Posted on 12/27/2023 1:19:48 AM PST by spirited irish
The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion,1 which seeks to promote understanding of the natural sciences to Christian believers, has supported the publication of a new book aimed at children (7–14 years). Regrettably, God’s Cosmic Cookbook: Your complete guide to making a universe is directed towards the teaching of millions-of-years and evolution to children.2 A sizeable 192 pages, it has been written by Elizabeth Cole, with colourful cartoon illustrations by Patrick Laurent, while the Institute has “helped in every part of the process to ensure our science and theology are in line with current understandings and discoveries.”3
The marketing information tells us that the book “opens kids’ eyes to the latest scientific theories on the origins, history, and future of the universe…,” all relayed in the context of cooking a universe—yes, God is depicted as a chef with a beard! It is stated that it uses “gentle humour and fun illustrations” and “confidently combines faith and science” through the cartoon character of ‘God-the-chef’. For many Christians, such cartoon depictions of God are over-familiar, and risk diminishing Him in the minds of children.4
(Excerpt) Read more at patriotandliberty.com ...
ping
It makes you want a “Moon Pie!”
I’ve read Genesis 1 alot and don’t remember the part about millions of years. Guess I overlooked it.
Nor do I recall that part. But then we aren't spiritually enlightened esotericists who see what we ignorant esotericists do not see. This is why silly, ignorant Christians have constantly misinterpreted the Word of God.
Theistic evolution, formally speaking, doesn't even exist (in the same way that four-sided triangles do not exist). Let me explain: Theistic evolution consists of two essential components - (1) belief in an almighty God, and (2) belief in evolution as the source of the biological wonder we see around us.
I googled "characteristics of God" and the top 10 results confirmed my expectation that the attributes of omniscience and omnipotence are universally understood to be attributes of God. (If ones denies this, one is essentially believing in a very powerful space alien or supernatural being like Q from Star Trek, but this is infinitely less than the God of monotheism).
On the other hand, evolution is distinguished from creation/design as being a process of chance alterations occuring and being selected by natural processes. The only alternative to chance is design (which would make it a creationary process by definition). (Some folks would throw in natural law as a 3rd option, but this is fundamentally in error - it is a component of both creationary and evolutionary processes, but not a sufficient cause in itself without either the role of chance or a designer. You can't get away from those.)
Now consider the concept of "chance". When we roll a die and say the result is the product of chance, we don't mean there is a law or mysterious force of chance guiding the die. We simply mean we are ignorant of the precise mix of initial causes that leads to the observed result. In principle we could measure those causes (the exact position and motion of the die and any surfaces it comes into contact with, the role of gravity and so on) and successfully predict the result.
The important point here is that chance only exists for the ignorant. "Chance" does not exist for an omniscient being. He could not help but be aware of any possible mutation, and have the capacity to either enable or prevent it. There is no dodging this with omniscience and omnipotence. One can say that He set up everything perfectly to unfold in an evolutionary manner (clockmaker deism style) - but in this case the idea of chance is all a facade, and it is all designed down to the nth degree. It is 100% creationary at the root and not at all what naturalistic scientists have in mind when thinking of evolution.
This forces the would-be theistic evolutionist to adapt in one of two ways: Either to deny their idea of God the attribute of omniscience, demoting him from Deity. Or accepting that their evolutionary process is a facade, and they are really micro-creationists, believing God is aware and managing every tiny detail of an illusory "evolutionary" process.
Ironic that a position held by most of the self-described "smart set" in theistic circles turns out to be formally invalid.
Your statement is erudite and proceeds from the rules of logic (which are racist, btw). Admirable.
I follow your erudition with a bumper sticker about evolution in general and theistic evolution in particular:
"Given time, rocks can turn into people."
Pardon the irrevent cartoon, but that’s just like what this “textbook” implies.
So many sociopaths are obsessed with indoctrination of children. They know they can’t kill God but they keep trying by going after innocent children. The book also shows these people worship “science” for their religion.
bears repeating from another thread...
what is empirically verifiable about evolution, an energy that from ancient times has been known as serpent power? Has anyone ever seen this energy? No. Has anyone ever witnessed a bird changing (evolving) into a dinosaur or an ape into a human? No.
Babylonians, Egyptians, Hindus, and Buddhists, for instance, all know about evolution, that it is the energy that transforms (changes) a form which then reincarnates.
It isn’t the people of faith who have to cut this nonsense out but the people who have accepted by faith that evolution is empirical science when it is an ancient anti-creation origin account revamped and revised for this time.
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