American Scientific Affiliation – bright guys living in fear?
| May 3, 2007 | Posted by O'Leary under Intelligent Design |
Recently, I received an e-mail from someone well known in the American Scientific Affiliation, an American organization of Christians in science, asking me to mute my criticism of its worse-than-useless policies in dealing with the current anti-religious materialist agenda. The note followed on the heels of “Public questions for Denyse O’Leary” (and eventually an “open letter to Bill Dembski and Denyse O’Leary”)
Incidentally, while I am here, anyone know what’s with the “Public” questions and “open” letter stuff?
Usage note for composers of public questions and open letters: Dearest muffintins, if you put something on theWorld Wide Web, it IS public and open. That’s what putting it on the Web means. So you don’t need to tell me or anybody else that it is public or open.
Well, anyhow, below follow some “public” answers. It is a longish post in which I say things like,
Message to American Association for the Advancement of Science: In a country where individuals have civil rights and the majority of people who work to pay your bills are professing Christians, it would be very unwise to be “inherently hostile” to the Christian faith. So we will assume, for now at least, that whatever happened was only a misunderstanding or a mistake.
About the American Scientific Affiliation: Is it possible that the ASA types are just bright guys living in fear? The whole sense I get from years of monitoring the ASA list is of a bunch of people who act as if they really think that materialism has won and they must live in the ruins, and hope materialists will behave respectfully toward them.
The trouble is, as I realized while researching The Spiritual Brain, materialism has lost. Lost big time. Materialists sense it and they are frantic. …
But first, a brief summary:
I have followed the “ASA list” with fascination for years, sometimes participating in its discussions. When I first realized in about 2001 that the intelligent design controversy would explode mid-decade, I assumed that ASA would be the sort of organization I could treat as a resource on what was happening! Well, I could not have been more right in the first forecast (explosion) – or more wrong in the second one (resource). But hey, we learn from our bad calls as well as from our good ones.
The reason I continued to study the ASA list in particular, while writing and researching By Design or by Chance? is that it seemed to typefy the failed response of Christians in academic science to materialism. I later came to know some of the list’s older history (how constitutional lawyer Phillip Johnson (the godfather of ID ) abandoned it long ago and drew closer to people who shared his own vision – that serious (not feel-good) accounting with the materialists is needed, for example).
Still later, I often found myself wondering on my coffee breaks while working on The Spiritual Brain: A neuroscientist’s case for the existence of the soul - why would Christians in academic science not be enraged by all the garbage that passes for informed comment on spirituality – and much of the worst garbage is directly traceable to the influence of Darwinism? “Evolutionary psychology” essentially attributes to either natural selection or the random workings of evolution (depending on your brand) what the world’s spiritual traditions see as contact with transcendent reality. One outcome has been to attract to the study of religion many people who are plainly unfitted to it, who posit weak and foolish ideas based in speculations about cave men, ideas vastly inferior even to their own predecessors’ efforts at a materialist account of religion. But that is a story for another day, and it is told in The Spiritual Brain.
More recently, the ASA list’s general silence on the atheistic materialists’ current anti-God campaign (using Darwinism) merited close focus.
A cute trick – but wearing a bit thin now?
Anyway, I started to talk about my questions, here, for example, and here.
I also started bugging people to explain to me, among other things, exactly why the ASA organization is so collectively confused as to even sponsor the”ASA list”. See, the list is essentially a cute trick whereby ASA’s name appears to endorse constant attacks on Christians in science who are sympathetic to intelligent design, whether or not they could be classified as theistic evolutionists like Mike Behe. A frequent contributor is Pim Van Meurs of the Darwinist Panda’s Thumb, announcing – for example – the good news that Richard Dawkins is not really inciting hateful bigotry.
(And Dawkins’ attacks on Christianity are all the ID guys’ fault anyway, remember? That would be news to Dawkins, of course, who is proud to have been anti-religious long before ID meant anything other than the photo card that guys under 19 have to forge if they hope to drink beer here in Ontario.)
So why are the ASA listas even discussing the question with van Meurs? Well, my guess is, the “ASA list” is a sort of Thumb for guys who probably (okay, maybe) go to church.
Sometimes, the whole thing takes a hilarious turn, as when one endearing ASA-lista gushes, about evolutionary psychologist David Sloan Wilson:
If you get a chance to hear David S. Wilson, I would recommend doing so. Though a nonbeliever, he is very respectful of religion, loves talking about it, and will ask questions that will make you think. He will also actually listen [I mean really listen] to what you say. I’m not a biologist, but my impression is that he has almost single-handedly made group selection a respectable topic again.
I do think that he imports values into his system that are not inherent in it, and thus some of his ideas could be mis-used. [...]
Misused? Oh my stars. Imagine that. Well, here’s what Wilson has to say in Darwin’s Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society:(University of Chicago Press, 2002):
Darwin’s Cathedral …people who stand outside of religion often regard its seemingly irrational nature as more interesting and important to explain than its communal nature. Rational thought is treated as the gold standard against which religious belief is found so wanting that it becomes well-nigh inexplicable. Evolution causes us to think about the subject in a completely different way. Adaptation becomes the gold standard against which rational thought must be measured alongside other modes of thought. In a single stroke, rational thought becomes necessary but not sufficient to explain the length and breadth of human mentality, and the so-called irrational features of religion can be studied respectfully as potential adaptations in their own right rather than as idiot relatives of rational thought. (pp.122-3).
Respectful of religion … because religious folk – the majority of Americans, for example – turn out not to be governed by the “idiot relatives of rational thought”?
And he actually listened to the people speaking to him. Now that’s respect.
Well, hadn’t he bloody well BETTER listen? Why should materialists deserve praise for behaving themselves in a civilized way in a public place? The supine posture so typical of the ASA list mentality (you materialists have the right to behave badly to those foolish people who doubt Darwinism, so we will praise you when you graciously don’t) is beautifully imaged in comments like these. (Note: I do not mean to single out individuals, but must quote specifics.)
Making it all about the young earth creationists
Anyway, Bill Dembski finally realized that I wouldn’t quit bugging him until I got some answers (hello, hello, yes Bill, it’s me again, oh I know, and do pardon me, but I really must update my book, and I was just wondering once again if you had given any more thought to ….) so he eventually got somewhere near the bottom of his in tray and dug out something which revealed that ASA had decided years ago to attack young earth creationists (who have very little social influence) rather than materialists (who are promoting an atheistic religion, aimed directly at young people, using public systems whenever possible). In other words, the ASA policy seems to be to divide the Christian community rather than address attacks by materialist atheists on Christians and other theists.
I call that selling out. In general, getting into a row with American fundamentalist denomination heads about the age of the earth makes about as much sense as getting into a row with Benedict XVI about the Catholic teaching on the perpetual virginity of Mary, Jesus’ mother. If you want to be regarded as not only wrong but just plain evil, aim right at whatever beliefs that the other guy in your own communion is especially sensitive about (Eve? Mary?), beliefs that generally pose no public threat.
So it turns out it’s not just the ASA list after all. The problem involves the larger organization. I don’t buy the excuse offered, that if Christians in science decide that a doctrine of their denomination about the age of the earth is not true they will “lose their faith.”
If they were serious Christians, they would simply change their denomination instead.
(However, I am hardly surprised to learn that many ex-fundamentalists drifted away from Christianity over Darwinian evolution. Darwinism is the creation story of atheism, so an obsession with promoting and defending it is probably diagnostic of much more general problems with Christianity, admitted or otherwise.)
How to use fundamentalism to defend Darwinism – now, that IS a neat trick!
Which reminds me: Another cute “ASA list” trick is to suddenly strike a fundamentalist pose and attack the ID guys because “the intelligent designer is not necessarily the Christian God.” Huh?
Here’s the deal: Are you a Christian? A theist? A believer in karma? A perennialist ? Then you can’t not accept intelligent design. (Even a non-materialist atheist should accept design, though many are too confused to do so.)
However, materialist atheists have a chokehold on science today, which is why design is supposed to be Public Enemy Number One in their view. I expect them to fight pretty hard to defend what they view as their property and theirs only (science), and it won’t be no beauty pageant. Any Christian in science whose response to the problem is to make trouble for other Christians in science is AWOL.
Civil rights for non-materialists?
Which reminds me: What about professionally qualified Christians in science who are YEC – for example, Marcus Ross, who recently received a PhD, amidst much anxiety? There is lots of disparagement of YECs on the ASA list, although Ross has written to me, pointing out that the quality of YEC work had become much more rigorous recently.
