Where are the arguments? (A Great Discussion between Igor and jar.)

The Biblical Creationist movement is almost entirely an American phenomenon and limited to only a small part of the US Christian Communion. There are other folk, for example Ken Ham is an Australian but he found it better to move his company to the US.The current Biblical Creationist movement is really something pretty new and was started by Henry Morris who died just a couple months ago.There is the Islamic Harun Yahya movement in Turkey.BUT...the big thing is that almost all Christian Churches, all the major Christian Churches specifically, see no conflict between Evolution, the Theory of Evolution and Christian beliefs.As said in the Clergy Letter Project, So far the letter has been endorsed by over 10,300 US Christian Clergy, Pastors, Priests, Ministers, Reverends and Theological Professors.So what you actually see is that Biblical Creationism is primarily a phenomenon that involves a portion of the US Christian Community but doesn't even represent the view of all US Christians. It's been tried in other areas and has gained some very limited presence in the UK but is pretty much an economic failure everywhere but the US.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Harun Yahya is the pen name of a Turkish author who has made a career of opposing the Theory of Evolution. He's not a Biologist or scientist and not necessarily related to any formal religion, more concerned in selling his books, videos and tapes. Yes, the Biblical Creationists do feel that way. It's sad and so unnecessary. As a Christian and Creationist who accepts that the Theory of Evolution is the best explanation so far for the reality we observe I can see that all we are learning in the field of Evolution is a glimpse into "How GOD did it."

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Until someone talks directly to GOD there's little hope that the first question will be answered, so they have nothing to fear there. The second is pretty close to happening, likely within the next 10 years, almost certainly within the next half century.That's called the God of the Gaps theology. Folk that follow the God of the Gaps get concerned everytime we find out that something has a natural cause as opposed to diect divine intervention. At one time it was lightning, and moving the planets and stars and earthquakes and floods. But as we learn more each of those gaps get closed. I don't know why anyone would claim to be God. That seems strictly the realm of crazy folk, and there are lots of them out there, but not the realm of reasonable people. When we learned how to make lightning no one declared that they were then God except the usual run of charlatans that were out to con the gullible. Why? Why would that have anymore effect that discovering what caused lightning?

If you look at all the research going on, the field of Abiogenesis which is the area of science that researches how life started, is not tiny, it's almost non-existent. We really don't spend either much time or money researching it. Could be and some folk may well believe that. But the soul is something that science will never much even bother with so I guess we can drop that one from the discussion.Next let's look at the Natural Forces. There are a few Christians that make claims that God directly controls the Natural Forces, folk like the people on the 700 Club or those that claimed the Tsunami was God taking revenge (but if it was then they God must have been Allah since it seemed to spare the Islamic Mosques) or that Katrina was some punishment from God. But there are also very very many Christians that see such claims as blasphemy.So Natural Forces again are only a problem for some subset of Christianity.That leaves creating life. well, that's going to happen, and happen soon. But that does not make man God. It doesn't even tell us exactly how life began originally. It just tells us that it is possible to change inorganic stuff into organic. Again, why? The fact that we know what causes earthquakes doesn't make anyone think they are God. The fact that we know what causes lightning or tornados or floods or stars or tsunamis doesn't make anyone claim they are God. Why would creating life be any different?

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion