Kenneth R. Miller - Finding Darwin's God

I consider myself a theistic evolutionist.I don't know if that is, in fact, what he is saying, but it seems fairly accurate to me. In the 5.4 years that I've been here, I've seen again and again:Biblical Literalists have to put so much spin and mental gymnastics on the Bible to get it to jive with reality and maintain its literal inerrantness that they totally loose sight of what the Bible is actually saying. Time and time again, when we get down to the gnat's ass, the atheists turn out to have a better knowledge of what the words in the Bible actually are than the Biblical Literalists, themselves.Part of the problem is that the atheists are actually reading the book and quoting it in context and trying to understand what the author was most likely saying. On the other hand, the BL's tend to use quote mines from other sources than the Bible itself and parrot often repeated arguments that have already been refuted.

It put a man on the moon! Seriously, I mean, here we are communicating instantly over vast distances because science has provided us with the technology. All the faith and/or Bible study in the world would not have accomplished this simple task. Why should I think otherwise? So what's the alternative and how well does it work? Can it put a man on the moon? And what makes it so mundane (not surprising)? Authorities? No. I don't think atheists are Biblical authorities. Its just that some of the ones here that I've met have taken the time to read the book critically and objectively. I don't recall any literalists who have done that. Its all about spin and mental gymnastics. "Am I capable of making the Bible as to be saying what I want it to be saying here?" is the way they read it. No, its not my opinion, No... but that doesn't have anything to do with anything I'm saying here. No, I have not. But he isn't a Biblical Literalist, is he?Anyways, what you asked for back in Message 62 was:

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He appears to be saying that evolutionists know more about the nature of the Christian God than do Bible scholars. I’d like for a Christian theistic evolutionist on these forums to address this.

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And that's what I'm doing. Although, I have specified the general group of "Bible Scholars" into "Biblical Literalists" because that is what I am familiar with from this site. But I still think Miller is fairly accurate in his statement because, from what I've seen here, the evolutionists are more concerned with what the book is actually saying and the Biblical Literalists are more concerned with what they are capable of making the book out to be saying. For this reason, I think they get less knowledge about the actual nature of the Christian God.