I don’t get YEC myself (it seems to me like an answer to a problem that shouldn’t exist), but I don’t have any special reason to doubt Ross’s word in the matter of rigor. I had observed that process at work while writing By Design or by Chance? It seems to me that a formal organization of Christians in science should not be sponsoring a list that so regularly attacks other Christians in science, whether YEC, ID, or structuralist like Sternberg. (The recent list attacks on Rick Sternberg made especially sobering reading. )
Anyway, I have good news. I am happy to report that ASA list types are much more sensitive when crap happens to them – even if there are no career implications whatever! One of the “ASA listas” was kvetching to me recently about the fact that some other listas had got themselves banned here at UD. I replied,
People do get banned at UD all the time, for saying things they would be praised for on the ASA list. I can’t and don’t speak for Bill on this point, but I get the impression he is a bit tired of the denigration routine that is standard fare among TEs. It is just possible that he sees the denigration as a cover for non-engagement with the key issues.
As in: “I would believe that the universe shows detectible evidence of intelligent design if only Dembski were not such a dork/didn’t have access to the moderator keys at UD/got rid of O’Leary and Springer and …”
Bill … suspects that most of the people who claim that they would be nice to him in that case wouldn’t ever admit to believing anything that puts them in direct conflict with the materialism that runs the academy today. In which case they are no use to him and never will be.
And if they’re upset, they’re upset. Just think, it’s still that free a country.
Just who ARE you running around with, anyway?
Just what ASA is doing right now became clear when someone posted to the ASA list the Executive Director’s Corner from the March newsletter, including the following:
In my last column I mentioned that several secular scientific organizations had contacted ASA for in-depth discussions on science/religion issues. One of them was the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The AAAS is the oldest and largest scientific organization.
[...]
The first meeting brought seven evangelicals to Washington, five of whom were ASA members. Alan and Connie [from AAAS] pointed out that the mission of the AAAS is to “advance science and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all people.” They felt AAAS may not have done all it could have for the benefit of evangelicals, a rather large segment of the population. They sought to understand the evangelical community better and to determine how they could help meet its needs.
Huh? Well, how about they start by stopping the anti-ID campaign? At least one ASA honcho likes to assure me that far more ASA members are sympathetic to intelligent design than the “ASA list” would seem to suggest. Well, this is his (and their) chance to prove it. Is ASA even raising the question of whether the AAAS’s anti-ID pages are a bad idea? Or is it merely selling its ID sympathizer members out?
Then the Corner reassures us:
One message that the AAAS wishes to convey to evangelicals is that mainstream science is not inherently hostile to Christian faith. The vocal minority, like Dawkins and Harris, who advocate the abolition of religion under the guise of science, does not represent the thinking of most secular scientists, they assured us. The majority of scientists respect and honor the moral values that religion provides, even if they may not concur in theological details.
Wow! I love it! “Not inherently hostile to the Christian faith.”
This is right up there with deep gratitude that D.S. Wilson knows how to behave like a gentleman at a public meeting. (Am I supposed to fall and kiss the ground before the materialists at this point, or will three deep curtsies suffice for now?)
Message to AAAS: In a country where individuals have civil rights and the majority of people who work to pay your bills are professing Christians, it would be very unwise to be “inherently hostile” to the Christian faith. So we will assume, for now at least, that whatever happened was only a misunderstanding or a mistake.
I love the part about “may not concur in the theological details.” Presumably the Corner means to reference the fact that the vast majority of elite scientists today are materialist atheists and they have a heavy investment in keeping their club exclusive. In fact, that is the precise reason that being anti-ID is so important to them. No other philosophical orientation in the world requires that.
It IS time we talked about all this, yes, but I somehow doubt that that’s what AAAS sees as the problem. In fact, the AAAS agenda is pretty transparent: Be nice to the ASA, and get a reputation for being tolerant while giving up nothing whatever of substance.
Come to think of it, if the AAAS types are serious, can’t they prove it by denouncing Dawkins’ and Harris’s anti-God campaign instead of ID? Maybe they have and I didn’t notice. On the other hand, from what I can see, the ASA types are probably well enough rewarded if they are merely treated politely. We all know that evangelicals in general are poor, undereducated, and easily led. Right?
