Posted on 06/17/2014 6:17:41 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Whenever I engage in conversation with people I meet for the first time I try to avoid being asked the question, “What do you do for a living?” But if I am asked I say, “I am a minister.” Generally, the one who asks then inquires, “What denomination?” or “What kind of church?”
Here is where I always have to clarify, depending on the most recent news headline involving Christian leaders: “I am a Baptist minister, but I am not a science-denying Baptist minister who thinks that dinosaurs lived alongside humans a few thousand years ago.”
What a strange irony that a 30-foot-long fossil of an Allosaurus will be on display at the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., where museum founder, Ken Ham, recently debated science educator Bill Nye. Ken Ham and his colleagues think it defends the book of Genesis and supplies evidence of Noah’s flood. Good grief.
Unfortunately, this is real life, not a Charlie Brown cartoon. According to a recent survey by the Associated Press, 77 percent of people who claim to be born again or evangelical say they have little or no confidence that the universe began 13.8 billion years ago with a big bang. And 76 percent of evangelicals doubt that life on Earth, including human beings, evolved through a process of natural selection.
Educated evangelicals know better. According to Newsweek 99 percent of America’s earth and life scientists hold to some form of evolution. Darrel Falk, a biology professor at evangelical Point Loma Nazarene University, told Cathy Grossman of the Religion News Service, that many biblical (evangelical) scholars do not see a conflict between religion and science. He noted: “The story of the cosmos and the Big Bang of creation is not inconsistent with the message of Genesis 1.”
I suspect that many (if not most) educated evangelical biblical scholars who subscribe to some form of biblical inerrancy (and sign faith statements testifying to that fact) believe what professor Falk believes.
They know there are different kinds (genres) of biblical literature which call for different approaches other than a literal interpretation of the text. They know that the creation stories are parabolic in nature and are not chronicles of history or reports conveying scientific data. They know that these stories are spiritual, metaphorical and theological stories and, while not factual, they certainly teach truth about God and God’s relationship to the world.
They know Ken Ham’s claim that “no apparent, perceived, or claimed evidence in any field, including history and chronology, can be valid if it contradicts the Scriptural record” is utter foolishness.
Harvard theologian Harvey Cox tells about the time the student leader of Harvard’s atheist group on campus took one of his theology classes. This otherwise bright student wrote a very weak paper in which he sought to discredit the God of the Christian and Jewish faiths by attacking and dismantling a literal interpretation of the Genesis flood story. He thought that by proving the story could not have happened the way the story says it happened, he would thus disprove the reality of God.
Dr. Cox said to the student, “Don’t you know a story when you read one?”
Educated evangelicals know that the creation stories were never intended to be history lessons or science reports, because the Bible is not a history or science book.
Educated evangelicals also know:
• That evangelical Christians need not fear or deny the enormous amount of scientific data supporting evolution.
• That the story of evolution and the biblical story are not mutually exclusive.
• That a healthy faith welcomes and is informed by science.
So why do so many evangelicals deny evolution and believe in a literal interpretation of the creation stories in Genesis?
Apparently what educated evangelical professors know and believe is not getting down to the people in the pew.
Why aren’t educated evangelical pastors teaching their churches these things? Are they afraid of being shunned or looked down upon by their peers? Are they afraid to rock the evangelical boat? Are they afraid of facing conflict in their churches or losing their jobs? Are the professors actually teaching what they believe and know to their students?
Whatever the reasons, it’s time for evangelicals who know the truth to come out and proclaim the truth. If the truth sets us free, as Jesus said, then many of our evangelical sisters and brothers need to hear a liberating word from their pastors.
OPINION: Views expressed in ABPnews/Herald columns and commentaries are solely those of the authors.
Chuck Queen is pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Frankfort, Ky., and author of Being a Progressive Christian (is not) for Dummies (nor for know-it-alls): An Evolution of Faith.
Oh my ... thank you so much for sharing that, dear TXnMA!
FTFY
Interesting tale of analogy..
What if “the” raccoon(s) couldnt read, didn’t want to read or had nothing to read or all 3 of them..
or worse had dogma to read..
Limited to the (metaphorical)-Holy Spirit-(then) is “he” limited at all?.. OR maybe especially blessed.?.
Question; can the Holy Spirit work with out a bible?..
or can the bible be an impediment to you in some cases..
Evolution is science denying!
What a doofus. A minister in the church of great ignorance.
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God said how he did it more than 100 times in his word: Each reproduced after its own kind.
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>> “All secular humanists should take the pragmatic, logical step of accepting Jesus as their Savior.” <<
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They cannot.
Pragmatism means “the end justifies the means,” but for secular humanists their means will justify their end.
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>> “I suspect most are preaching from the Bible instead of discussing science.” <<
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Evolution has no connection whatsoever with genuine objective science. Evolution is all dogma.
>> “ I actually saw some of them when they were fresh.” <<
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Are you older than you look?
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>> “I have no intent of engaging this argument.” <<
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No means of doing so either!
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Shazam!
>> “It’s a theory.” <<
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Its a poorly concocted scam.
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Adam came along on the sixth day, measured by evenings and mornings.
>> “we should all stay out of it...” <<
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Speak for yourself.
Let more analytical minds prevail.
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The evidence for a young Earth is all that is there. (especially in geology, where no other explanation could possibly be offered for the tremendous number if deep soil landslides still occurring)
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Sure. Magic Jesus created everything! The Bible says it, I believe it and that settles it. The end. None of that fancy "science" stuff necessary.
Wasn't that easy?
>> “Some prominent creationist promoters of these tracks have long since withdrawn their support. Some of the allegedly human tracks may be artefacts of erosion of dinosaur tracks obscuring the claw marks. There is a need for properly documented research on the tracks before we would use them to argue the coexistence of humans and dinosaurs.” <<
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Ignorant claptrap.
Carl Baugh had a detailed compression analysis done over 30 years ago on the foot prints that conclusively proved them to be human prints. Only a deliberate deceiver would try to say otherwise.
Ah, on this I can only speak from my own experience. I was Born Again a tad over forty years ago. I can tell you that before the experience I found the Bible boring and oblique. BUT after being Born Again I had a mental hunger for the scriptures and even set to memorizing many passages, in the King James English! It is sortof akin to awakening in a new land where everyone spoke a language different from your native language and you just long to speak it too so you knew what everyone was saying.
>> “Why don`t they take this scripture literal?” <<
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we do take it literally; that is Peter’s prophecy that the Earth would be here seven 1000 year days, from creation to the end.
Many of the dinos are still here.
>> “Did Christ write it?” <<
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In a sense he did. He did the creating.
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