I love dialogue. It is a wonderful chance to flex your mental muscles, test your ideas, and learn something.
My good friend, Jeromy, sent me a link to a blog he came across called An Evangelical Dialogue on Evolution. The author wants to build a bridge for a discussion of evolution between scientists and creationists. From his introduction:
And that brings us to the reason for this blog – a dialogue. The current relationship between evolution and evangelicalism can best be characterized as warfare. I believe that ending this warfare will be good for science, and much more importantly, good for the gospel. Our Christian commission is to tell the good news of Christ’s resurrection, his present and coming kingdom, his new creation. The evangel in evangelicalism should remind us of this everyday. And I strongly believe that our misguided war on science in general and evolution in particular is hurting the gospel; it is preventing many from hearing and responding to the good news. And it is causing some who have heard and believed to now doubt whether it is good news at all. Dialogue is the first step towards a ceasefire.
A noble undertaking. I haven't read more than his introduction at this point, but I intend to keep up with his posts. For the record I believe in God/Jesus and evolution.
2 comments:
I think you've hit on the essence of what is important in this blog- the dialogue. Some Christians have an aversion to science in general, as if it is somehow going to mess with their faith. True faith embraces dialogue and is not threatened by such things. Even as one who (for the record) considers myself more of an adaptionalist than an evolutionist, I think this blog is an incredibly good forum. It's also refreshing to see that there aren't too many ignorant, vindictive commenters thus far (on either side of the aisle).
I wasn't trying to split the hair too finely in saying that I believe in evolution. There are many theories under the evolution umbrella. Here is a paper describing the three broad theories of adaptation. I've only skimmed it, but it's interesting.
And, yes, I agree that dialogue is very important. The feeling that it will "mess with their faith" is fear. It's why people want to avoid frank talk and ban books. They are fearful that exposure to ideas counter to their own will weaken them and lead them astray. Nothing could be further from the truth. The only way to strengthen your beliefs is to temper them with the fire of opposition. Of course, it should be respectful opposition going both ways, but it is the only real way of becoming stronger in your beliefs.
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