The culture of the ASA list is pervasive. One ASA-lista, looking for homeschooling texts to recommend, suggested NCSE as a source – a key Darwin lobby organization. Yes! As if people homeschool in order to have their kids fed a materialist/dying liberal church line (you know, “the Pope ‘accepts’ evolution” and all that rot, even as the controversy over materialism and its creatin story (Darwinism) goes worldwide).
Yes, worldwide. And the ID guys did that. I want my next book tob e about how t hey did it, exactly.
From what I can see, ASA is still AWOL, and proud of it. There is certainly no prophetic voice there.
Is it possible that the ASA types are just bright guys living in fear? The whole sense I get from years of monitoring the ASA list is of a bunch of people who act as if they really think that materialism has won and they must live in the ruins, and hope materialists will behave respectfully toward them.
The trouble is, as I realized while researching The Spiritual Brain, materialism has lost. Lost big time. Materialists know it and they are frantic. Materialism’s most basic agendas (people are just clever apes, computers can really feel and think, the mind and free will are an illusion, Darwin explained everything – are not confirmed). Materialism is currently supported principally by persecution campaigns. Materialists maintain their chokehold in part because of groups like ASA do not challenge the basic materialist agenda. Indeed, they act so pleased to just be noticed.
So, no, no, no! I won’t keep quiet about this. I know a scandal when I see one. And so yes, I accuse ASA of being AWOL from the central conflict in the science of our age – between the materialists and just about everyone else who has a stake in science enterprises.
My personal recommendations for ASA:
1. Develop an office to address the problem of Christians/theists in science who are subjected to materialist persecution, whether on design issues, bioethics issues, climate issues or others that will undoubtedly arise – especially any cases where irregular methods have been employed to get rid of evidence-based dissent. Continued silence in these situations is shameful.
2. Cease the campaign against the young earth creationists. To the extent that YEC is a doctrinal position, just don’t get involved. If YEC scientists are subjected to persecution based solely on supposition about their point of view and not on failure to perform work to standard, defend them as one would defend any Christian subjected to persecution.
3. Check out of campaigns against the intelligent design guys, whether of the old earth creationist or theistic evolutionist variety. (Campaigners, you’re not fooling anybody. The materialists whose good opinion you want probably despise you way more than I do.)
4. Pull out of any discussions with AAAS while that organization attacks intelligent design as a concept and – on your way out – ask them to denounce Dawkins instead and get back to you when they have.
5. Recognize that, as ID and non-materialism become worldwide forces, fewer and fewer people are fooled by materialist protestations of tolerance for Christianity, accompanied by attacks on something as fundamentally obvious to any theist/perennialist as the intelligent design of the universe.
6. Change the name of the “ASA list”, take it private, or shut it down.
The honchos at ASA would be best off to do this stuff before more people get wind of what’s been going on in recent years. After all, not everybody reads Uncommon Descent … yet.
46 Responses to American Scientific Affiliation – bright guys living in fear?
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Jerry, and MatthewTan, I agree with you, father Jaki’s pamphlet, or his view of ID, seems to have misnomers which I also find baffling. However, having read many of his books, and actually learning a lot about science, I don’t want to simply dismiss him as ignorant about ID. Although I don’t buy everything he writes as “Scriptural truth”. And perhaps he is a bit prejudiced against ID, or perhaps he is still confusing it with YEC or literal creationism.
Nevertheless, Jaki is perhaps the most respected living Catholic scientist, historian of science, and philosopher of science, and many Catholics take all that he says or writes as absolutely true. That is why it might be a good idea for the ID movement, and for the defenders of ID, to engage him in an open debate. (While they still can, Jaki is quite old, and once he dies, his opinions will acquire a mythical status, and there won’t be anybody else of his stature to fill his shoes.)
Let’s see what his objections really are, and whether they are valid.
Just a guess, “special creation” means a different thing to different people, and the term has a long history, so perhaps some clarification is in order.
see for example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_creation
Janice, I am sure many of us ordinary Christian will envy you your conversion experience, since most of us haven’t had anything like that. Having a powerful experience like yours makes it easier to immediately grasp what most of us have to struggle with, so please be patient with us. The problem the “non-fundamentalists” find (and I don’t mean it disrespectfully), is that they just don’t buy your belief that YEC is fully theologically or scientifically sound. Philosophy and theology can be objectively evaluated and if you want to argue with them, you have to argue on these terms. Perhaps the educated have a tendency to be more proud, but pride is a universal sin, so it wouldn’t hurt if all of us learned how to be more humble. After all, even the knowledge of the most educated and most wise isn’t wiser than God’s “foolishness.” Philosophically, the problem of fundamentalists, if I may categorize YEC as such, is that they are not fundamental enough in their theology.
rockyr,
I just bought a bunch of Jaki’s pamphlets on science and evolution and will see what he says.
