Posted on 06/25/2003 8:18:30 PM PDT by chance33_98
Putting belief aside: pragmatism versus the Bible
By Kelly Burke June 25 2003
"A necessary evil" is how Richard Edlin, a Christian educator and advocate of parent-controlled schools, views the Higher School Certificate examinations.
"The HSC is not a natural expression of the Christian curriculum of the school," says the former missionary and principal of the National Institute for Christian Education.
"But whether we like it or not, people marking the HSC exam, generally speaking, are not committed to a Christian view of intelligent design. They're committed to an evolutionary framework. We've got to prepare our kids to sit that exam because that is the world in which they live . . . So we help them to see that [evolution] is not a biblical perspective but 'Hey guys, if you want to get a good answer in the HSC that's what you've got to write'."
So does pragmatism override biblical truth? Mr Edlin shrugs.
"You can write an answer from a non-Christian point of view but that doesn't mean you have to believe it."
The prickly subject of creationism and its place in the Christian classroom is one to be broached with care.
At parent-controlled Christian schools such as Tyndale, in Sydney's south-west, the Bible is paramount and the ultimate reliable and authoritative source.
But this does not mean that the Bible is used as a scientific textbook, says the school's deputy principal, Bill Rusin.
"Reading the Bible is much more complex than that and there are a range of opinions.
"That God created the world - that man is not an accident - that is not under discussion.
"But how that happened is negotiable.
"The brighter kids will say, 'I'm not sure', others will say, 'This is what my parents believe so that's what I believe' . . . and we don't push anything further than that. We need to respect that."
Students at Tyndale learn from an early age that science cannot explain everything.
Despite the world's seeming randomness and chaos, God is in control, and each individual was made a particular way because that is the way he created them.
"We can make sure they have the tools, the knowledge, to seriously critique unbibilical perspectives," says Mr Edlin.
The issues of evolution, origins, and creation are not science anyway - they are the subject of philosophy. No one was there to witness the origin of the universe, and so far, no scientific experiment has been able to reproduce that origin, much less the origin of life. So the debate must be left to the philosophers, not the scientists.
A Young Earth Creationist
I am an Old Earth Creationist, and I am not sure why you are a Young Earth Creationist, because a Young Earth is incompatible with Creation.
Let me explain.
It has to do with relativity, and not the E=mc^2 kind. If a man that was reported to be 98 stood before you, would you call him old, young, or don't know? (clue:most would answer "old" because he is closer to death than to birth). Likewise, many Christians believe that we are living in the "Last Days" which would imply that the Earth is approaching its death, and is thus closer to its "death" than to its "birth". Furthermore, according to Scripture, of all creating things, the Earth is the oldest object in the Universe (Sun,moon and stars come four days later). Ergo, the earth is the oldest object in the universe and is by many people's estimation quickly approaching it's death, that, by definition would make it "old" not "young".
So how are you a "Young Earth Creationist"?
In the spirit in which i took your comments about an Old Earth, I believe that God created the universe with the appearance of age: trees and plants were fully grown, animals were created mature and prepared to reproduce after their kinds, and that Adam and then Eve were created adults, not infants...fully able to reproduce, think, converse (with each other and with God), and fully capable of undertaking the tasks God gave them - to reproduce (be fruitful and multiply) and fill the earth.
Implication: teach them to think; don't indoctrinate - with either model.
... unprecedented ---
Syllables: un-prec-e-dent-ed
Part of Speech adjective Pronunciation uhn preh sih dehn tihd
Definition 1. having no precedent; never before observed or experienced.
Related Words prodigious , original , phenomenal , novel , miraculous
I agree.
Let me explain my position.
We know that certain things are scientifically explainable and required millions of years to happen. Plate tectonics. Volcanos. Erosion. Grand Canyon. Sea shell on the tops of mountains. Metamorphic rocks. Coal, oil, diamonds, etc.
I see the history of the universe as like a 1000 page novel. God created the whole thing and started us at page 984. There is a history of everything that happened.
Back to the case of Adam and Eve. It takes people a year to "learn" the muscle movements required to walk. Several years to "learn" to use the lips and tongue to create words. (Try to make Japanese or Arabic words if you learned English. Some require great effort and learning.) God created Adam and Eve with this history of "learning" built in.
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