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His view is that he sees no inherent conflict between Orthodox Christianity and biological evolution.would you mind sharing his view?
With all due respect, that would need to be elaborated upon. One could actually draw several conflicting possible conclusions from just that brief statement.His view is that he sees no inherent conflict between Orthodox Christianity and biological evolution.
The answer to the question I get from you is "Yes".A question like this is not one that I will dignify with a response on a forum for Orthodox Christians: "Is your faith in science as complete and deep as your faith in the Church?" There is only one answer for a good Orthodox Christian to give.
It is unfortunate that you're generally unable to access books. That hinders appreciation of this perspective.
To me, at any rate, the answer is astoundingly simple. I don't read Genesis to calculate the age of the Earth.
I don't take what it doesn't say. I take what it DOES say. Then I ask how this has been understood throughout history, what the fathers and Tradition have to say about it. Finally, I look at everything else in our Faith and see how it fits. "Wherefore as by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin..." Tradition is crystal clear on this. There is no "alternative interpretation". There was no death before sin, and there was after sin. Anything which suggests otherwise is poppycock and a lie, however sophisticated in appearance.
All of that supports special creation of man as an initially sinless being already having will and consciousness and knowing nothing of sin or death, and nothing supports the evolutionary view of man in a world full of death prior to the Fall. The Genesis account even goes out of its way to affirm that "the evening and the morning were the first day", etc, making it even harder to try to suggest allegorical or other literary devices for the meaning of day. The author bloody defines the word "day" right in the text, evidently, in the words of Foghorn Leghorn, "...for just such an emergency." It makes it really, really hard for me to get behind the allegorizers. Maybe there's something I don't know to account for time gaps. But there's nothing in Scripture to make claims for them.
oh look. an evolutionist chose to mock rather than engage. this is me surprised :O
Sorry, Kristos.
When an Orthodox Christian reports my post as "flaming", and my words are edited, I don't play anymore. I don't see unity of heart and mind here anymore. Sure, as long as we don't disagree we can get along, but we are in real trouble if we are appealing to non-Orthodox authority to resolve/suppress our differences. I'm not especially inclined to be here now.
Maybe that'll change at some point, but right now I don't feel too hopeful. In any event, I will not comment further under such circumstances.
God bless!
I didn't report anyone and I didn't edit anyone's words - so I'm not sure why you are addressing this to me as if I'm a culprit.
Anyway - it seems to me that much of the impasse boils down to hermeneutics - it is my contention that "scientization" of sacred scripture and the ECFs is an erroneous hermeneutic that leads directly to a host of modern errors, including YEC; (or if I was being more cynical, it's the other way around - an irrational belief in YEC leads to a scientific eisegesis of Genesis.) There is a circular logic to the whole thing that makes it difficult to discuss with those devoted to it.
The pinpointing of dates and timelines does an extreme dis-service to the text which should truly transcend our explanations because God created in the beginning - and no matter what science comes up with - God still has the upper hand because He was there first - in the beginning - before that, before time, before particles and energy, before oscillating vacuums, before everything because IN THE BEGINNING God created... Shall we reduce that to something comprehensible so that we can claim the earth is 6543 years + 6 days old? I find that, well, a bit unorthodox.
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