He now lives in Princeton and he apparently still gives lectures on occasion so I will see if there is anything in the near future in the New York/New Jersey area where I live.
jerry, let me or let us know what you find, especially if you manage to engage Jaki in a debate about ID. BTW, where did you order these pamphlets from?
Jerry you wrote
ID does imply purpose. If something is intelligently designed then it was done so on purpose and for a purpose. The bacterial flagellum or the eye are good examples of this. If the flagellum was designed then it was done so on purpose for the purpose of giving the bacteria the ability to move in the way it can move. Similarly if the eye was designed it was done on purpose for the purpose of providing sight. Intelligent design is inherently purposefull. I am sure you know this so I assume that you meant to counter the claim that ID implies it can measure the epistemological purpose of the designer beyond the empirically verifiable specific function of a design. Of course what ID does not do is go into purpose beyond that which can be empirically deduced from a life form e.g. ID implies eyes are designed for the purpose of sight but does not address the reason for some people being born blind. ID does not go into the identity of the designer or what the purpose of the designer is beyond designing life forms.
I have Jaki’s Genesis 1 through the ages. To me it was a bit disappointing, it left out most of the stuff that interests me, but that’s to be expected for were I to write the book I’d probably leave out most of of what interests Jaki. One mustn’t be too hard on an old manâ€â€he’s spent a lifetime accommodating Darwinâ€â€not many can pull off an Anthony Flew at that point.
TE types keep being confused about IDâ€â€what is it they ask and ask again? Well, it’s not about the age of the cosmos, it’s not about common desent, it’s not about the supernatural (or whether there even is such a thing), and it’s not about the Bible. All ID says is that it is legitimate to ask in regard to biology (organisms, organs, proteins, processes, etc.): Is this designed? Materialists say NO! You can’t ask! And the TE types concur, all the while complicating and obfuscating things as best they can.
I tell people that I believe in evolution, that life has a history on this planet, that there has been progress (which is difficult to get materialists to admit these days). I’m agnostic on common descent and a whole lot of things that I’m not competent to judge. But I do know enough to know that Darwinism is the atheists explanation for the history of life, and that Darwinism predicts nothing, has no evidence going for it, and is a fraud from top to bottom.
That’s where this thing is headed. Sooner or later the timid types will sense this and then there will be a scrambling to get on board.
Of course anything can happen. There might be reversals, we might be entering a postmodernist Dark Age where the very institutions of learning disintegrate. Anything can happen. But we should hope for the best. Just look at history and see how over against the constant din of doomsday predictionsâ€â€and the terrible reverses of Naziism and Communismâ€â€that in the end “the good guys†triumph. Who are the good guys today? First and foremost they are in ID. Why do I say this? Because if there is no evidence for purpose or design in the cosmosâ€â€if the atheists are rightâ€â€THEN NOTHING MATTERS!!! So this is the first hurdle to hurdle, but coming fast and furious are othersâ€â€radical Islamic terrorism, for example, and the return of outright paganism.
As always the battle is waged militarily and via words, and the goal of those who wage it with words is to be clearâ€â€not muddle the waters with high sounding, unintelligible intelligence and nuanced puffs of pompous pandering to the powers that be.
Rude wrote:
I have to say that this is an excellent encapsulation of the core ideas of the debate!
The Scubaredneck
rockyr,
I’d be grateful if you would expand a bit on this please.
Philosophically, the problem of fundamentalists, if I may categorize YEC as such, is that they are not fundamental enough in their theology.
rockyr,
Try 1-888-808-2882. I believe this is the number. There is a different number on the internet but when I called that they gave me this number. I left a message and someone got back to me a day later.
To get a list of his publications just go to google and put in stanley jaki. Most of them are on religion but there are several on science so I expect these will be a mixture of religion and science.
