Greg: "Am I closed minded to all of these? You betcha."
Readers, I posted my integrity challenge because I knew Greg and his ilk are not intellectually honest enough to consider both sides of the burning questions of our day. I was confident that they would find any excuse not to watch videos of the man who, more than anyone, can be considered the spokesman for the teaching of evolution in our public schools. It was this closed-minded attitude that drove me away from the evangelical church of my youth in search of honest truth seekers. I had doubts about apparent biblical errors and contradictions and sought help for these issues which arose after long periods of fasting and prayer. I was a devout young Christian who attended church 3 times a week and actively witnessed to my faith and my life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ.
Greg: "Evolution and the Bible (which doesn't even teach Theistic Evolution) are diametrically opposed. They don't mix, and both suffer when people try to force them together. The serious student of both must come to a choice. I choose to believe God."
I was desperate to love God with all my mind as well as all my heart, as the Bible requires. This meant that I couldn't just make an insipid choice to embrace a literal interpretation of Genesis. I asked those to whom I witnessed to be honest and consider the possibility that they were wrong; so I realized that I needed to do the same. Then Gord Edmonds, a kind lay leader, sympathized with my quest and made this honest confession: "You don't have to be stupid to be a Christian, Don, but sometimes I think it surely helps." What I wanted most of all was to be an honest evangelical apologist to help me become a more effective witness to young seekers like myself. In college I found intelligent agnostic friends who breathed the fresh air of honest and open inquiry. They somehow struck me as more human than closed-minded evangelicals.
I hope some of you will watch Ken Miller's videos. He is a devout Catholic, celebrated author of school textbooks on evolution and, in my view, a more compelling speaker than most preachers I have heard. If you watch his videos, you have the chance to escape the charge that you read only evangelical propaganda, authors who support you bias, to create a strawman that gives you a rationalization for failing to love God with all you mind, as well as your heart.