
> nothing even approximating a social scientist), I'd want to know a
> lot more about this survey -- the design of the questionnaire, the
> sample set, the background beliefs of those who designed it and
> those who took it, etc -- before drawing the hard and fast
> conclusion that Ham draws. Of course, quite likely, he already
> "knew" the answer before it was carried out.
>
> Ted
>
>
>
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Received on Thu Aug 6 14:50:34 2009