Rude,
Stanley Jaki is certainly not like Anthony Flew in that he never was nor is an atheist. His quote said
“The shortcomings, often very serious, of Darwinian theory cannot be remedied with Intelligent Design theory”
so he recognizes the science of Darwinism has problems. I will see what his pamphlets say on the issue.
My experience is that if you listen to everyone here you would think there is no evidence for a naturalistic form of evolution when there is plenty of circumstantial evidence that supports it.
Mentok, Jerry
Is Fr. Jaki talking about higher-order purpose of God in the metaphysical sense, or is he talking about functions of designed objects?
Metaphysical purpose indeed cannot be measured.
On the other hand, engineering functions can be measured.
Flagellar motion – velocity, rounds per minute (rotation), distance travelled, etc.
Vision – just go to the spectacles shop.
So, Fr. Jaki must be talking about metaphysical purpose. But this is out-of-scope of ID.
Fr. Jaki:
Theology, exegesis and philosophy.
These are beyond ID, and beyond me.
http://www.ewtn.com/library/HUMANITY/EVOLUTN.TXT
EVOLUTION: A CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVE
by James B. Stenson
…
Catholic teachings*
It comes as a surprise to many Catholics to learn how little the church
teaches in this area–how few tenets are established as true beyond doubt,
and therefore how much latitude is left to Catholics for their personal
judgment. The Church has not been concerned with evolutionary questions
as such, but rather with their possible implications for Catholic belief.
The Church has maintained that the first three chapters of Genesis contain
historical truth. Their inspired author used a popular literary form of
his day to explain certain historical facts of Creation. These were named
specifically by the Pontifical Biblical Commission, with the approval of
Pope Pius X in 1909. The official document states that the literal
historical meaning of the first three chapters of Genesis could not be
doubted in regard to:
“the creation of all things by God at the beginning of time; the
special creation of man; the formation of the first woman from the
first man; the unity of the human race; the original happiness of our
first parents in the state of justice, integrity, and immortality; the
command given by God to man to test his obedience; the transgression of
the divine command at the instigation of the devil under the form of a
serpent; the degradation of our first parents from that primeval state
of innocence; and the promise of a future redeemer.”
Note that the Church says nothing definite about how, in specific detail,
God created the world and its various forms of life, or how long any of
this took. The only “special creation” mentioned is that of man, who is
unique in having a spiritual immortal soul. In the Church’s eyes, Genesis
deals with historical fact, not scientific process–with the *what* of
creation, not the *how*.
In 1950, Pope Pius XII addressed the question of man’s origins more
specifically in his encyclical *Humani Generis*. With a few terse
paragraphs, he set forth the Church’s position, which we may summarize as
follows: 1. The question of the origin of man’s *body* from pre-
existing and living matter is a legitimate matter of inquiry for
natural science. Catholics are free to form their own opinions, but
they should do so cautiously; they should not confuse fact with
conjecture, and they should respect the Church’s right to define matters
touching on Revelation. 2. Catholics must believe, however, that the
human *soul* was created immediately by God. Since the soul is a
spiritual substance it is not brought into being through transformation
of matter, but directly by God, whence the special uniqueness of each
person. 3. All men have descended from an individual, Adam, who has
transmitted original sin to all mankind. Catholics may not, therefore,
believe in “polygenism,” the scientific hypothesis that mankind
descended from a group of original humans.
So, from the Catholic point of view, the scientific questions of evolution
are largely left open to debate. Evolutionary hypotheses which attempt to
explain the development of living things may be accepted except where they
conflict with these few explicit truths.
…
[James B. Stenson, Headmaster of Northridge Preparatory School in Des
Plaines, Illinois, is a specialist in the history of evolution science.]
Catholic Position Papers
Series A — Number 116
March, 1984 — Japan Edition
Janice, philosophy and logic is, or ought to be, at the very root or base or foundation of everything we do, including reasoning. That is what the word “fundamentum” means in Latin. If there is a disagreement, one needs to look at what exactly this disagreement is about. That is why the Scholastics, or the “logicians” of the Middle Ages went to a lot of trouble about “splitting hair”, or finding the root causes of disagreement. Historically, this problem is also at the root of Protestantism and that is why we today have up to 10,000 Christian denominations and sects. Take any theological issue – So who is ultimately correct? In this sense I think the Catholic theology is the most fundamental, the most rationaal, and that is, the most correct.
