Register | Sign In


Understanding through Discussion


EvC Forum active members: 65 (9162 total)
6 online now:
Newest Member: popoi
Post Volume: Total: 915,817 Year: 3,074/9,624 Month: 919/1,588 Week: 102/223 Day: 13/17 Hour: 0/0


Thread  Details

Email This Thread
Newer Topic | Older Topic
  
Author Topic:   Is the creation/evolution debate taboo in our churches?
DavidOH
Junior Member (Idle past 4455 days)
Posts: 11
From: Cincinnati, OH, USA
Joined: 09-12-2008


Message 12 of 51 (528918)
10-07-2009 1:55 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by Arphy
10-05-2009 2:46 AM


experience with evc debate in church
My background - agnostic raised protestant married to southern baptist. My wife differs from the church doctrine & family beliefs in that she accepts evolution & old earth but she does believe modern humans are a special creation.
1. sermon -
About 10 years ago, in an independent & quite conservative church, the pastor (music minister education) gave a sermon on age of the earth & magnetic field. I was so overwhelmed by the errors in math & logic I didn't know how to respond. The basis of the sermon was a plot of earth's magnetic field strength measurements vs. time. One single measurement from past (1700 to 1800 from vague memory) and a number of measurements in the 20th century. The old point was much higher than the others. The 20th century points formed a horizontal line based on the scale of the plot. A line was drawn to extrapolate the data into the past. The 20th century readings were averaged for field strength & time to a single point. The old point was used for a linear extrapolation. The sermon was on the young age of the earth as the magnetic field would be impossibly high back around the year 1000 (or some time similar).
In our current Southern Baptist church, the pastor has not had a sermon on the debate but has included comments during sermons on other topics showing his creationist point of view.
2. Southern Baptists are extremely creationist.
3. Evolution/creation are discussed extremely rarely. The couple times it has come up (usually by visitors) the topic was quickly changed. I think the major reason is the lack of interest on the part of most people on the topic or to learn enough to have any kind of real discussion. Additionally, the frequent tone in our church (and possibly many others) is the persecution of believers. Evolution/creation debate gets mixed into the emotional us vs. them confrontational attitude.
4. No apologetics whatsoever. This is the "preaching to the choir" assumption that all believe the same without having to discuss background or evidence.
Edited by DavidOH, : clarification of item 1.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by Arphy, posted 10-05-2009 2:46 AM Arphy has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 13 by jaywill, posted 10-07-2009 2:40 PM DavidOH has not replied

  
Newer Topic | Older Topic
Jump to:


Copyright 2001-2023 by EvC Forum, All Rights Reserved

™ Version 4.2
Innovative software from Qwixotic © 2024