Posted on 02/04/2014 2:11:25 PM PST by Zeneta
Bill Nye, The Science Guy, will debate Ken Ham, The Creationist Guy, tonight at the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. They will debate a question from the 1920's: "Is creation a viable model of origins in today’s modern scientific era?" Yes or no? This is a bad idea for everyone but the creationists.
Whatever his intention, Nye is sitting down as a representative of "evolution" against Ham, implying that there are two equal sides to a debate that has already been settled scientifically. By simply agreeing to participate, Nye is simultaneously elevating the proponents of Biblical creationism, while marginalizing his own position.
Ham is a young-Earth creationist. That means he believes the world is only seven thousand years old or so, because if you look at the Bible in the most literal way possible, that's the timeline. God literally created the world in seven, 24-hour days, and so on from there. In a post on CNN promoting the debate (CNN will moderate the event), Ham lamented that "Several hundred well-attended debates [on creationism vs. evolution] were held in the 1970s and 1980s, but they have largely dried up in recent decades." There is a reason those debates have dried up: Ham and his ilk have no factual ground to stand on.
(Excerpt) Read more at thewire.com ...
I’ll find it, if I browse far back (months) in my pings. I’ll try.
I’ll try to find the post I was referring to that started with the paper on the “6 days” written by the scientist. There will be a link somewhere back (months) in my pings, because I commented on it then. I’ll try to find it.
As we observe God’s creation with ever greater precision, we can see that he is very fond of randomness, physical law, and evolution.
The name of the book & author you’re thinking of is:
The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom by Gerald L. Schroeder.
I read the book over Christmas break. The author is a theistic evolutionist. He believes that God guided evolution. He presents some interesting math & interpretations based on Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.
However, squeezing billions of years into the 1st chapter of Genesis introduces major conflicts theologically. In particular with Adam & Eve’s sin. There was no recorded death until they sinned when God provided a garment of skin (Gen 3:21). Theistic evolution says that there’s millions of years of death leading up to Adam & Eve arrival.
I’ve got lots of other issues but I don’t have the time to lay it all out. Oh well...
“There was no recorded death”
are you referring to death of non-human animal life???
are you saying no animal like died on earth until after Adam sinned??
I have nothing against the young-earth stance -- but Mr. Ham missed a stellar opportunity with the question "what would convince you that you're wrong?"
He shouldn't have resorted to attacking the reliability of dating methods, he should have said: "If there were a way to prove that Jesus did not die and raise from the dead three days later, then everything I believe is garbage -- on the first day it says 'And there was evening and there was morning, the first day' -- but there was no sun nor Earth [dry land] to reference the sun that didn't exist... so even 6000 years isn't the lynchpin of my faith."
It would have been an honest reply that would put Christ in importance above the particular model he holds.
The biggest problem with Theistic evolution [as you describe] in a theological sense is that it renders null and void the special creation of man. If man evolved, then either the not-man he came from would have to have been in God's image [which recursively raises this problem] or man himself does not bear God's image; now, given that all the other creatures of the Earth are not made in God's image [it is only possible to murder man, due to being made in God's image, via the Noahic covenant] it stands to reason that any form of evolution applied to mankind denies that man carries God's image.
That is a pretty amazingly unqualified statement seeing that there is no way to know if it is true. Did Christ Himself tell you that Ken Ham's position is hurting His cause?
The age of the earth is not what wins souls for Christ it is the Fruits of the Spirit. Nameley love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
I personally don't know anyone who has come to Christ because of Old or Young earth arguments. It has more likely been a lack of being Christ Like that has "Hurt" the Chuch.
In the end I think it is the Holy Spirit that changes a person's heart not a debate.
Thank God that the Holy Spirit is alive and well and working great work still.
I personally don't know anyone who has come to Christ because of Old or Young earth arguments. It has more likely been a lack of being Christ Like that has "Hurt" the Church.
John 13:35 — By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
James 2:15-16 — If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?
(Pretty much all of First John.)
The age of the earth is not what wins souls for Christ it is the Fruits of the Spirit. Namely love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Yes. Yes and amen.
Amen to that!
I know for myself it was the Christ like nature of my friends that led me to Christ and I hope that others can say the same about me.
Matthew 25:34-36
Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
because He didnt say time periods, he said days
The people arguing against creationism always start name-calling and belittling the intelligence of creationists. Bill Nye did it, that Dawkins guy did it, and now you are doing it. I always thought it was out of frustration, but think that Bill Nye was doing it last night because it’s part of the Alinsky tactics to isolate and alienate by ridicule.
Most creationists believe the earth is between 6 and 15 thousand years old, because of what you have pointed out, there can be generations passed over in the way the Bible lists descendants.
In the end, no one can prove what happened because they weren’t there.
yep
And if a day is the rotation of the Earth WRT the sun, then what is a day before there is a sun or, strictly speaking, the Earth*?
Why would the first day close with "And there was evening and there was morning, the first day"?
* Gen 1:2 -- And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
I believe in God the creator. In fact, God being our creator is essential to him being God.
I just don't claim to know the intricate details of exactly how he did it, and am perfectly content to get my answers to such questions in the afterlife.
Will I be disappointed to learn then that God didn't quite do it “exactly” the way it's laid out in Genesis? nope, it won't affect my faith or love for God one iota.
I don't care if it took God 1 minute or 1 trillion years to create the universe, the gloriousness of his accomplishment can never be overstated.
I don’t think that is what the meaning of Genesis - as regards HUMAN mortality - is talking about.
Creationists would have claimed they won if nobody at all agreed to debate them. The real question is did the debate accomplish it’s true purpose - generate some funds for Ham’s financially strapped Creationism Museum?
if it is not a 24 hour period, like every other day is, then it’s meaning would be...meaningless
So, since the word YOM is the word used, and YOM is a 24 hour day...
Always trust the Bible, and doubt those who teach you to trust something else
not exactly...
Fountains of the Deep - the Flood of Noah; Earthquakes; 2 video series by Pastor Kevin Lea of Port Orchard Calvary Church in Port Orchard, OR [available on youtube videos] http://www.youtube.com/user/CalvaryChurchPO#p/c/11/XXQKSv5o_Po
Seeing as how you refuse to take the time to read.
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