Arguably, theology is the queen of “sciences”, it is important because it defines what we believe and why we believe it. Differences in theology are thus what divides us all. (In the widest sense an atheist has a theology too, even if very primitive.) I have a great respect for any honest religious person, I am glad whenever a person believes in God but in real life the problems is when the different theologies start clashing. And since theology is or ought to be “logical” (Theo-logos, or science about God), as people conforming to the same logic & rationality, we should be able to split the hair until we can find the problem of our misunderstanding.
More about “fundamentalism” and “literal creationism” see my post 30 here:
http://www.uncommondescent.com.....evolution/
Thank you for that rockyr. I appreciate your willingness to take the time to respond to my request.
In relation to YEC the disagreement most people have is that, as far as they can see, the evidence suggests that the earth is very old. They have that view because it is the authoritative view – the one professors at major universities have, the one that gets taught in universities and in schools and the one that is repeated ad nauseum in the mainstream media.
All Galileo needed to satisfy the church was evidence that his position was correct. He didn’t have it. So he lost out to the Aristotelians whose view (via Aquinas) was the authoritative one.
These days evidence that the authoritative view about the age of the earth is wrong need not be considered by university authorities. They have no obligation to defend their views to any Pope or other ecclesiastical leader. They can choose for themselves before which altar they will bow and what they choose is not to consider any evidence that goes against what they have already chosen to believe. It’s a whole different ball game in which those in authority refuse to “look at what exactly this disagreement is about” and cannot be compelled to do so.
I think the Pope is working with what he has. He is being “as wise as a serpent and as gentle as a dove” within the tradition he has inherited and I respect his efforts. Indeed, I’m glad for those efforts. But what is more important to me personally is to believe God. I know of no good reason (and I have been following the arguments for nearly 30 years) why I shouldn’t believe that God began his creative work about 6,000 years ago as the Biblical record implies he did. I’m not dogmatic about that. Maybe it was about 10,000 years ago. But 4.5 billion years ago, on this earth? That just doesn’t compute. And I don’t care who the authority is who says so. I’d rather believe God. He is, after all, the ultimate authority.
Janice, Why is it such big deal for the YEC Christian to insist on the Young Earth?
Replying to: “I know of no good reason (and I have been following the arguments for nearly 30 years) why I shouldn’t believe that God began his creative work about 6,000 years ago as the Biblical record implies he did. I’m not dogmatic about that. Maybe it was about 10,000 years ago. But 4.5 billion years ago, on this earth? That just doesn’t compute. And I don’t care who the authority is who says so. I’d rather believe God. He is, after all, the ultimate authority.”
If you are not dogmatic about +/- 4000 years, why are you also not open to a wider range, let’s say +/- 40,000 years? And by extension, why not 4.5 billion years? What difference does it really make? God, being outside time, as any decent theology must acknowledge, could speed up or slow down any natural processes, or our perception of them.
Also, you say “I’d rather believe God”, and I assuming you mean the word of the Scriptures. BUT, and this is where the YEC problem lies, to a Christian the Bible is an inspired word of word, for sure, although it really depends on how you or your pastors or your scholars “interpret” the words in YOUR Bible. I hope you know the history of the Bible, that Genesis was transmitted for a long time only orally before it was written down by Jews, that many of these written Jewish scrolls disappeared even shortly after the death of Jesus, that St. Jerome, the “father” of the Christian Bible went to live in the cave in Jerusalem in the 4th century so that he could hunt down the available manuscripts, that he had to learn the language, etc. The bottom line is that what was originally revealed to the author (or authors) of Genesis, may not be exactly what we have today – the language was different then, the words, their meaning, the cultural context, changes and errors due to oral transmission, translations into a different language, etc. Today we have many modern translations of the Bible and they differ significantly – so which one is correct?
One example — Do you “literally” (or for real) believe that Jonah was swallowed by a “whale”? If you do, you are mistaken — a whale cannot physically swallow a human being, not to mention to regurgitate him, so the word “whale” most likely meant something different. Better translations use something like “a great sea monster”, but that’s quite different from a whale, and implies all sorts of other thing in the interpretation. You can always say, ah but God could have made a miracle in Jonah’s case. But what if, in fact it wasn’t a whale at all? By such arguments you could justify anything false! In the link I provided, if you cared to read it, that is what the Catholics believe by good & valid “exegesis” of the Scriptures.