an excellent posting at:
http://www.christianforums.com/t205...lution-for-claims-that-it-actually-makes.html
reminds me of what i've personally seen in 30 years of watching and intensive reading of the subjects inolved in the creation-evolution-design debate.
in the late 70's everyone was talking about the evidences for YECism in the _Genesis Flood_, by the early 80's all of them were scientifically refuted and no new book arose to take it's place. so in it's-creation science place arose this snipper method of YECist evangelism. where the idea is that all you need do is create doubt about scientific procedures. since there is doubt then there ought to be a discussion of alternatives.
lately, this has been modified to be a fairness ideal, after all who can deny fairness? but YECists seldom argue that fairness ought to extend any further then their creation alternatives, rarely pushing for native american or buddhist creation story equal time.
what interests me is that all this time it has never really been about science. i find rare that YECist who is genuinely interested in the science of the issues, is willing to take a developmental biology class and to actually see how, for instance, the HOX genes work. Interestingly enough it is seldom about theology or hermeneutics either. i rarely meet people interested enough in the issues to take a couple of years off and go to seminary, to get a good basic understanding of theology.
but what it is about is socio-political, a recognizable group-fundamentalist, which crosses denominational lines, which is seek political and social power through moblizing Christians on these issues the same way abortion does. effectively building reliable political voting blocs that they can use to join the political process, whether in national or in school board elections.
from the sunday school history class i taught i realized that this is an important element of the way the churches have interacted with the american political system for more than 200 years. this striving for protestant domination of the values-morality commanding heights of the society. its been there since the puritans framed the discussion as the city of the hill, to lincoln's 2nd Inaugural address where he said:
but the fact remains that the issues are not really scientific nor are they theologically, they are sociological and fundamentally political. YECism is fully scientifically refuted, it's only recourse is to a form of Decartes demon and claim it's opponents are deceived in their epistemological basis. YECism is marginalized in all the liberal mainline churches and holds power only in conservative mostly fundamentalist churches. even there FI and OEC are acceptable interpretations of Gen 1.
but it continues to make inroads in the political sphere. why?
what is also interesting is if it is a political movement then no amount of argument directed at the scientific or theological basis of YECism is important.
what is important to to research and understand why theology has become so intertwined with the political system in america and what are the theological justifications for it.
...
http://www.christianforums.com/t205...lution-for-claims-that-it-actually-makes.html
reminds me of what i've personally seen in 30 years of watching and intensive reading of the subjects inolved in the creation-evolution-design debate.
in the late 70's everyone was talking about the evidences for YECism in the _Genesis Flood_, by the early 80's all of them were scientifically refuted and no new book arose to take it's place. so in it's-creation science place arose this snipper method of YECist evangelism. where the idea is that all you need do is create doubt about scientific procedures. since there is doubt then there ought to be a discussion of alternatives.
lately, this has been modified to be a fairness ideal, after all who can deny fairness? but YECists seldom argue that fairness ought to extend any further then their creation alternatives, rarely pushing for native american or buddhist creation story equal time.
what interests me is that all this time it has never really been about science. i find rare that YECist who is genuinely interested in the science of the issues, is willing to take a developmental biology class and to actually see how, for instance, the HOX genes work. Interestingly enough it is seldom about theology or hermeneutics either. i rarely meet people interested enough in the issues to take a couple of years off and go to seminary, to get a good basic understanding of theology.
but what it is about is socio-political, a recognizable group-fundamentalist, which crosses denominational lines, which is seek political and social power through moblizing Christians on these issues the same way abortion does. effectively building reliable political voting blocs that they can use to join the political process, whether in national or in school board elections.
from the sunday school history class i taught i realized that this is an important element of the way the churches have interacted with the american political system for more than 200 years. this striving for protestant domination of the values-morality commanding heights of the society. its been there since the puritans framed the discussion as the city of the hill, to lincoln's 2nd Inaugural address where he said:
recognizing the primary importance in the Scriptures as the framework of the ethical debate about slavery.
but the fact remains that the issues are not really scientific nor are they theologically, they are sociological and fundamentally political. YECism is fully scientifically refuted, it's only recourse is to a form of Decartes demon and claim it's opponents are deceived in their epistemological basis. YECism is marginalized in all the liberal mainline churches and holds power only in conservative mostly fundamentalist churches. even there FI and OEC are acceptable interpretations of Gen 1.
but it continues to make inroads in the political sphere. why?
what is also interesting is if it is a political movement then no amount of argument directed at the scientific or theological basis of YECism is important.
what is important to to research and understand why theology has become so intertwined with the political system in america and what are the theological justifications for it.
...
