Suppose a Time Machine...

[Singing Bush]

Hypothetically and ridiculously speaking... suppose one day we created a one use time machine. And since we all know all atheistic scientists are in cahoots (sp?) w/ each other , they immediately decide they're gonna use the machine's one use policy to determine whether the theory of common descent is really true or not. Whammo bammo, they travel through time a while and find out that it was.

Now knowing, beyond a doubt, that evolution and the theory of common descent are true, would you guys alter your all's interpretations of Christianity and the Bible or abandon it all together?

This is a question for creationists by the way.

 

[versastyle]

No, most YEC's would not change their mind IMO. They would just claim that Satan directed the time machine to an alternative universe.

 

[horuhe00]

Hehe... somehow I can just picture a YEC spokesperson on CNN...

 

[Dracil]

Been there, done that. The answer, according to the poll, is... we're wasting our time with most of them.

http://www.christianforums.com/t85721

 

[Singing Bush]

Interesting poll... gracias. I'm surprised nary a single creationist has bothered to answer my wacky scenario. Do I stink or something?

 

[KleinerApfel]

Interesting poll... gracias. I'm surprised nary a single creationist has bothered to answer my wacky scenario. Do I stink or something?

OK, your post has managed to get me to post here when I have kept away for months due to low pain threshold! Well done!

Your scenario is, as you say, wacky, and since we YEC's have sometimes been accused of wackiness, it would only play into the hands of those accusations if we answered wacky questions!

I shall now melt quietly into the background for another 3 months...

Play nicely now,
God bless you all, Susana

 

[KleinerApfel]

Hey - if you're planning on making such a machine, I'd suggest you only need to go back as far as the first century and ask the Lord your questions!

(Oh dear, now I'm really sounding wacky. But you started it!)

Blessings, Susana

 

[TwinCrier]

Honestly after all the snarky comments that followed I doubt any YEC's will bother to answer. But, for the recoed, if I myself went back in time and saw great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandpappy ape-like man, I would indeed abandon Christianity and the bible.

 

[Singing Bush]

Honestly after all the snarky comments that followed I doubt any YEC's will bother to answer. But, for the recoed, if I myself went back in time and saw great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandpappy ape-like man, I would indeed abandon Christianity and the bible.

Alrighty. Thanks for the answer. I was just curious myself really. That wasn't too snarky was it?

 

[Remus]

a one use time machine. ... they travel through time a while and find out that it was.

One use? That wouldn't be very helpful since whoever went back in time wouldn't be able to make it back and tell us.

Sorry, just couldn't resist. Seriously though...

Now knowing, beyond a doubt, that evolution and the theory of common descent are true, would you guys alter your all's interpretations of Christianity and the Bible or abandon it all together?

I would have to abandon Christianity all together.

 

[Vance]

Honestly after all the snarky comments that followed I doubt any YEC's will bother to answer. But, for the recoed, if I myself went back in time and saw great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandpappy ape-like man, I would indeed abandon Christianity and the bible.

I really thought your faith in Christianity was stronger than your belief about origins. But I see this as the real danger, since those who are taught your same approach may eventually come to believe that their distant ancestor was an ape-like man (even without a time machine), and based on the belief they are raised in, they may also "anbandon Christianity and the Bible".

 

[Singing Bush]

One use? That wouldn't be very helpful since whoever went back in time wouldn't be able to make it back and tell us.

Sorry, just couldn't resist. Seriously though...

Argh. It's people like you...

Okay a new addendum to my story. After the initial attempt at time travel failed due to the research team being forever stuck in the past, amazing advances in technology allowed for the creation of a one use time machine w/ automatic return. Guinea pigs were summoned, and the exploration of man's past continued with the same result that should have happened had I thought out my story a little more the first time.

Thanks for your answer though.

 

[Vance]

I would have to abandon Christianity all together.

Again, this just floors me. I just can't believe you guys are letting your entire faith ride on a particular interpretation of Scripture regarding what even most YEC's here have insisted is not a salvation issue.

And this is what we TE's feel is so incredibly dangerous to Christianity. Christians are being raised with this mindset, that if evolution is actually true, then Christianity is just a big mistake, a false concept. So, if they ever come to accept that it is true, what will they do but do just as they have been taught to do, and abandon their Christian beliefs.

When presented with case after case of this very thing happening, a few YEC's here and on the other forum said, basically, "well, if they would abandon Christianity just because they accepted a scientific theory, then their faith must not have been very strong to begin with". How is this any different?

 

[United]

I would have to abandon Christianity all together.

Hi Remus,

I find this disturbing, but I appreciate your honesty. Do you realise that this decision would be based on one assumption - The creation periods mentioned in Genesis 1 can only refer to "days". If you are prepared to consider a different literal reading on this point, then I can explain evolution as a reasonable literal interpretation of Genesis. If you don't agree, please explain why not - I am happy to be proven wrong! It just worries me that you are betting too much on that one assumption.

 

[TwinCrier]

I really thought your faith in Christianity was stronger than your belief about origins. But I see this as the real danger, since those who are taught your same approach may eventually come to believe that their distant ancestor was an ape-like man (even without a time machine), and based on the belief they are raised in, they may also "anbandon Christianity and the Bible".

Yup. It's a shame people like me can't have as much faith in science as we do that silly bible thing. Poor me!

 

[herev]

I am truly saddened by what I have read on the last two pages of this forum. Nothing can separate me from the love of God--nothing. I wouldn't care if I found out that every single one of my origins biblical interpretations were wrong, IF I somehow discovered that they were wrong, God is still God, God is still on the throne, that guy to His right is still Jesus Christ the Lord, and I still have my faith in the grace He offers me. I'm utterly astounded and as I said, saddened.
I hadn't realized how far the issue had really ingrained creationists. Wow....nothing left to say....

 

[Gold Dragon]

For millenia, Christians and Jews believed that God uses disease and disaster to punish the wicked. When it was discovered and confirmed that there were naturalistic explanations for disease (ie virus/bacteria/recessive genes/genetic mutations) and disasters, did that invalidate the Bible and Christianity? Did that say that God doesn't use disease and disaster to punish the wicked?

If it is confirmed by a time machine that there are naturalistic explanations for our origins, does that mean that the Bible and Christianity are invalid and that God wasn't/isn't intimately involved in creation?

 

[Vance]

Twincrier, it is not your lack of faith in science that disturbs me, since we should not have "faith" in science, only conditionally accept those conclusions of science which are well-supported and convincing (which you do in almost every other area, I would bet). What disturbs me is that you (and others, I see), actually seem to found your entire faith in Christ in a very particular interpretation of Genesis leading to a particular view of origins. Or, at least, I should say that this interpretation is one of the cornerstones of your faith in Christ (since it is likely only one of a group of beliefs the loss of which would cause the edifice to crumble). It is my sincere belief that the interpretation of Genesis and a viewpoint on origins should only be a single brick in that edifice, one that could be removed and replaced with another without any damage whatsoever to the whole.

It is this making of YEC'ism a cornerstone of faith which some of us believe is so dangerous, not the belief itself.

It really is as if someone in 1600 saying that if they could fly into space and see firsthand that the earth revolves around the sun, they would have to abandon Christianity.

 

[Singing Bush]

Again, this just floors me.

Yeah I have to admit I was somewhat surprised by the answers as well, but then again I wasn't really sure what to expect...

 

[herev]

Gee, now what is that expression, cutting off your nose to spite your face? Seems applicaple somehow