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

On Sun, 9 Aug 2009, John Walley wrote:

> First of all I would say that all pastors should be required to be educated
> about science. They should all be conversant and fluent about all the
> science faith issues that comprise the modern day ideological battlefield
> including age of the earth and evolution. They should be familiar with all
> the facts of science on both of these issues including dating methods and
> pseudogenes and have read all the popular authors on the subject like Ross,
> Collins, Miler, Falk, McGrath etc. I think all pastors should be as educated
> on these issues as the average member of this list who is just an avid truth
> seeker and not a professional minister excepting George and Michael and
> maybe a couple of others. We have come to accept stupidity and excuses from
> our church leadership and we are just ok with that. Well I for one am not.
> If I was in charge of a denomination they would all be fired. This is one of
> the most foundational issues of the faith and not only is it the modern
> spiritual weapon that the enemy is using to marginalize and criminalize
> Christianity, it also gets to the core issue of objective reality and how we
> know anything. Without a desire to have this understanding, to me
> Christianity is certainly impotent and almost meaningless. It is hard for me
> to accept the spiritual authority of any pastor who doesn't show at least an
> interest or a desire to press through to understand these issues. I can
> accept disagreement from those that are on the journey and trying to
> understand but not from those who just write it off and dismiss it out of
> hand, which are most from my experience.
>  

I think it is unrealistic to expect that all pastors are ever going to be
as knowledgeable about science as the average member of this list. It
would be a big improvement over the present situation if they simply knew
enough science to be able to discern which people are credible authorities
on which scientific subjects.

Gordon Brown (ASA member)

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Received on Sun Aug 9 21:12:40 2009