aspen said:
John thanks for the link. i will take a look at it as soon as i get some time. Vale, i totally agree that the general concepts are true, however i think that it leaves a lot of room for how God chose to create. I am not sold on the idea of evolution but as of now it offers the best explaination for the way creation developed imo - i could be wrong. As far as linking YEC with salvation, i have seen it often and so i tend to make this generalization. it is certainly not true in all cases (John for example), but museums are not built for fun within the culture of conservative evangelicalism - in my experience, there is one purpose, to get people saved. It also goes to heart of solo scriptura apologetics: 1. The Bible is the final authority therefore it must be interpreted literally in the most extreme cases (I have even read on this board that Jesus actually used only examples of people he knew in his parables - seriously). 2. The Creation account is part of scripture. 3. Therefore, people who 'pick and choose' which scriptures are literal and which are not are in fact rejecting the final authority within Christianity and threaten every truth within the Bible including salvation. School boards are afraid of evolution because it is a threat (in their minds) to the faith of their kids.
I know Steven Meyer - he was my philosophy professor. He did not help to start the Discovery Iinstitute on a whim or just to provide an alternative to evolution. He wanted to turn the clock back to a time (within western civ) when philosophy was the foundation of science and in essence 'right the ship' - in his mind, science became secularized because 8hristianity dropped the ball and if we could only pick it up again people would reject it because it is so obviously antichrist. Providing an alternative philosophy (ID) and calling it science is where we would be if his vision of Christian driven science would be without the corruption of secularization - and in his mind, it is where it should be. Unfortunately, our society would still be stuck in the pre-enlightenment era if his vision was reality. it come down the fundamentalist dream of going backwards in the search for a purer time - he just substitutes Christian philosophy for tent revivals
I can appreciate that you're on the fence about evolution. Many people try to find a middle ground, to be diplomatic. I'm of the opposite mindset, believing that friendship with the world is enmity with God (James 4:4) I see no reason to reconcile with evolution and find ways that it might be true and I also, as a critical thinker, can't ignore the large holes in the theory. My opposition to evolution goes way beyond the Bible and even science. I tend to dig in my heels when anyone tries to demand my belief, especially when those people are trying to disprove the existence of God. There's only one entity that can command what I believe or not and that's the holy Catholic Church, and in the holy Church, my trust is placed without reservation.
Concerning Protestants and particularly the YEC fundamentalists, I would caution against believing theories about how they think and believe over actually talking to them. It's the same with Mormons, many people speculating on what they believe based on their own evaluation of the BoM and the teachings of Joseph Smith. Actually talking to Mormons has been an enlightening experience to me because what the average LDS believes isn't even close to what's said about them.
And if there's anything that can sum up what Protestants believe about salvation, it's Ephesians 2:8,9. They balk at the notion that we are saved by works and they shun legalism with great and admirable prejudice. Though the Bible is the authority and sole rule of faith to all Protestants, there's grand variations on how they interpret it, particularly on eschatology, the question of how secure one's salvation is, how applicable the Law of Moses is, and, you guessed it, the creation account in Genesis, . But when you hear them talk, they don't tell each other they're going to hell because of their differing viewpoints, and I really don't think they believe such an absurd thing. If you don't believe me, just ask them. There's dozens of them right here on this board.
